I read recently that less than one third of businesses undertake regular customer research. They don’t feel they have the time or the budget it seems to wait for answers, and they don’t see the value in doing so. They prefer to trust their own perceptions and experiences. They’re drawn to action plans.
Every day, companies are pitched opportunities to take their business in a ‘new’ direction or to stay the course—by colleagues, by their consulting agencies, because of the actions of competitors or by delegations of customers or suppliers. It can be, as many a marketing manager has told me, bewildering. And many struggle to balance the strategic need to move things forward over the longer term with the plethora of more immediate demands for response or action. Singularity is hard in a world of distractions.
Do all the frameworks and processes that strategists use really add value for brands or is it all just ****? In the spirit of strategy itself, let’s test a number of positions.
Keep Calm and Carry On is a cultural marque in its own right, but in these turbulent times, it’s still good advice for those charged with looking to build brands.
You’ve worked hard to build your competitive positioning. Here’s what you should do in response to an aggressive competitor – and why.
The temptation for most businesses and indeed most brand managers is to look for growth right across their brand portfolio. Their strategy is developed on that basis. But that’s far harder and far less effective than it sounds.
Brands drive attention and income off awareness, but they derive their real value from their ability to shift and sustain longer term sentiment.
Every brand decision is a negotiation between what has worked to date and what is required to succeed going forward.
Some searching questions, by way of a guide, for the leaders of companies expecting to build lucrative brands in the years ahead.
Is there ever a right time to get on the front foot and call out your competitors by name? Motorola seems to think so.
