Handling category slowdowns
Peter Field
Category slowdowns happen for many reasons apart from economic recession – competition from new categories, changing consumer priorities and attitudes, and of course, in the words of Harold Macmillan, because of 'events, dear boy'. But how should marketers respond to non-recessionary slowdowns? The best response will depend on the underlying reason for the slowdown, but happily there are many helpful global case studies of brands that re-energised their categories and reaped extraordinary dividends. Moreover, many were not category leaders: all brands can profit from their thinking.
The essential problem facing marketers in category slowdowns was...