Day 1 of 30 — What Is Distribution?
How FMCG brands taught me that being seen starts with being available.
Dear Reader,
Yes, I know you probably haven’t heard from me in a while. That’s on me (sad, I know). Which is why I’ve decided to do something that’ll push me a little. I’ll be sending you an issue every day for the next 30 days. So, apologies in advance for the inbox crowding.
The theme for this 30-day series is Distribution.
Why? Because it’s something I think about a lot.
Getting a product into someone’s hands or even just in front of their eyes is the lifeblood of any business. So today, let’s start with the fundamentals.
What is distribution?
Distribution is simply the process of getting what you’ve made in front of the right people, repeatedly and deliberately.
Now, before we dive into tech products (because that’s where most of our heads are), I want to start somewhere else with FMCG brands.
What I love about FMCG companies is how relentless they are about reach. They don’t just run ads; they make sure their products are available everywhere. Even in places with bad roads, insecurity, or zero infrastructure, somehow you’ll still find a Coke, a Milo, or an Indomie.
It’s not luck. It’s distribution engineering.
There’s a fascinating strategy behind that. FMCG brands build from what economists call “the bottom of the pyramid”, the lowest-income segment of the market, where, as C.K. Prahalad famously said, “your competition is non-consumption.” People would rather buy nothing than pay for your product. The challenge isn’t convincing people to choose you over another brand; it’s convincing them to choose you over nothing at all.
And yet, these brands still find ways to reach them sometimes by changing packaging sizes, sometimes by leveraging local distributors, sometimes by creating in-domain logistics networks that literally sell to everyone, everywhere.
Now, bring that same idea into tech.
When we say “distribution” in tech, most people jump straight to marketing channels: SEO, paid ads, social media, influencers, all that. But that’s just one half of it. The other half is availability being where your users already are, even if that’s outside your app
Look at what OpenAI did recently by allowing apps like Canva and Spotify to plug directly into ChatGPT. That’s distribution in motion. Canva and Spotify didn’t just gain new users; they gained new entry points to existing users. People can now reach their products without ever leaving ChatGPT.
That’s powerful and it mirrors what FMCG brands have done for decades: they show up everywhere people are already making choices.
You can think of it as:
Traditional distribution = “How do I get people to come to my shop?”
Modern distribution = “How do I bring my shop to where people already are?”
And that’s what makes this moment in tech so fascinating. Because the more we blur the line between product and platform, between owning a channel and showing up in someone else’s, the more powerful your distribution becomes.
In a sense, embedded distribution, like having your service available directly through another ecosystem, is the FMCG equivalent of being in every roadside kiosk. You’re not just discoverable. You’re usable.
So when I think about distribution, I think less about virality or reach for reach’s sake, and more about availability.
Can people find you easily? Can they use you easily? Are you in their world before they even go looking for you?
That’s the goal. And over the next few days, we’ll unpack how that idea plays out across content, products, and marketing systems.
See you tomorrow,
— Amos