As challenger brands and start-ups roll out new products, services and business models to capture emerging trends, how can the big brands keep up? According to Rob Sellers and Dulcie Omonubi, directors at creative agency Engine, mass-market brands must prioritise innovation to keep up with the offerings of their smaller, and often nimbler, competitors.
Why it matters
As smaller, more agile brands move quickly to jump on emerging category trends and new shopper behaviours, their mass market competitors – who sometimes lack the same flexibility – often struggle to innovate and convert on the same opportunities at pace.
Four factors for successful innovation
- Audience
Identify and understand who your next customer is. This requires a comprehensive analysis of markets through a combination of every factor including the behaviour, attitudes and commercial attractiveness of potential audiences.
- Experience
Experience is the manifestation of the brand in all critical forms, including current products, services and the innovation pipeline, as well as the points of intersection with audiences.
- Business readiness
Often overlooked by innovation processes, business readiness is absolutely essential, especially transparency and honesty around strengths and weaknesses.
- Business purpose
If you have a clear brand purpose, use it as a guide for innovation.
Sourced from WARC
