Once or Twice Marketing - When there's just one chance to get it right.

What exactly is a Once or Twice product?
When you actually start to think about the products or services that fit the description of a Once or Twice purchase there are quite a few – I’ve defined 4 separate categories.  Each has distinct characteristics, but all share the common trait that the typical customer is only likely to be in the market to actually make a purchase just Once or Twice in their lifetime.

It’s often not that simple to buy

The thing about most of stuff we buy, is it’s easy, familiar, and we have some level of knowledge and experience on what to base our decisions on.  But when it comes to Once or Twice situations, for most customers this is uncharted territory, they’re stepping into a buying experience they may have little to no prior knowledge of.  And a lot these types of purchases are big important decisions framed around major life-stage moments – like  going to university, getting engaged or married, buying a home, having children, or preparing end-of-life plans – people are typically seeking trust, quality and reassurance – they want to get this decision right – and that really affects buyer behaviour in a very different way to those repeatable purchase decisions.  Some of the key buyer behaviour considerations that a Once or Twice business needs to be conscious of include:

• Moment of need. The majority of these purchases will be very deliberate and planned, often timed with a particular stage in life, and to some extent predictable.  Others come out of nowhere, they’re unexpected and forced on the customer with no warning or preparation.
• Situation and mindset. Ultimately influenced by the above, the mindset of the customer will be different based on when they enter the market.  If it is the unexpected scenario, then there will be an element of distress and a requirement for rapid decision making.  Whereas the planned purchases will afford a high consideration process – with months and sometimes years of research, planning and decision making.
• Knowledge. The customer will likely have limited knowledge on the product – and will be looking for ways to educate themselves, and in the absence of knowledge things such as brand familiarity, social proof and recommendations will play an even more important role.
• Rational and deliberate. While familiar, repeat purchases rely heavily on System 1 thinking – fast, intuitive, and automatic responses – Once or Twice purchases involve much more System 2 processing. Here, rational, deliberate thinking plays a larger role, as consumers look to weigh options and educate themselves thoroughly. System 1 does come into play, especially for initial brand recognition and the forming of an initial consideration set – but there will be a greater role for System 2 and rational thinking on purchase decisions.
• High expectations. Consumers will often be aware that this is a once in a lifetime purchase and as such will be looking for quality, durability and satisfaction, they want the best and will often push their budgets to the max to get the best possible solution they can afford.  Sometimes they will even go beyond their max to get what they really want.
• Multiple decision makers. Expect there to be more than one person involved in the purchase decision – making it difficult to ensure your messaging is truly targeted.
• Physical preferences. Yes, digital will play a huge role in the discovery and education phase of the customer journey, but for many Once or Twice purchases physical experience is critical – and consumers will be looking to experience first hand the product before committing to making a purchase.  This also plays into the localisation and physical availability of the product offering.
• Human biases. There is a ton of behavioural biases that have an impact on Once or Twice purchases. Scarcity effect, loss aversion, anchoring, endowment effect, confirmation bias, sunk cost fallacy and more.  Too much detail to go into in this blog post – but I will follow up on this one in later posts.

 – The marketing challenge for Once or Twice businesses

Marketing as a discipline is undergoing a bit of a renaissance right now. Thanks to the likes of Byron Sharp, Jenni Romaniuk and the Ehrenberg Bass Institute, Les Binet & Peter Field, System 1, Mark Ritson, Grace Kite, Karen Nelson-Field and a host of other super switched on and intelligent people, we’re making huge strides in truly understanding what constitutes truly effective marketing strategy and application.  Concepts like the long & short of it, ESOV, physical and mental availability, creative consistency, the 95:5 rule are all contributing to better and more effective marketing in many businesses.  And whilst these principles are universal and relevant for Once or Twice Marketing – they need to be adapted and applied in the right way to reflect the specific nature of a Once or Twice business.

For instance, in Once or Twice Marketing, the 95:5 rule, which suggests that only 5% of consumers are in buying mode at any given time – might actually be more like 99:1. Something that perhaps deserves a bit of specific research and I may get round to at some point. But the point is most potential customers for Once or Twice products are not ready to buy right now but will be in the future. This reality underscores the importance of long-term brand building. As a Once or Twice brand, your goal is to be the first name that comes to mind when a customer eventually reaches a “category entry point.” In other words, you need to be remembered.

This is where the balance of long and short-term marketing becomes critical. Building brand awareness over time ensures you’re known and provides that sense of familiarity so important in the absence of product knowledge.  But it’s just as important to be found when that rare purchase moment arrives – for Once or Twice brands, physical availability – ensuring you’re discoverable across key channels when that moment comes – is as essential as mental availability. Both work together to make sure that, at that pivotal moment, your brand is top of mind and top of search.

Another key difference in Once or Twice Marketing is how customers process information. With high-frequency purchases, customers often rely on System 1 thinking – automatic, intuitive, and emotionally driven. But for Once or Twice purchases, System 2 thinking is more prevalent. Customers weigh options, conduct extensive research, and make decisions over a longer time period. Whilst there is also the need to be conscious that for distress purchases, decision-making may be rapid and emotionally charged and heavily lean on System 1 thinking.

This dynamic means that Once or Twice brands must find the right balance between creating an immediate emotional connection (System 1) and supporting a more rational, research-based decision-making process (System 2). I’ve already highlighted that the customer journey may involve prolonged research and high personalisation – which provides significant challenges to marketing teams working on Once or Twice products. Brands need to understand where they fall on this System 1-System 2 spectrum and adapt their messaging and touchpoints accordingly.

As well as thinking through some of these core principles and adapting them to the unique nature of Once or Twice marketing, there are many, many other specific aspects to consider.  For example, with market orientation and identifying your target customer profiles – it is perhaps easy to identify those for short term activation, but how do you define your total market audience for long term activity, when you don’t necessarily know the pathway their life may take and whether they will eventually transition into your target customer profiles – do you just target the whole population? (Answer: not always – ultimately it depends on your research and strategy).  What about the actual product and brand differentiation (and distinctiveness), pricing strategy, the highly involved customer experience, and in a particularly unique aspect, how to ensure there is a good ending when that short term relationship between the customer and the business is over.

Making sure you win when there’s just one chance

Ultimately, Once or Twice Marketing demands a unique approach rooted in the core fundamentals of effective marketing strategy. For brands with only one chance to win the customer, every touchpoint, every interaction, every piece of content must be crafted with purpose and precision – both in advance and also at that critical Category Entry Point moment. The goal isn’t just to make a sale; it’s to ensure that when the time comes, your brand is the clear and confident choice.

The full breadth and detail of how to effectively market a Once or Twice product is too much to fully cover in a single post and is enough to fill a book – which just so happens is in the works.  But I will be looking to regularly write and share new research, content and insights on specific areas of Once or Twice marketing – so please do follow me or subscribe if you are interested and want to learn more.

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