| Translating Global Trends for Winning Strategy |
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The daily life of your consumers and shoppers is changing at a pace that leaves most of us breathless, lost in information overload and wondering how on earth we are going to keep up. The simple truth is that we can’t. Yet we’re all required to have a point of view about the world in which our consumers and shoppers live – a big picture view that forms the basis for both corporate and commercial strategy. This big picture view is a critical starting point: if your company has miscalculated, misunderstood or misinterpreted global shopper and consumer trends, the wrong objectives will be set; the wrong strategy might well be deployed by the wrong organisational structure. Precisely because the pace of change is now so fast it has never been more important to stay close to global shopper and consumer culture, and, as it is an ever changing landscape, to keep revisiting your big picture view. To understand and translate global shopper and consumer trends for your company and brand a few fundamental principles apply:
BE PART OF THE GLOBAL BRAIN
Information is everywhere; technology has made it easier than ever to gather opinion, share thoughts and monitor global trends. What this information gathering process will reveal is the overlapping, interlinked trends that are impacting on the daily lives of your shoppers and consumers. There is very little shopper or consumer copyrighted, proprietary or confidential information left. In the global trends poker game the age of ‘hold my cards to my chest’ has passed, today’s model is ‘everybody lay your cards out’ and then we’ll all try as best we can to see all the cards. We’ll each form a big picture view based on our own interpretation of the whole. We’ll then hold our insights to our chest, implement our plans as quickly as possible and as excellently as possible. In this open network framework it is the shopper and consumer insights that you gather that will determine the success of your strategy.
A GLOBAL TREND IS HAPPENING NOW
It has gained momentum already, it is reality. It is not something that might happen in the future – it is the way in which shoppers and consumers behave today, and this ‘today’ is the springboard for how they will behave tomorrow. Without becoming futurists we often have to predict the 3 – 10 year shopper and consumer horizon. Overlapping hard future forecasts (eg. the price of petrol) with soft global trends (eg. growth in environmental concerns juxtaposed with convenience shopping a growing channel format) is going to lead you to a set of conclusions which are part quantitative, part qualitative – part science and part art.
UNDERSTAND THE CONTEXT
Clearly the context in which you find yourself is important in setting about to translate trends for your company or brand. Just as tapping into universal human truths creates truly international advertising, so too will global shopper and consumer trends contain some element of universal truth. However, you will be subject to macro factors over which you have no control: environmental, political, economic, social and technological macro factors which can dramatically impact on the way in which a global trend is manifested for your consumers and shoppers. Wireless 24-7 connectivity has a different impact for your shoppers and consumers depending on whether they live in Nairobi or New York.
ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
What is the trend? What’s fuelling the trend? How are shoppers and consumers behaving and in what way are leading companies tapping into this trend or leading this trend already? What does the trend mean for your company and brand ambitions? What do you have to do to play a role? Sometimes looking at what’s cutting edge and sexy seems worlds away from your company and brand. By asking the right questions you’ll be focusing on your shoppers and consumers holistically, keeping in mind the impact of global trends on their everyday life regardless of whether or not they own an Apple iPod or drive a Mini.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
Focus on what rings true. Forget all the clever buzzwords and complicated diagrams. Cut to the heart of the matter being led by an outward looking shopper and consumer orientation. Shoppers and consumers have fundamental needs and at the heart of every seemingly mind-blowing sophisticated brand is the satisfaction of a few core needs (still never better expressed than 1943 by Maslow: biological, safety, love and belonging, status (esteem) and self actualisation). Global shopper and consumer trends are evolving along with consumerism but will always distil down to a simple core need. Today we might download music on our mobile phones rather than stand in a queue to ask for a 33s vinyl record from a counter shop – but the joy at listening to music that inspires emotion has never changed.
CREATE A WINNING INNOVATION PROCESS
Once you have got under the skin of the global shopper and consumer trends that will most impact on your brand and business, make sure you incorporate them into a winning strategy by formalising the way in which your company innovates and plans. Change is certain. That you are going to spend a large proportion of your time planning 3-5 year business strategy is certain. That you are going to look at 10 year business strategy from time to time is certain. To innovate means to begin or introduce something new. What every successful innovation led company has in common is the following: Innovation champions who are ‘hands on’, an open creative culture, a focus on the consumer and user and an inculcated innovation process that is adhered to. The innovation process should be thoroughly demystified in your business: creativity will come from a multitude of sources but what you can do to create order from the idea or information overload is to put into place an innovation process that will allow you to brilliantly implement innovation and change at all levels within your business.
For too many companies today translating global shopper and consumer trends is a key business process that is only thought about at a category or brand level in a piecemeal way depending on the strength of your category or brand teams. Immersing yourself in global shopper and consumer trends ought to be incorporated into all levels of corporate and commercial strategy and planning. Applying global trends to your brand or business is about stepping back and formulating the big picture view - at the heart of what’s fuelling each trend is the force of human behaviour.
Keeping pace with changing trends is a vital part of staying relevant and identifying the sources of true competitive advantage.
To discuss how to turn global shopper and consumer trends into winning strategy contact tracey@in-deed.com.
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