The 95/5 Rule: Why CPG Brands Need to Play the Long Game

I recently traveled to Milwaukee.

I haven't lived there in years, but the second I stepped off the plane, it was like nothing had changed.

There, right at the airport, was a giant ad for personal injury attorney David Gruber.

Image Credit: Gruber Law Offices, LLC

His face.

His line.

“One Call... That’s All!” 

If you’ve spent any time in Milwaukee, you know the guy. He’s everywhere—TV, billboards, buses, stadiums. You literally can’t escape his presence.

And here’s the thing: he’s not doing this for kicks. He’s doing it because consistent, omnipresent advertising works.

Gruber’s not trying to convince people to hire him today. He knows most people don’t need a personal injury attorney right now.

But when they do? When something unexpected happens and they are in-market? There’s zero question about who they’ll think of first.

That’s the power of staying top of mind.

What does this have to do with CPG?

A lot, actually.

Because if you’re managing a CPG brand—especially one sold in retail—you might be feeling that same pressure Gruber doesn’t give in to.

Pressure to prove ROI, drive immediate sales or meet performance goals that favor quick hits over long-term growth.

Which brings us to something called the 95/5 Rule—a concept I wish more founders and brand managers knew about.

So what is the 95/5 Rule?

The 95/5 Rule, developed by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and backed by research from the LinkedIn B2B Institute, is simple: 

Only about 5% of your potential customers are actively in the market at any given time.

The other 95%? 

They’re living their lives, walking past shelves, scrolling through Instagram, not thinking about buying your product today.

But someday, they will.

And when that day comes, the brand they’ve seen consistently, the one that built trust and recognition over time, that’s the one they’ll choose.

This rule isn’t just for B2B companies. It’s just as true for consumer brands. Think about how often you, personally, are actively shopping for … protein powder? Laundry detergent? Sparkling water?

Not often. But when you are, you’ll reach for what’s familiar.

And that familiarity only comes from being present, not from running one big campaign and disappearing.

Why this matters for media planning

If only 5% of people are ready to buy right now, that means 95% of your marketing isn’t going to drive an immediate sale.

And that’s okay. In fact, that’s the point.

But here’s where it gets tricky: brand managers are often expected to prove short-term performance.

You’re being asked to treat your media plan like a vending machine. Put in a dollar, get a dollar-fifty back. And when that doesn’t happen in the first few weeks of a campaign, the instinct is to pivot, pause, or panic.

The problem is, that short-term mindset works against how real people buy things.

In retail—especially for CPG—brand decisions are emotional, habitual, and influenced by everything from memory to packaging to whether your last commercial made someone smile.

It’s not just about cost-per-click or last-touch attribution. It’s about mental availability: is your brand the one they think of, without thinking?

You don’t get there with a one-time flight. You get there the Gruber way.

Who’s doing this well?

Let’s start with an obvious one: Coca-Cola.

Coke doesn’t just advertise in December or during product launches.

They are always advertising. Always visible. They don’t care if you’re thirsty at this exact moment, they care that when you are, you associate that feeling with their red can. It’s not a coincidence. It’s strategy.

Same with beer brands. Watch any major sports event—beer is everywhere. Summer rolls around? Cue the patio commercials.

They don’t wait until you’re writing a shopping list. They’ve already made the decision for you by staying in your head all year.

And back to the local level, David Gruber is a one-man case study in brand-building.

You might not think personal injury law has anything to teach CPG, but honestly? He’s running a masterclass in market saturation. When it comes to mental availability, he's the gold standard in Milwaukee.

How to apply the 95/5 rule in your media plan

So what do you do with this knowledge?

You build a media plan that respects both the short game and the long game. That means yes, you run those performance-driven campaigns with measurable goals. But alongside them, you invest in steady, consistent awareness.

And, that is what keeps your brand alive in people’s heads when they’re not actively shopping.

Here’s how that might look in practice:

• Always-on advertising: Maintain a base layer of consistent media, even if it’s light. That could be digital display, streaming video, radio, out-of-home, or even social content that shows up in feeds regularly.
  

• Time your bursts: Layer in promotional or seasonal campaigns when you know conversion intent spikes—back to school, holidays, summer, etc.—but make sure they’re amplifying a message people have already seen, not introducing your brand from scratch.
  

• Rotate by region: Can’t afford to be everywhere at once? No problem. Own a few markets at a time, rotate quarterly, and study the lift between test and holdout regions.
  

• Use brand lift studies: Meta, Google, Amazon, even retailers like Kroger or Walmart all offer tools to measure awareness, favorability, and purchase intent. Use them to understand the real impact of your long-game strategy.
  

• Talk to your team about the “why”: If your stakeholders are nervous about spending that doesn’t drive immediate ROAS, help them reframe the goal. Not every dollar is meant to close a sale. Some dollars are meant to earn the right to be chosen later.
  

Final thoughts: Your brand can’t afford to disappear

Here’s the reality: people can’t buy what they don’t remember. And they won’t remember a brand that shows up once and then vanishes.

Whether you’re selling sparkling water or shampoo or a new kind of granola, your real job is to stay visible long enough to be the obvious choice when the time is right.

The brands that win—big ones like Coke, niche players like Olipop, or yes, even personal injury attorneys in Milwaukee—understand that showing up consistently is the strategy.

So if you’re looking at your media budget and wondering how to balance what your CFO wants with what your gut is telling you … you’re not alone.

And you don’t have to figure it out solo.

Need help building a smarter, longer-term media plan for your CPG brand? 

Talk to us here at Left Hand Agency.

We specialize in media strategies that combine performance with patience, so your brand isn’t just seen today, but remembered tomorrow.