Is your brand on the consumer's shopping list?

A list may seem to be a “nice to have” piece of paper, but the truth is that it has always been a necessary decision-making tool. Unknown to Susan and many other consumers, the shopping list has always been a furious battleground for brands.

One of the exercises I have repeatedly asked participants at brand workshops to engage in is called the “shopping list”.

In this exercise, participants are asked to come up with a fifteen-point shopping list and urged to make it as real as possible. Ideally, they should rewrite the last shopping list they armed themselves with when they went out for their last monthly shopping. Inevitably, some brands actually find their way to the shopping list.

While this may seem a small matter, it really is a very big deal. When a brand name makes it to the shopping list, this signals the fact that it has become the default choice for a certain category of goods or services.

There is a huge difference between a consumer jotting down tissue and actually spelling out Kleenex on his shopping list. Being the modern democratic parent, Susan's list takes both her household needs as well as the choices of Tendai and Tunda, her twin sons. At two years, they are already brand aware, influential and cannot be ignored.

As Susan sits down to write the list, she perhaps does not realise that her list will be the defining moment for virtually every category that will find their way. Being a once-in-a-month shopper makes that list even more important. For some strange reason, while human beings have immense mental capacity, when it comes to choice, they seem to prefer simplicity.

For this reason, Susan tries to make her choices in advance. The other reason she does this is to avoid the various temptations the retail environment places before consumers.

Breakfast without bread and margarine has been unheard of in Susan's house since Tendai and Tunda connected the dots between the television adverts, the billboard on their way to play school. Mum could not exactly say no, having grown up in the age of virtually only one brand.

Tendai and Tunda are undergoing “potty training”. Despite the matching “potties” with their favourite cartoon character, Ben10, the two boys still need diapers. Susan has recently noticed a growing range of diapers in the supermarket shelves and has even seen some more media advertising in the category.

To an extent, her decision a particular brand is made out of habit, but it must be given its due. Susan has had no reason to check out the other names.

Even when a sneak at the competitor pricing has at times urged her hand to pick a diaper other than Pampers, four rather strong hands on four equally fast feet have found their way to the Pampers section and dashed any hope of brand switching.

A number of factors have conspired to entrench the Nairobians' distrust for the water supplied by the Nairobi Water Company. Many, despite the monthly reminder, believe water in the city is still supplied by the Nairobi City Council whose reputation precedes it.

Family routine

Water, an item that was not even considered when shopping a decade ago, has its own permanent slot. The early frontrunner in the category, Keringet, is Susan's choice. Since she has a dispenser in her house she goes as far as specifying the volume she requires: 10 litres.

Part of Susan's family routine is a night away from Nairobi once a month. The boys love the outdoors and like to double the fun by taking piles of photographs they can discuss later. One of mum's hobbies is photography and she has so far successfully avoided the digital revolution.

Tendai and Tunda have formed the habit of shouting “Kodak moment” whenever a photo opportunity presents itself. Mum knows the drill: whip out the camera and click away to the boys' satisfaction.

Susan's film and camera brand of choice is Kodak. Sooner or later, she will find herself going digital, especially when her children start wanting to be on the other side of the camera. By then it is unlikely she will betray her brand.

Did your brand make it to the shopping list?