Brand Awareness Isn't Just Marketing Jargon—It's the Foundation of Every Sale You'll Ever Make
Key Takeaways:
Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers recognize and recall your brand—it's the foundation that enables all other marketing to work.
Without awareness, superior products lose to inferior competitors (see: Betamax vs. VHS)
Audio advertising delivers 4+ hours of daily reach with 71% higher brand recall than display ads.
Building strong awareness requires 6-10 exposures over 8-12 weeks and compounds over time.
Brand awareness directly impacts retail velocity, Amazon conversion rates, and customer acquisition costs.
If you've spent any time in marketing meetings, you've heard it a thousand times:
"We need to build brand awareness."
It's the rallying cry of every product launch, the justification for every media budget, the metric that's both critically important and frustratingly vague.
But what is brand awareness, really? And why has this concept—which marketers have obsessed over for more than a century—remained so central to how we think about building successful brands?
Let's go back to the beginning.
The Birth of Brand Awareness: When Products Became Brands
The concept of brand awareness as we know it emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during what advertising historians call the "brand revolution."
Before this era, most products were generic commodities. You didn't buy "Ivory Soap"—you purchased soap. It came from a barrel at the general store, unbranded and indistinguishable from any other soap.
Then something shifted. Companies like Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and Kellogg's realized that if they could make consumers ask for their product by name, they could command higher prices and build customer loyalty. But this required something unprecedented: making millions of people aware that your specific brand existed and was worth seeking out.
Enter mass media advertising.
Radio became commercial in the 1920s. Television followed in the 1940s and 50s. And suddenly, brands could reach millions of people simultaneously, repeatedly, building the kind of familiarity that would make a consumer reach for their product instead of a competitor's.
This is where brand awareness became a distinct marketing objective: not just to inform people that a product category existed, but to make them remember your brand name when they needed that product.
What Brand Awareness Actually Means
At its core, brand awareness is deceptively simple: it's the extent to which consumers are familiar with your brand.
But familiarity exists on a spectrum, which is where things get more interesting.
Marketing professor Kevin Lane Keller, in his influential work on brand equity, describes brand awareness as having two components:
1. Brand recognition: Can consumers identify your brand when they see it?
This is the "I know that logo" or "I've seen that package before" response. Recognition is passive—it happens when consumers encounter your brand.
2. Brand recall: Can consumers think of your brand when they need a product in your category?
This is active. When someone thinks "I need a protein powder," and your brand name comes to mind, that's recall. It's the holy grail because it means your brand is top of mind when purchase decisions are made.
David Aaker, another foundational figure in brand theory, puts it even more simply in his book Managing Brand Equity: "Brand awareness is the ability for a consumer to recognize or recall that a brand is a member of a certain product category."
Sounds straightforward. But here's what makes it complicated: awareness alone doesn't guarantee success. It's necessary but not sufficient.
What the Experts Say: Four Definitions That Shaped Modern Marketing
Over the decades, marketing's most influential thinkers have wrestled with the precise definition of brand awareness. Their definitions reveal different dimensions of what makes awareness so powerful—and so essential. Here are four that have shaped how we understand this concept:
Philip Kotler: Awareness as Availability
Philip Kotler, often called the father of modern marketing, defined brand awareness in his seminal textbook Marketing Management as "the probability that consumers are familiar with the life and availability of the product."
What makes Kotler's definition valuable is his emphasis on "availability." It's not enough for consumers to know your brand exists—they need to know they can actually get it. This is particularly relevant for brands launching into retail or e-commerce. If consumers hear about your brand but can't find it when they're ready to buy, that awareness evaporates. Kotler understood that awareness and distribution must work together; one without the other is incomplete.
For emerging brands, this means your brand awareness strategy should align with your distribution strategy. Building buzz before you're on the shelf—or at least as you launch—ensures that awareness translates into actual purchase opportunities.
Kevin Lane Keller: The Two Dimensions of Awareness
Kevin Lane Keller, a marketing professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and author of Strategic Brand Management, broke brand awareness into its two critical components: "Brand awareness consists of brand recognition and brand recall performance."
Keller's framework is essential because it clarifies that not all awareness is created equal. Brand recognition is reactive—consumers know your brand when they see it on a shelf or in a search result. Brand recall is proactive—your brand comes to mind when consumers think about a product category, even without visual prompts.
The distinction matters enormously in practice. Recognition might get you considered when a shopper is standing in front of your product. But recall—the ability to be top-of-mind when someone thinks "I need a supplement" or "I should try a new protein powder"—is what drives search behavior, creates shopping list inclusion, and generates unprompted recommendations.
Audio advertising excels at building brand recall because repetition and voice create strong memory associations. When you hear a brand name spoken multiple times across weeks, it embeds differently than seeing a logo flash by in your social feed.
David Aaker: Awareness as Mental Presence
David Aaker, vice chairman of Prophet Brand Strategy and author of Managing Brand Equity, offers perhaps the most intuitive definition: "Brand awareness is the strength of a brand's presence in the consumer's mind."
What's powerful about Aaker's framing is the word "strength." Awareness isn't binary—it's not simply "aware" versus "unaware." It exists on a continuum from weak to strong, from barely familiar to instantly recognizable to completely dominant in a category.
A consumer might have weak awareness of your brand—"I think I've heard of that somewhere"—which provides minimal competitive advantage. Or they might have strong awareness—"Oh yes, I know that brand well"—which dramatically increases the likelihood of consideration and purchase.
Building strong brand awareness requires sustained investment over time. It's why heritage brands maintain such powerful positions: decades of consistent presence have created deep, strong mental associations that new competitors struggle to overcome. For emerging brands, understanding this spectrum helps set realistic expectations. Early-stage brand awareness campaigns aren't trying to dominate mental space immediately—they're trying to move from zero presence to "sounds familiar" to "I've heard good things about that."
American Marketing Association: Awareness as Category Connection
The American Marketing Association defines brand awareness as "the degree to which consumers precisely associate the brand with the specific product."
This definition highlights a crucial point that the others imply but don't state explicitly: awareness matters only if consumers connect your brand to the right category. If people have heard your brand name but can't remember what you sell, you haven't actually built proper brand awareness.
This is particularly important when brands expand into new categories or when brand names are abstract rather than descriptive. A brand called "Peak Performance" could sell athletic wear, supplements, consulting services, or software. If your awareness-building doesn't clearly establish what category you compete in, you're building name recognition without utility.
In audio advertising, this is why messaging matters as much as reach and frequency. Simply repeating your brand name isn't enough—you need to clearly associate that name with your product category and your key differentiator. "Peak Performance protein powder for athletes" creates category awareness. "Peak Performance" alone leaves consumers confused about what you actually do.
Why Brand Awareness Matters (More Than You Think)
Some marketers question whether awareness-building is worth the investment. After all, awareness doesn't guarantee a sale. A consumer can know your brand exists and still choose a competitor.
But here's what the skeptics miss: without awareness, you don't even get the chance to compete. Research consistently shows that brand awareness creates multiple competitive advantages that directly impact your bottom line:
1. Awareness enables consideration
Consumers can't buy what they don't know exists. Before someone can evaluate whether your product is right for them, they first need to know you're an option.
This is particularly critical in retail environments, where purchase decisions are made in seconds. When a shopper scans a shelf at Target, Whole Foods, or their local grocery store, brands they're aware of get mentally shortlisted. Brands they've never heard of get ignored—even if objectively superior.
The same principle applies online. On Amazon, where thousands of products compete in each category, brand awareness influences which products get clicked, which get scrolled past, and which command premium prices. A shopper searching for "protein powder" who recognizes your brand name among 50 unfamiliar options is significantly more likely to click through to your listing.
2. Awareness creates familiarity, and familiarity drives preference
There's a psychological phenomenon called the "mere exposure effect," discovered by psychologist Robert Zajonc in the 1960s. It's simple: the more often people are exposed to something, the more they tend to like it.
This means repeated brand exposure—even without any persuasive messaging—can make consumers prefer your brand over competitors. Just hearing your name multiple times makes you feel more trustworthy, more legitimate, more "real."
In retail settings, this translates directly to sales. Research has consistently shown that shoppers gravitate toward familiar brands when faced with a choice. The recognition itself becomes a shortcut for decision-making: "I've heard of this one, so it's probably safe to try."
3. Awareness compounds over time
Brand awareness isn't like performance marketing, where you run an ad and get immediate results. It's cumulative. Each exposure builds on the last, strengthening memory structures and making your brand easier to recall next time.
This is why established brands have such a significant advantage: they've been building awareness for years or decades. New brands start from zero, which is why consistent, sustained awareness-building is so critical in the early stages—especially when entering competitive retail or e-commerce environments.
4. Awareness affects every other marketing metric
Higher brand awareness improves:
Click-through rates on digital ads (people click on brands they recognize)
Conversion rates on Amazon and e-commerce sites (familiar brands are more trusted)
Retail velocity (products move faster off shelves when shoppers recognize the name)
Word-of-mouth (people recommend brands they can remember)
Customer acquisition costs (awareness does the heavy lifting, so that conversion campaigns can be more efficient)
In other words, brand awareness isn't just one metric among many—it's the foundation that makes everything else work better, whether you're selling in physical retail or online.
When Brand Awareness Beats Product Quality
Perhaps one of the most famous examples of brand awareness trumping product superiority is the VHS vs. Betamax format war of the late 1970s and 1980s.
Sony's Betamax, introduced in 1975, was widely acknowledged by experts to have superior video quality and a more compact design than VHS, which JVC introduced a year later. By most technical measures, Betamax was the better product.
But VHS won the market decisively. By the mid-1980s, VHS had captured over 70% market share, and by the late 1980s, Betamax was effectively dead as a consumer format.
Why? Several factors contributed, but brand awareness and market positioning played critical roles. VHS manufacturers—led by JVC, Panasonic, and others—formed broader licensing partnerships, expanded distribution into more retail stores, and invested heavily in marketing that reached mass audiences. They also secured partnerships with video rental stores and movie studios, making VHS the format consumers encountered most frequently.
The result: consumers became familiar with VHS. They saw it advertised more. They saw it in stores more. Their friends had VHS players. Video rental stores carried VHS tapes. This familiarity created a self-reinforcing cycle in which VHS became the "default" choice, despite Betamax's technical advantages.
The lesson for today's brands: product quality matters, but if consumers don't know you exist—or if competitors have greater brand awareness—you can lose even with a superior product. This is especially relevant for emerging brands entering retail or launching on Amazon, where dozens of competitors are fighting for attention in every category.
How to Build Brand Awareness: The Role of Mass Reach Media
In theory, any customer touchpoint can contribute to building brand awareness: seeing your logo on a package, visiting your website, hearing someone mention your brand, walking past a billboard.
But in practice, building awareness at scale—reaching thousands or millions of people—requires mass reach media. And this is where audio (and to some extent, television) has historically dominated.
Why Audio Advertising Builds Brand Awareness So Effectively
Audio advertising—radio, satellite, podcasts, streaming—has unique characteristics that make it particularly powerful for brand awareness campaigns:
1. Massive reach and time spent
According to Nielsen's 2024 Total Audience Report, Americans spend an average of 4 hours and 23 minutes per day listening to audio content, making it one of the highest time-spent media channels. Radio alone reaches 271 million Americans weekly—more than 90% of U.S. adults—according to Nielsen.
For brands trying to increase brand awareness, this kind of reach is transformative. Audio consistently puts your brand name in front of massive audiences, which is precisely what's needed to move from "never heard of it" to "sounds familiar."
2. Passive consumption with active attention
People listen to audio while doing other things: commuting, working out, cooking, working, etc. They're not actively seeking entertainment or information—they're just… listening. According to Edison Research's Share of Ear study, 84% of audio listening happens while doing another activity.
This makes listeners more receptive to brand messages because they're not in "ad avoidance" mode, unlike when scrolling social media or watching YouTube. The audio ad becomes part of their environment rather than an interruption they're motivated to skip.
3. Repetition at scale builds brand recall
Building awareness requires frequency. Consumers need to hear your name multiple times before it sticks. Audio platforms—especially terrestrial radio and satellite—deliver massive reach with built-in frequency. A well-planned audio campaign can reach the same listener 6-10 times over a few weeks, which is exactly the repetition needed to build memory structures.
Research from the Radio Advertising Bureau has consistently shown that audio campaigns with sufficient frequency (typically 3+ exposures per week over 8-12 weeks) significantly improve brand recall and purchase intent. According to their ROI studies, effective frequency thresholds are reached at an average of 3-5 weekly exposures, with optimal campaigns delivering 6-10 exposures over the campaign period.
4. Voice creates intimacy and trust
There's something about the human voice that creates connection. When a podcast host authentically talks about your brand, or when a well-crafted radio spot tells your story, it feels more personal than a display ad. This emotional component makes your brand more memorable.
A 2023 study by Sounds Profitable found that podcast advertising generated a 71% higher brand recall than display advertising, primarily attributed to the personal, conversational nature of host-read ads. Additionally, Nielsen's Podcast Insights Report found that podcast ads generated 89% brand recall among engaged listeners, significantly higher than the 60% average for display advertising.
5. Audio reaches people everywhere
Audio reaches people in their cars (where they can't be looking at screens), at the gym (where they're focused on their workout), and during household tasks (when they're mentally available but not actively seeking content). According to Nielsen's Audio Today 2024 report, 67% of radio listening happens in vehicles or while commuting—moments when visual advertising simply can't reach them.
For brands trying to reach consumers before they walk into a retail store or open Amazon on their phone, this environmental advantage is significant. You're reaching shoppers during their daily routines, building familiarity before they're in purchase mode.
6. Cost-efficiency for reach and frequency
Compared to television or digital video, audio delivers significantly more impressions per dollar. According to Nielsen Catalina Solutions research, radio advertising delivers an average ROI of $6 for every dollar spent for CPG brands, driven largely by its cost efficiency in building awareness that drives retail sales.
The typical CPM (cost per thousand impressions) for radio and streaming ranges from $2-$15 (podcasts range from $15-$35), depending on targeting, channel, market, daypart, compared to $20-$30+ for television and $10-$25 for digital and social media. For brands that need to build awareness quickly but have limited budgets, audio provides the frequency and reach necessary to move the needle without breaking the bank.
This is particularly important for emerging or international brands entering the US market, which need to establish a presence in retail and online channels simultaneously. A brand awareness campaign on audio might cost $25,000- $50,000 per month to reach millions of impressions in targeted markets, compared with $100,000+ for comparable reach on television.
The Television Factor
Television, of course, has also been a dominant awareness-building medium for decades. It combines visual and auditory elements, creates emotional impact, and reaches massive audiences.
But TV has become increasingly fragmented and expensive. The days of reaching 30% of American households with a single primetime ad are largely gone. Streaming has fractured audiences across hundreds of platforms, and ad-skipping technology has made it harder to guarantee impressions.
Audio, by contrast, remains less skippable and more cost-effective. While TV still has a role (especially for brands with larger budgets and visual storytelling needs), audio has emerged as the more accessible and efficient option for most brands trying to build awareness.
The Digital and Social Media Reality
It's impossible to discuss brand awareness in 2026 without addressing digital advertising and social media—the default choice for many modern marketers, especially those who came of age professionally in the digital era.
Digital and social platforms absolutely have essential roles in modern marketing. They excel at retargeting aware audiences, building community, showcasing visual brand identity, and driving immediate conversions.
However, when it comes to building broad brand awareness at scale—creating familiarity among large audiences who've never heard of you—digital faces significant structural challenges:
Average display ad CTR is 0.05%, meaning 99.95% of impressions generate no engagement (Invesp)
Organic social reach averages 5-15% of followers, requiring paid promotion to reach even existing audiences (Hootsuite 2024 Social Media Trends)
65% of viewers skip digital video ads when given the option (IPG Media Lab)
Ad blockers are used by 42.7% of internet users globally (Backlinko)
CPMs for digital display ($10-$25) are significantly higher than audio ($5-$15) for comparable awareness-building reach
The most effective strategies use each channel for what it does best: audio builds broad awareness at scale, while digital reinforces that awareness and converts it into action. Think of audio as doing the heavy lifting of making people familiar with your brand name, while digital works more efficiently by reaching people who've already heard of you.
From Awareness to Sales: The Retail and E-Commerce Connection
Brand awareness isn't just a "top of funnel" vanity metric—it directly impacts sales, both in physical retail and online.
In retail environments, when a shopper walks down an aisle with dozens of options, they typically spend 3-7 seconds making a decision. In that moment, brand awareness acts as a filter. Familiar brands get considered; unfamiliar brands get ignored. This is why retailers themselves evaluate products based on "velocity"—how quickly products move off shelves—and velocity is heavily influenced by whether shoppers recognize the brand name.
On Amazon and other e-commerce platforms: Brand awareness influences click-through rates, conversion rates, and even search rankings. Amazon shoppers searching for a product category (like "protein powder" or "vitamin C supplement") are more likely to click on brands they recognize. They're also more likely to convert, less likely to comparison shop extensively, and more willing to pay premium prices. Brand awareness reduces friction in the purchase decision.
The compound effect: Audio advertising that builds brand awareness creates a multiplier effect across all sales channels. A consumer hears about your brand on their morning commute, sees it on a shelf at Target that afternoon, and recognizes it when browsing Amazon that evening. Each touchpoint reinforces the others, but awareness—built through consistent audio exposure—is what makes the initial connection possible.
This is why brands that invest in awareness-building through audio often see impact across multiple channels simultaneously. They're not just driving radio listeners to a specific URL—they're making their brand familiar enough that it gets chosen in any purchase environment.
How to Measure Brand Awareness
Here's where things get uncomfortable for marketers: brand awareness is notoriously tricky to measure with precision.
Unlike performance marketing—where you can track clicks, conversions, and ROI down to the penny—brand awareness requires different metrics. The good news? Many of the most meaningful indicators are business metrics you're likely already tracking:
Retail velocity: For brands in physical stores, sell-through rates and repeat orders from retailers are among the strongest indicators that awareness translates into purchase behavior. When products move faster off shelves, it's because shoppers recognize the brand name and choose it over unfamiliar competitors. Retailers pay close attention to velocity—it determines whether your product stays on the shelf or gets discontinued.
Track: Weekly/monthly unit sales, sell-through rates, reorder frequency from retailers
Amazon metrics: Brand searches on Amazon (people searching for your specific brand name rather than generic product terms), conversion rates, and organic ranking improvements all signal growing awareness. When more shoppers specifically seek out your brand on Amazon rather than discovering you through category browsing, awareness is working.
Track: Brand search volume in Amazon Brand Analytics, conversion rate trends, organic ranking for branded terms, Best Sellers Rank (BSR) improvements
Search volume: Increases in branded search terms—people searching for your brand name specifically on Google or other search engines—indicate growing awareness. Tools like Google Trends or Search Console can track whether more people are actively looking for you by name rather than finding you through generic product searches.
Track: Google Search Console data for branded queries, Google Trends for brand name searches, year-over-year growth in branded search volume
Direct traffic: People typing your URL directly into a browser rather than finding you through search or ads suggests they already know you exist and are intentionally seeking you out. Growth in direct traffic over time is a strong signal that brand awareness is building.
Track: Google Analytics direct traffic sessions, percentage of total traffic from direct sources, trend lines over time
Social mentions and engagement: Growth in organic mentions, followers, and engagement can signal the spread of awareness through word-of-mouth and social proof. When people start tagging your brand, recommending you unprompted, or engaging with your content without paid promotion, awareness has reached a threshold that makes it self-sustaining.
Track: Social listening tools for brand mentions, follower growth rate, engagement rate on organic posts, and user-generated content volume
Aided awareness surveys: In more formal research settings, you show consumers your brand name or logo and ask if they've heard of it. This measures recognition—the passive form of awareness. While surveys are more resource-intensive than tracking digital metrics, they provide clean data on what percentage of your target audience recognizes your brand.
Typical question: "Which of the following brands have you heard of?" [Show list including your brand]
Unaided awareness surveys: You ask consumers to name brands in your category without prompting. If your brand comes up, that's recall—the stronger, more valuable form of awareness. This is the gold-standard measurement because it shows that your brand has achieved "mental availability" when purchase needs arise. The challenge is that unaided awareness surveys require significant sample sizes and professional research methodology to be reliable.
Typical question: "When you think of [product category], which brands come to mind?"
The challenge with all of these metrics? None is perfect, and all require sustained tracking over time to be meaningful. Brand awareness builds gradually, so you're looking for directional trends over quarters and years, not week-to-week fluctuations.
This is why some marketers get uncomfortable with awareness-building campaigns—they can't deliver instant ROI reports the way performance marketing can.
But here's the truth: brands that neglect awareness in favor of only short-term performance metrics end up with a weak foundation. They can acquire customers at a high cost through targeted ads, but without awareness, they have no pricing power, no customer loyalty, and no compounding advantage over time. The brands that build lasting market positions invest in awareness even when the immediate ROI is harder to quantify.
Frequently Asked Questions About Brand Awareness
What is brand awareness in simple terms?
Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers are familiar with your brand. It ranges from never having heard of you, to recognizing your logo when they see it, to immediately thinking of your brand when they need a product in your category. High brand awareness means your brand comes to mind easily and feels trustworthy to consumers.
What's the difference between brand awareness and brand recognition?
Brand recognition is one component of brand awareness—it's when consumers can identify your brand when they encounter it (seeing your logo on a shelf). Brand recall is the stronger form—when consumers think of your brand name without any visual prompt (thinking "I need protein powder" and your brand comes to mind). Both are forms of brand awareness, but recall is more valuable because it drives active search behavior.
How long does it take to build brand awareness?
Building meaningful brand awareness typically takes 8-12 weeks of consistent messaging with 6-10 exposures per person in your target audience. However, moving from basic awareness ("sounds familiar") to strong awareness ("top of mind in my category") takes 6-12 months of sustained effort. Established brands maintain awareness through continuous investment over years or decades.
How much does it cost to build brand awareness?
Costs vary widely based on your target market size and chosen media. A local or regional brand awareness campaign using audio advertising might cost $25,000- $50,000 per month to achieve meaningful frequency in targeted markets. National campaigns can range from $ 100,000 to $500,000+ per month, depending on reach goals and media mix. Audio advertising typically offers the most cost-efficient awareness-building at $2-$15 CPM, compared to $20–$30+ for television.
Can small brands compete with established brands in terms of brand awareness?
Yes, but it requires strategic focus. Small brands can't outspend major competitors across all channels, but they can build strong awareness within specific target audiences through focused audio campaigns, host endorsements, and consistent messaging. The key is frequency within your niche rather than trying to match the broad reach of established brands. Many successful emerging brands built awareness by dominating smaller podcasts or radio shows before expanding at scale.
Does brand awareness actually increase sales?
Yes. Research consistently shows that brand awareness directly impacts purchase behavior—familiar brands get clicked more online, chosen more often in retail, command higher prices, and have lower customer acquisition costs. Nielsen Catalina Solutions research shows radio advertising (a primary awareness-building channel) delivers an average $6 ROI for every dollar spent for CPG brands, driven by the sales impact of increased awareness.
What's the best way to build brand awareness for retail products?
For retail products, audio advertising is particularly effective because it builds familiarity before consumers enter stores. A strategic approach includes: (1) Audio campaigns starting before or at retail launch, (2) Sufficient frequency (6-10 exposures over 8-12 weeks), (3) Clear category association in messaging, and (4) Alignment with retail distribution timing. Learn more about audio strategies for retail brands.
How do you measure brand awareness without expensive surveys?
Track business metrics that indicate awareness: retail velocity (how fast products move off shelves), branded search volume on Google and Amazon, direct website traffic, social media mentions and follower growth, and conversion rate improvements over time. While surveys provide the cleanest awareness data, these proxy metrics signal whether awareness is building and translating to business results.
The Long Game
Brand awareness isn't flashy. It doesn't deliver immediate results that you can show in a board meeting next week. It requires patience, consistency, and a willingness to invest in something that builds value over months and years, not days.
But every iconic brand you can think of—Coca-Cola, Nike, Apple, Amazon—got there by playing the long game. They invested relentlessly in making sure people knew their name, recognized their logo, and thought of them first when a need arose.
For emerging brands, especially those launching into retail or competing on Amazon in crowded categories, awareness isn't optional. It's the difference between being a product on a shelf and being a brand people seek out.
And while the media landscape has evolved dramatically over the past century, the fundamental insight remains unchanged: if people don't know you exist, nothing else matters.
Audio advertising—with its reach, frequency, intimacy, and cost-efficiency—remains one of the most powerful tools for making sure they do. Whether you're driving consumers to retail stores or to your Amazon listing, awareness is what makes them choose you over the dozens of competitors fighting for the same sale.
Want to build brand awareness that drives retail and online sales? Let's talk about how audio can help your brand break through the noise and become the name people remember—and buy. Contact Retail + Response