Selling on incrementality - What drives it? How can it be leveraged?
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Selling on incrementality - What drives it? How can it be leveraged?

The days of “Mr./Ms. Buyer, my product/brand is differentiated, therefore it is incremental & will grow your category.” are done. Buyers need actual data & marketplace case studies to determine brand & product incrementality. Below I will outline a few guidelines on how to measure & leverage incrementality with buyers today depending on what stage your brand is in.

Brands with established traction calling on Walmart

When calling on the world’s largest retailer, brands need to not only have a groundswell in rest of market, loyal customers, the right channel strategy, etc, but also have the right TYPE and MIX of provable incrementality. Incrementality to a category can come from an assortment spectrum of options that captures incremental consumers, trading consumers up in spend, or driving incremental consumers to shelf via in-demand innovation, a new category usage occasion or delivery method. These are all measurable incrementality impacts that can be analyzed & leveraged using syndicated data. Know what type of incrementality your brand offers and leverage actual data to prove it. Maybe your brand offers a mix of several types of incrementality. If your brand is driving category growth: Measure, understand, and be able to effectively communicate WHY & HOW vs having a generic incrementality pitch.

Early-stage brands gaining entry to market

For brands calling on smaller-than-FDM channel retailers that do not have the syndicated data story or retailer case study proving incrementality yet: Learn, through leverageable data, how consumers shop your category. With consumer preference constantly changing, and brand loyalty amongst consumers today declining, understand how your brand/product fits into consumers’ path to purchase decision tree & retailers’ assortment ecosystem. Consumers explore categories. Your brand/product could play a pivotal role in consumers’ path to category purchase or repeat purchase as customers explore & shop your buyer’s category. Your brand/product can drive trial w/an incremental consumer, fill a known void, keep consumers engaged in the category longer, etc.

In addition, how can your brand help convert the average shopper that is in that buyer/retailer’s store, that doesn’t even shop your buyer’s category, into a loyal consumer? Not a loyal consumer of your brand, but a loyal consumer of the buyer’s mod. What about consumers that are in your buyer’s store, but cross-shop the category elsewhere? How can your brand close that gap? How can your brand drive incremental category trial, conversion, and mod loyalty for that buyer? Invest in understanding how the category is shopped and how your brand/product is positioned to help find these effective sales angles.

Coupling these two approaches

Investing in understanding how customers shop your category in addition to leveraging syndicated data proving incrementality allows brands to connect the dots full circle. Brands on either side of the spectrum can round out & refresh their approach/messaging by coupling these two approaches. Young brands that invest heavily in understanding how customers shop the category should also consider investing in syndicated data, and while they may not have a strong story in the data, there are plenty of insights not only from what is trending up, but also what is trending down, that could play into a young brand’s hands. For mature brands, taking a step back & best-in-class approach to refreshing your understanding of how consumers shop the category and how your brand fits into that shop is imperative for category thought leadership, cementing strong positioning, marketing, and R&D.

Thank you for reading!

I work with brands of all stages across a wide range of categories primarily in Walmart, but also in Sam’s Club, Costco, the Dollar Channel, Grocery Channel, and Amazon. For all things Walmart, help accessing and/or slicing & dicing syndicated data, brokering across the above-mentioned channels, consulting, ecommerce help, or channel strategy planning, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

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