Mary Say, Brand Potential
So what does it mean? Tighter budgets, greater scrutiny on return on investment, cash conservation, speed to market? Yes, certainly, but it’s the cultural change that is called for that provoked the greatest debate. This new market has meant that brand owners have had to adopt a more entrepreneurial risk-embracing, rather than risk averse approach. It calls for an Accelerator attitude, one that requires ideas, creativity, insight and ultimately, the ability to get things done.
It’s interesting to note that Unilever has recently adopted a new strategic framework for brand building based less on logic and more on magic, as recognition that their previous approach has sometimes slowed it down and hampered creative thinking. However, creativity is one of those very subjective words that sometimes cause conflicting emotions in brand owners. By its very nature, creativity is difficult to pin down and hard to quantify but can provide those moments of acceleration that a brand needs.
At Brand Potential, we talk about creative insight and strategy, because in our view an Accelerator brand needs creativity at its heart… not just in execution. It should be embedded in the way the owners and guardians of the brand think and behave. It’s about adopting creative thinking in the broadest sense – a freedom and fluidity of approach, which means that they can adapt easily, harness new ideas and respond quickly to market conditions.
We often hear that “it’s easier for the smaller/independent/owner-founder brands”. Certainly, they have the advantage of fewer politics and the ability to quickly move into a new market, but they don’t necessarily have the financial muscle, retailer clout or resource to leverage an opportunity as well as they could. An Accelerator brand is not necessarily about size, but about culture and attitude.
This fleet-footed approach and flexible attitude will help brands and businesses cope with the turbulent times and mirror how consumers engage with brands and categories. Consumers are adopting a creative and entrepreneurial approach to shopping and buying. Deals, switching to own-label, offsetting and comparison websites are all symptoms of how consumers are utilising the turbulence and reassessing their relationships with brands and categories. We’ve seen interesting behaviours such as teenagers in certain markets buying own-label as the branded offer is now un-cool; expensive, with no perceived benefit and too flashy or brash. Across the board, where brands only have a functional relationship with consumers, there are signs of disengagement.
Accelerator brands, with a more entrepreneurial and less rational approach to consumer acquisition, are finding space to exploit this lack of emotional appeal that large brands and unwieldy management structures find difficult to occupy. A responsive brand approach that mirrors consumer behaviour will benefit all brands in these times. Because Norm has left the building. For good.
Mary Say & Brand Potential team