Brand growth comes from light buyers, and light buyers are not motivated enough to shop in specific channels: they will just buy their products wherever they want to buy it.
Because of this, brands that want to scale must be available wherever a consumer may want to buy their products—period. No brand on Earth can command enough [[brand-equity|brand equity]] to force consumers to shop in specific channels. This includes generational brands such as Nike, which had to do a 180° on their pure-play DTC strategy when they realized they were losing market share.
This is also well explained in How Brands Grow, with Byron Sharp finding that a brand’s presence in 80% or more of potential distribution points is necessary (although insufficient) to achieve high market share.
Because of this, brands must build physical availability across channels such as [[dtc|DTC]], [[wholesale|wholesale]], and [[marketplaces|marketplaces]], while still understanding that Every sales channel has its purpose.
At the same time, Marketing must build mental availability so that their product is not just within arm’s reach but will also be front and center in the customer’s mind when they think of the category and will be easy for the customer to recognize when they see it.