The news has been tough lately… Rising energy prices and inflation generally, uncertainty caused by political turmoil and war on our borders has consumers in the UK, Europe – and beyond – pulling in their horns, holding off, trading down, doing without.
The typical response from business is to look at ways to cut costs. And for sure spending less when resources are limited makes sense. But there can be a temptation to prune too hard. Leaving brands / companies vulnerable to attack… Or just left behind.
In fact, downturns – when competitors may be less active, less, well, competitive – can be a great time to innovate.
NEW IMAGINATION, NEW CREATIVITY
Scarcity of resource encourages new imagination, new creativity. From finding new ways to offer simple affordability to consumers when they need it most, to trying out, in the relative lull, the big strategic moves, and game-changing new ideas.
It’s not surprising that Waitrose launched their hugely successful Essentials range in the last downturn… and Lego and Star Wars found each other for what’s turned out to be a super successful partnership. And we all know that an all-hits parade of Groupon, WhatsApp, Uber, etc were founded smack in the midst of the 2008-9 crash, inventively responding to consumers’ new reality.
A NEW FOCUS FOR INNOVATION?
This time around, there’s an extra incentive to take the economic context as an opportunity… With recent figures from BCG showing that 96% of Americans are trying to live sustainably at least some of the time, while fewer than 10% of the global population consistently act and purchase on sustainability just to “save the planet” – there’s a big say / do gap begging to be filled.
If you’d be interested in further thinking and insights from recent work we’ve done optimising portfolios, and identifying new propositions that both speak to people's changing choices and brand purpose / growth ambitions, do give us a shout.
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