Do You Even Need a Marketing Team?

Once brands get to Phase 3, in the eight figures, they often have marketing teams in-house. There’s enough cash flow to fund even the most perfunctory marketing efforts. When I work with these teams, I frequently get asked how much to invest in consumer marketing (in addition to trade).

There is no one answer. It depends on a) what minimal marketing gets you, b) what you’re trying to achieve, and c) how much competition you truly face.

Here’s how I help clients think through this investment.

1) Are you trying to grow 40% or more annually?

• If “yes,” then you probably need to build awareness faster than it usually happens at the shelf through distribution gains and trade marketing.
• If “no,” you may not need to invest here unless you are struggling to grow at all.
  
  

2) Are you growing 40% or more without much consumer marketing at all?

• If “yes,” then you only need to invest heavily in consumer marketing if you are running out of ACV to capture—i.e., velocity growth becomes your primary upside, or you are in an oversaturated category (e.g., soft drinks).
  
  

3) Are you growing steadily between 10 and 40% at low ACV?

• If “yes,” it’s all about how competitive your category is and how much you want to accelerate…your call…often, though, investing in focused sales efforts is enough to keep growing to $100M (and staying solvent is key to surviving that long).
• If “no,” you may be in a highly competitive category (e.g., soft drinks, bars) where igniting growth and sustaining it require consumer marketing investments.
  
  

Hope that helped!