Think of a brand of beans. Then a brand of shampoo. Then a brand of fragrance.

Got them? Good. That's the whole game.

Whenever you buy a product, it is unlikely you stand in the aisle (or online) comparing every option that exists. You’ll have maximum 2 or 3 brands sitting in your head before you even start looking, and you pick from that shortlist.

Everything else is invisible to you, whether it's a better product or not.

So, the only job a brand really has is getting onto that shortlist. Being one of the 2-3 names that shows up in someone's head at the exact moment they're about to buy.

The bad news? It doesn't happen by chance.

The good news? It's completely crafted, strategic, and your brand can do it too.

We call it Push, Pull, POW. It's our method for crafting fame for our clients. Push and Pull are your always-on layer, the monthly social content that keeps you showing up. POW is the big moment, where social, PR, out-of-home or a stunt, and influencers all land at once.

Here's what it looks like, on a brand you already know: M&S.

Push is the story you tell every day. M&S's food content never stops. New ranges, new flavours, Percy Pig turning up everywhere. Nothing clever, just ‘this is us, this is our product’. Most brands are already doing this.

Pull is noticing what your customers already do in their own world and joining in. M&S clocked that Brits love building a random plate of food and calling it "picky bits," so they put themselves in the conversation and built a stream of content around that exact language. People go on social to be entertained, not sold to, so meet them in what they already enjoy.

POW is the moment you make yourself impossible to ignore. M&S created National Picky Bits Day, with national press, in-store activations, influencer content, and a flood of content from their own customers, all built from a habit people already had. Huge reach, and every bit of it fed straight back into the everyday Push and Pull.

Do all three, on repeat, and you craft recognisability, memorability, and reach (AKA fame). Now, for a lot of people, picky bits = M&S. That’s what gets you into the 2-3 options someone chooses, and what let M&S leapfrog its competitors in the picnic category.

If you're sat at #2 to #20 in your category:

You don't need M&S's budget to do this well, but you do need to know your customer inside out. Most brands are doing Push and stopping there. Almost no one is doing all three in combination, and they’re leaving fame, customers, and category leadership on the table.

Three things to do this week:

1. Check your shortlist. Ask three people outside your business who fit your ideal customer: “What are the first brands that come to mind for [your category]?" If you're not named, you know you have a fame problem, and that's fixable.

2. Find your picky bits. Spend 30 minutes in your reviews, comments, DMs and customer emails. Look for a phrase, habit, ritual, or problem your customers already have around your product that you've never talked about. This is what our strategist would call ‘the insight’. Write down the best one. 

3. Sketch your POW. Ask yourself: if we turned that insight from number 2 into a moment the whole category noticed, what would it be?

Or, if you'd rather we did the digging, we're offering free Fame Audits for brands. We'll look at where you sit on your category's shortlist, how your content splits across Push and Pull, and where your POW moments could come from.

Get in touch with the team at Altogether Now, here.

P.S. Picky bits started as people's own habit of putting together a plate of odds and ends. M&S didn't invent it; they just paid attention. Your best idea is probably already sitting right in front of you.