Oatly plans US marketing push, China store push

As part of its global expansion, Oatly, the oat milk brand, intends to concentrate on brand building in the US while its China efforts are geared more towards expanding its retail presence. 

Why it matters

You can’t grow a brand without mental and physical availability but, even before that, all the manufacturing and distribution components need to be in place – and that’s an area which has sometimes been problematic for Oatly.

A US comeback 

While the category experienced strong double-digit growth in Q4, the brand was unable to capitalise fully on this because of earlier supply chain issues. These have now been overcome, CEO Toni Petersson told an earnings call, and, with the capacity to meet expected demand, “we can focus more on building awareness, trial, repeat, and, ultimately, brand loyalty”.

“As we are able to supply, we’re able to promote, and we are planning a big comeback [in the US] for the brand for Q2,” COO Daniel Ordonez added. “You will see the voice of the brand heard again in the US. That’s our priority, more than the heavy hitting on promotions.”

An Asian rebalancing 

Marketing spend was ramped up ahead of the post-Covid reopening and the Chinese New Year, but it’s now returning to more normal levels. The focus is turning towards building physical availability in mainland China, where local production facilities will be coming on stream. 

“We can target consumers in completely different ways than we have done before … so you’re going to see us diversifying to more channels in China,” said Petersson. 

Sourced from Motley Fool

[Image: Oatly]