People don’t buy the best product, they buy the best product that they know about.

This month's wrap-up is devoted to. BBE: "Big Budget Energy"

This is a phase that was shared by the NICE Marketing Director, Sophie Bond in a talk that I heard last year.

Why is it important? Because people don't buy the best product; they buy the best product that they know about.

I'll repeat that, people buy the best product that they KNOW ABOUT.

This is why is it so important to focus on building your brand's mental availability (awareness and memorability).

But, when you are a brand with low awareness and market share and don’t have the budgets of the big guys to buy eyeballs, you are at a distinct disadvantage.

This is where Big Budget Energy comes into play.

How can you create something that has an impact beyond the thing you create? How can you do something that has shareability baked into the idea, has a PRable hook that captures attention beyond the messages that you put out?

So with this in mind, in this months round-up I want to share the brands that I have seen that are doing this well.

Homethings

‘Ideal foam show’.

Homethings were keen to reach the thousands of potential customers who were attending the Ideal HomeShow. But a hefty price tag, meant an official trade stand was out of the question so they created a stand in proximity to the show- that had the same footfall.

If you don’t have money to do the traditional route, what can you do to have the same impact? This starts with reframing your challenge. Rather than thinking output first, think impact. Rather than going into a creative briefing with the format and channel, think about the job to be done.

NICE

I couldn’t reference NICE and then not mention their latest campaign to help support their latest crowdfunding raise.

They picketed the streets of London, calling out for female investors.

“Only 14% of angel investors in the UK are women, and we’re on a mission to change that.

We dream of living in a world where we don’t have to call out specifically for female investors, that women’s confidence around investing becomes stronger, and the gender investment gap is bridged. But for now, where all the female investors at?”

Tonys Chocolonely

Trial is hugely important for CPG brands, but it doesn't always have to be done in a boring way, traditional way. Infusing creativity can make the difference between people taking your product and shoving it at the bottom of your bag, to it being something that they are prepared to queue for.

Over 300 bars of chocolate, colour coded in different flavours, were magnetically pinned to the wall. Visitors could check flavour options on graphics throughout the queue and then took turns choosing and taking their favourite.

Heinz

Ignore the fact that they are a big brand.

What I want to do is drill into the idea. From an execution POV this was a small budget.

You may have seen that Heinz partnered with Absolut Vodka, to piggyback the TikTok trend for vodka pasta sauce.

They also yesterday released Current Bun mayonnaise.

These unexpected SKUs provide a new and interesting angle to get the brand front and centre.

How are you building BBE to your marketing plans?