by Erna George. As we start the New Year with resolutions and new plans, innovation and change are top of mind — balancing these two makes for a less-daunting yet more-impactful long-term relationship with consumers.
Keeping the brand relevant
The challenge is that innovation conjures up a sense of big, dramatic and high-investment change. The opportunity is that both major and minor changes may keep the brand relevant. In the same way as, when relaunching a brand, one talks of a revolutionary or an evolutionary update, so, too, may innovation be viewed. Let’s call one innovation and the other renovation.
Some fresh news launches yield a response of “wow, that is amazing”, creating a flood of excitement and flurry of activity or engagement. Others yield more of a “well, it’s about time” retort. Think of when Toilet Duck first launched with its NEW curved neck bottle; it created a wow-effect. Today, finding a toilet disinfectant without a curved neck is near to impossible. The reality is some changes are required to simply keep up (with the pack of competitors or market shifts).
As a peculiar example, I have just had to purchase a new fridge. The last time I looked I do so was 10 years ago, when white fridges cost less than other colours. Now, being the smart shopper (aka frugal) person that I am, I went in search of the white fridge that would stand in the pantry as an ode to my shrewd money-handling. The result? Today, almost 100% of mainstream fridges are silver, and the rest are black or other bold colours — the whole world of appliances has shifted, answering what must have been a tsunami of consumer need for beautiful appliances to be on show. Silver is the new white, cost differences are no longer and, if a brand today did not offer an appliance of beauty, it would be outdated.
Incredibly important
Renovation changes are incredibly important. I remember updating a pack to include a zip-lock seal not too long ago, and it yielded much more of a nonchalant response than I’d expected — consumers were happy, not jumping for joy, that we’d finally delivered pack functionality. But renovation updates are a sign of an attentive brand being in tune with its own strengths, weaknesses and opportunity areas and showing commitment to building the brand-consumer relationship — like a spouse bringing home an unexpected single rose.
Brands that are successful in managing this effectively have an intimate understanding of how the product and pack are used, consumed and discarded. By knowing all of this, any relevant areas which may be lacking may be updated.
This is not rocket science (even if it feels tedious); it’s about continuous engagement with your product and consumers:
- Consider setting up a small panel of people who are core users to give feedback on your brand performance. Check in regularly and learn.
- Ask fellow employees, sales and factory teams — you will be surprised what you find out
- Establish a roster of testing your own products internally vs competitors, as this helps you see where the market is going and helps you reassess your offer
- Keep up with other hot innovation/renovation ideas by having a watch team — our team has a WhatsApp Group to capture thoughts and pics even on weekends.
Cumulative effect
Renovation ideas are hard work to identify and far less sexy, as they do not always make the big waves that breakthrough innovation does. But the effect is cumulative.
The interesting thing is that most new innovation does not succeed in the long term. It costs massive amounts of time and money to develop and launch new brands and products. Sustaining this level of investment is tough yet is what is required to create a new habit and land a new brand on the consumer’s shopping list. There are launches that revolutionise the market and behaviour is shifted but, for the most part, this is not true; consumers are creatures of habit and the context we live in is more faddish than ever.
Using existing strong brands to launch new ideas, or nurturing these brands to maintain relevance often, yields more revenue at a lower time and investment. Think about those brands that are forward- and backward-integrating or launching across multiple categories to leverage the strength of their awareness and consumer connection — Steers and Nando’s placing their branded sauces in retail stores or Samsung stretching from home appliances to personal technology. As long as the brand promise may stretch well, a trusted brand in more areas offers greater simplicity for consumers and investment efficiency for brands.
Optimal relevance
Often I feel we, as marketers, get more bored more quickly than our consumers. As we enter a new year full of new possibilities, be wary of change for change’s sake and balance this with maintaining the optimal level of updates.
- Keep in mind that renovation-type progression may be as effective and efficient as big, new innovation
- Use limited edition or seasonal launches to build excitement and fresh news
- Use renovation checks to review your brand performance — they could signal when more significant innovation is required
- Innovate when required (timing will depend upon the category and new advances) but ensure you invest significantly in it for enough time
This will ensure your brands are of optimal relevance to fit in seamlessly in consumer’s worlds.
Erna George is the marketing executive of Pioneer Foods’ Cereals & Other division. She has worked on both client and agency sides with diverse brands and categories — from FMCG, alcohol and agriculture to financial services and entertainment — in countries across many geographies, including South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Philippines and Brazil. She contributes the monthly “Fair Exchange” column, concerning business relationships and partnerships in marketing and brandland, to MarkLives.
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