Everyone recognises the need to grow their business, but what’s the best strategy?

• Play it safe and go for optimisation?
• Invest in core-business renovation?
• Bet big – and chase the potential rewards of a successful innovation?

One thing is certain – you can’t afford to do nothing!

Optimise or renovate?

Lots of long-established FMCG brands are being challenged by smaller ‘challenger’ or ‘craft’ brands.

Whilst you could fall-back onto value-promotions or discounting, many brands would actually benefit from reinforcing their core brand-values – or maximising their points of differentiation!

So, how about you?  Are you planning to protect what you’ve got by optimising your relevant points of difference- or renovating your core values?

Bet big and innovate?

Even though NPD failure rates still exceed 80% – the gains derived from successful Blue-Sky or Equity-Stretch innovation can be huge!

The challenge is to maximise your chances of success!

You just need to spread your ‘bets’ across a mix of ‘sure-fire winners’ and ‘long-shot gambles’ to maximise your probability of success!

If you’ve got the insight to capitalise on emerging consumer-trends, the empathy to spot changing consumer-needs, the creativity to invent disruptive new solutions, and the nerve to follow it through … you can dramatically improve your probability of being one of the successful 20%!

So, what should your strategy be?

How should you ensure your long-term business-health?

• Go for optimisation?
• Invest in core renovation?
• Bet big on innovation?

The straight answer is probably: a healthy ‘balance’ of all three!

So, what are the secrets of successful Optimisation, Renovation and Innovation?

#Optimising

Making sure your product or brand’s core proposition is relevantly differentiated and its reasons-to-believe are expressed in the most compelling way possible.

The objective is to express your product’s fundamental value proposition so clearly, that price-based activity becomes a way of gaining temporary advantage – rather than your sole way of defending your market position!

Challenge:  What are your brand’s differentiating RTBs and how could we, at Brand Development, help you optimise their relevance?

#Renovating

Stripping away the irrelevant, retaining what’s good and evolving what’s left to renovate your brand’s core values to make them fit-for-purpose for the next 10 – 20 years.

By identifying the fundamental DNA your loyalists love, redefining your brand’s purpose and then exploring how the brand-house can be contemporised, you maximise your ability to satisfy your consumers’ needs

Challenge:  How could we help you renovate your brand’s core DNA and purpose to maximise it’s relevance and focus its benefit communication?

#Innovating

Equity-stretch innovation allows you to leverage existing brands and blue-sky innovation lets you create brand new propositions to match emerging consumer needs.

Great innovation leverages new technologies, new delivery mechanisms and new business models to fulfil unmet consumer needs in fresh and disruptive ways.  The risks are great, but the rewards can be far greater still!

Challenge:  How can we help you open up your thinking and innovate your business offerings to exceed consumer expectations as they change over time?

 Make the right choices …

Which strategy would be right for you? Strengthen and adapt your core propositions, or should you reinvent and disrupt?

Based on our experience, we would strongly recommend applying roughly equal emphasis on all three …

• Optimisation is a ‘no-brainer’: it ensures all your products are at peak competitiveness all the time.
• Core renovation is a must if you detect any suggestion that your core offering or comms are out of step with current consumer needs
• Innovation is the lifeblood of every business.  In fact, McKinsey suggests a healthy target for successful businesses should be 25%+ of revenue and profit derived from new products.

So, are you tempted to follow our guidance?  If so, there has never been a better time to get in touch