Habit Without Brand

Borrowed

"How do you get customers to come back for more? That's the question facing every business owner, whether the business is a bowling alley, pharmacy, computer company, or tattoo parlor. There are two processes at work—trial and repeat. And it's critically important to prevail in each of them."

From "Setting the Table" by Danny Meyer [Book]

Learned

I was on a call a couple of weeks ago with a food brand that’s nearly a century old. They’re in every grocery store in America. Their CMO described them as “amongst the most well-known brands that no one’s heard of.”

I mentioned the brand to my wife Dana later that day. She had no idea what I was talking about until I showed her the packaging.

“Oh yeah, we’ve bought them a bunch.”

That’s a strange position to be in, and all too normal for heritage brands. People buy you, and keep buying you because the product is good. It checks all the boxes. But the brand is nothing more than a label on the jar. When a competitor tells a better story, or when a retail brand you do private label for offers the same product at a lower price, they’ll replace you in the cart.

This is not the first time I’ve seen this story play out. Strong distribution, great product, repeat buyers. But no real relationship with the customer. No brand to connect with, just a product on the shelf that happens to fit one piece of their life.

Most conversations about retention focus on the gap between trial and repeat. Get someone to try you, then get them to come back. This gap is important. According to Catalina, only 11% of consumers who try a new CPG product in the first six months are still buying it after one year. For a $10 million product, $7 million comes from repeat purchases. Trial accounts for only $2.2 million.

But there’s another gap that doesn’t get talked about as often. You can have repeat buyers who still don’t know you. They’re habitual, not loyal. And habit without brand is fragile.

There are staples in my pantry I don’t even think about. We replace them when they run low. Some of those I could name. Some I couldn’t. The ones I can name are the ones I had some experience with, whether pre- or post-purchase. The founder’s story on the packaging. Ingredient details on the website. A podcast host I trust talking about it. AI chat making a recommendation, or giving me more context. Something made me choose it and continue to do so consciously.

This is where digital starts to matter for retail-heavy brands and those crushing it in marketplaces. DTC won’t be your biggest channel. But it can be the place where someone actually learns your story, where a product becomes a brand, where a repeat buyer becomes a fan.

And increasingly, your website is powering customer experiences you’ll never see. When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity what protein bar to buy, the answer is shaped by what’s on your site. Sales you’ll never be able to attribute. For some brands, it becomes something more: a place to test new products with your most loyal customers before going to retail, or to offer things you’d never put on a shelf. Higher margin, tighter feedback loop.

One thing brands are starting to recognize: treating the website like a miniature version of retail no longer works: product shots, specs, a checkout. The shelf already does that. The website can do something the shelf can’t. It can tell your story. It can show how your product fits into someone’s life. It can turn a curious shopper into someone who actually cares.

Same with email. A lot of brands use it for promos and nothing else. But your list is full of people who already bought. They don’t need convincing. They need a reason to remember you. Recipes, pairings, the story behind how you source or make what you make. The stuff that doesn’t fit on a label. For those who haven’t, show them how much they can gain from becoming a customer.

For retail brands without much DTC data, this is harder. You don’t always know who’s buying. But your website and your list are the places you control. And there are ways to bring retail buyers in: receipt uploads, loyalty programs, even just giving people a reason to visit your site after they’ve already found you in the store.

The question worth asking: if a competitor showed up tomorrow with the same product and a better story, would your repeat buyers notice? Or would they reach for the new jar?

Thought

When your repeat buyers recommend you to a friend, do they describe the product? Or do they have something else to say?

*Btw - true for CPG brands, agencies, and businesses alike!