The 'How Brands Grow' crowd need to have a word with retail media

"Retail media networks shouldn't sell 'awareness' or 'impressions' or 'conversion,' Gray wrote on the social media platform in October. 'They should sell reach, context, salience and physical availability because these are the things that deliver brand growth.'"

"'When shoppers need or want something within a particular category, they buy something that does the job, is easy to think of and easy to buy,' Gray wrote in his post. 'Brands compete on mental and physical availability, not impressions and clicks.'"

Retail media networks commonly justify premium pricing using impressions, awareness and conversion metrics. An alternative viewpoint grounded in Ehrenberg-Bass Institute principles emphasizes penetration, mental availability and physical availability as primary drivers of brand growth. The alternative recommends selling reach, context, salience and physical availability rather than awareness or conversion. Industry reactions varied, with some practitioners agreeing and others pushing back. The divide reflects a crossroads where brand growth theory collides with practical realities of media operations and marketing budget allocation, exposing tensions between long-term brand building and short-term performance measurement in retail media.

Read at The Drum