Why strategy is king in turbulent times

Fluid age expectations, changing perceptions of what we want from life and an increasing pace to everything we do mean age, postcode or lifestage ARE important, but only when you get under the skin of them and use them to understand the driving force of emerging culture. It’s not about age, it’s about mindset.

We need to use these demographics wisely – understand the key themes of the cohort, understand the why behind them, and then think who else it may apply to. Brands need to appeal to the mindset of the people they want to capture or they’re never going to cut through – and thinking in terms of age cohorts is only going to restrict appeal and limit audience. 

So don’t think of customers as demographics or who they used to be. Think of them in terms of mindset – allowing you to have a much more flexible concept of who they are, what they want and how to appeal to them.

Think value first

This doesn’t mean cheapest. Value is the perceived cost / benefit your product brings to your customers – and it’s this that really matters. It might be cheap or expensive in pure hard cash, but concern over actual cost is often less important than we think.

An £80 cake might be a very expensive option for a Saturday BBQ but an affordable price for a wedding. Context and value matter. Never forget to remind your customers that your brand matters over and above on a purely price tag perspective. In 2008, De Beers reduced its marketing budget faced with the looming recession. But when research revealed that diamonds represent enduring value to a majority of consumers, the company doubled its Christmas advertising spending over the previous year’s.

Brand awareness ads in several media proclaimed, “Here’s to less,” and enjoined us to buy “fewer, better things” because “a diamond is forever”. Prices and desire remained stable in the face of what could have been disaster.

It’s about understanding the value your product brings to your customers and brilliant strategies do everything they can to bring this to life.

Don’t worry about your competition

(Sort of) Get YOUR brand in shape first. Let them do them. Don’t waste time chasing their tails.

The thing with turmoil is there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach. Just because your competitors are doing something doesn’t mean you should. Take a step back, reassess and make sure you have solid foundations before you start chasing anything else. It’s hard enough to make sense of everything going on, let alone without trying to play keeping up with the Joneses (or Apples / Amazons – you get my drift).

Focus instead on what you offer, what you do really well – and getting your brand into the best shape possible. Get your foundations right and worry about the rest when times are calmer.

Creativity is king

Sometimes the best way round a problem is underneath it. Flipping challenges on their head, reframing the problem and turning it upside down can be the best way to overcome them. So don’t think outside the box – think under it.

It might be that your product or proposition just isn’t very recession friendly. In which case, rather than trying to use brand as wallpaper over cracks, face into the challenge. What’s the real challenge / blocker to choosing or using your brand? How can you face this head on and flip perceptions around so it becomes an advantage?

The thing with the idea of ostriches burying their heads in the sand when faced with danger (they don’t by the way, it’s a myth – they couldn’t breathe…) is that everyone notices. It’s unusual, strange and everyone sees straight through it. So, acting like an ostrich, and hiding an underlying challenge away from customers simply won’t fly. Your audience aren’t stupid – 9/10 times they’ll notice anyway and it’ll be even more obvious that you’ve plastered over glaring issue.

So don’t: face into the challenge – look at it with fresh eyes, flip your perspective and think about how to reframe and recontextualise the issue at hand. And that’s it. Strategy has – quite simply – never been as important as it is now.

Whatever the next few months have in store, building solid foundations, setting the right direction and making sure you’re being honest with yourself about the role you play in consumer’s minds is critical. Now is not the time to be an ostrich.