Increasing your brand’s penetration is all about being a cheating jerk, writes Chris Ott. His furious encouragement of this may sound like a crazy new idea, but read on to find he’s actually advocating for a return to some traditional ways.   

Screw loyalty. Don’t waste your time on the one you’re with. Target every woman and man you see. Penetrate as much as possible. Cheat.

On your customers, I mean.

Growing a brand is pretty simple. Either, get the people who already buy you to buy you more, or get the people who don’t buy you to buy you.

It’s the second one, increasing penetration, that has the greatest potential to boost sales – because from nothing to something is a massive jump.

Yet all new age media, digital marketing, social media, data driven loyalty programs, which promise the world, are all inherently built to engage your current customers and go after repeat-purchase – not really good at reaching new customers and growing your brand.

Why is chasing customers you already have, over going after new customers, an inefficient way to spend your marketing budget?

Well, unless people are stocking up for a zombie apocalypse they only really need to buy your brand once in any given cycle. Trying to sell them a new car when they just bought one, or a bottle of shampoo when they have a full bottle of your brand at home is a waste of your time and money.

You can’t get blood out of a stone.

Plus, simply by owning your product already, they are being exposed to your brand more frequently than any advertising could ever achieve.

So, how do you pick up a customer you don’t have, then? How do you reach someone that doesn’t have your brand in their repertoire already? In other words, How do you sleep around?

Simple! You interrupt people with a tried and tested thing called, wait for it… mass media.

Mass media can reach people who otherwise don’t even know you exist, plant a seed in their mind and increase the likelihood of them, next time they’re shopping in your category, buying you.

This is why TV will never die and why digital is too limiting to live up to its promise. TV and other traditional mass media is made to reach non-buyers.

Marketers’ love affair with hyper-loyalty is illogical. You need to get light and non-buyers to buy your brand if you want to grow. Anything else, or focussing on loyalists, only works as a defensive strategy and is a far more expensive way to increase sales.

So, sleep around. Don’t waste your time on the one you’re with. Target every woman and man you see, penetrate as much as possible, cheat, and grow your brand like never before.

Christopher Ott is a copywriter who wrote this bio himself and thinks it’s creepy talking in the third person, so I’ll stop. I graduated from the Ehrenberg Bass institute at UniSA and went on to become an awarded creative. In search of the meaning of a ‘good idea’ these are my musings. Find more at serviettescribbles.com.