Which of the 4 P's matters most for new brands?
But of all the things you can do, what drives growth the most?
Ataman, Mela, and van Heerde dissected how the 4 P’s of the Marketing Mix impact brand launches (not line extensions).
They crunched sales & ad & distribution data for 225 CPG (FMCG) brand launches across 21 chains in France and tracked them for 3-5 years.
The King of Growth? Place (aka distribution breadth), followed by feature & display.
The least impactful things? Distribution depth (relative shelf dominance) & advertising.
Caveats, of course. And every brand is different. (E.g., Away launched their DTC luggage brand with a, uh, coffee table book.)
But if you’re launching a new brand:
Get distribution, stat!
Get featured & get on display
Don’t focus on advertising
Don’t worry about shelf dominance
Read the original paper too. It’s doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1080.0358
