Nine trends for business in 2009

[TOM Merilahti]

Nine trends for business in 2009
By brandstrategy

Consultancy Brand Keys has put forward nine “major trends” for 2009 (although bear in mind these are slightly US-centric). We’ve summarised them below. What do you think? Do you agree with these trends or not - let us know your views!

1. Price Matters if you’re a commodity

With financial pressures and a lack of confidence in the economy, consumers will to continue to be very, very conservative in their spending. An on-going psychographic trend is that no matter how much consumers earn and no matter how much discretionary income they have available, they still want to be perceived as “wise shoppers.”

In 2009, that title is bound to be more of an economic imperative than one having to do with fiscal self-image. This will be especially true given current economic indicators, all exacerbated by a decreased lack of trust in - and increased suspicions about - established financial and retail institutions. The precipitous decline in the economy will feed the ongoing trend of brands being unable to provide meaningful differentiation or resonating values, except, of course, those of low, lower, and lowest prices.

2. Differentiation, meaning and added-values matter mor

Marketers will need to fight desperately with their research departments and advertising agencies to ensure that insights can be identified and communications configured so that their brands actually stand for something significant in the mind of the consumer.

Awareness as a meaningful market force has long been obsolete, and differentiation will be critical for success, i.e., sales and profitability. Those who primarily rely on “flavor of the month” promotional tactics will quickly find that they are creating a lasting perception among their consumer base that only price (or price cuts) differentiates their products from the competition. Do that often enough and your product and service will move away from being a “brand” and will come to be regarded as a “category placeholder” and nothing more.

3. Engagement is not a fad. It is the brand objective

It has already been proved that real engagement correlates with positive consumer behavior. Engagement should be defined by consumer response: it is the outcome of any marketing or media initiative that substantively improves a brand’s equity (the degree to which a brand is seen to meet - or to exceed - consumers’ expectations for the category in which it competes).

Marketers will realize that attaining real brand engagement is impossible if they continue to try to measure it using out-dated attitudinal models. Marketers will come to accept that there are four
engagement methods including Platform (TV; online), Context (Program; webpage), Message (Ad or Communication), and Experience (Store/Event). But there’s only one objective: Brand Engagement.

4. Media planning will be more innovative, touch-point focused, and two-way

Planners will still classify media touch-points as “above-the-line,” “below-the-line” and “new,” but planning will be based on some critical considerations: Which touch-point will best reinforce brand values? Where will the brand + media equation yield real engagement?

Effectiveness will result only where the plan is seamless, believable, personalised, and authentic. Media planning innovation and technological innovation will become one and the same. Mobile devices are becoming an increasingly important touch-point for consumers and 2009 will be a starting point for migration from desktop to laptop to blacktop. Location-aware software for phones should inspire the mobile medium, so expect promotional coupons to show up along with IMs and look for greater granularity in measuring marketing ROI.

Marketing dollars transitioning to online isn’t new, but social networks will also become more engaged in engagement to help marketers more effectively deliver messages and determine return on their efforts.

5. How green is my brand?

Simply playing in the environmental awareness arena will not be an option in 2009, and brands will have to find ways of positioning their offerings in ways that meaningfully support a sustainable future. But as
the number of companies trying to co-opt the environmental movement for their products and services grows, so too will the number of sceptical consumers.

Most consumers have heard these promises before and will begin to demand evidence and authenticity. Measuring that authenticity and the degree to which the brand is perceived by the consumer to really be green will become more necessary than in the past. Possessing such measures will provide insights and strategic direction that will aid in brand differentiation, the creation of added value, increased consumer
engagement, and, the ultimate bottom line, profitability.

6. Brands will need to identify - and leverage - new values

Happily, loyalty and engagement metrics identify trends and values that will be more important to consumers many months before they are blips on traditional research radar screens. Looking at the 60 categories and nearly 500 brands measured in the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement
Index, the average percent-of-contribution that “customization” makes to product and service engagement, adoption, and loyalty, is currently 18%. That’s nearly five times what the value was when first measured in 1997. Watch for “customisation” - the newest of the loyalty values to insert itself into virtually every product and service category - to be something marketers will be paying great attention.

7. Behavior will finally beat attitude

More marketers will come to realize that “to know you” is not necessarily “to buy you” (or, for that matter, even to like you). Brands will need to recognise - and address - real behavioral metrics. Corporations will use the identification of behavioral consumer segments to synergistically reinforce brand values, brand and corporate positioning efforts, communications, and media planning to make the marketing function more effective and efficient.

8. Consumer expectations will continue to grow

Brands are barely keeping up with consumer expectations. Every day consumers adopt and devour the latest technologies and innovations, and hunger for more. In 2009, expect smart marketers to identify and capitalise on unmet expectations via newly identified values (like customisation), using more and more high-tech systems. This approach will help them differentiate brands from competitors, and brand-
consonant touch-points (like mobile marketing) will play a major role in meeting and managing consumer expectations.

9. Make life simple for your brand and your customer

The poet-marketer H. D. Thoreau foretold the coming of 2009’s ninth and final trend: “Simplify. Simplify.” Consumers are searching for and demanding simplification. In some categories this is showing
up strong, such as cell-phone plans, search engines and laundry detergent. Who has not looked at switching cellular carriers and bemoaned the task of comparing one complicated plan to another?
Simplification is also showing up as a driver in online travel sites for itinerary planning. Yet as the competition has heated up brands still continue to compete on price, and not what will engender positive
consumer behavior - simplification.

The future may not be what it used to be, but brands can be pretty sure that it will pose a more difficult time for marketers. But marketers and planners that have loyalty metrics in place will have a handle on the
trends that are bound to show up in their offices. And doing that will make them both prophets and profits in 2009.

[Serhan K. Yasar (SKY)]

Nice rounding up of the necessities for doing a better business in 2009 and beyond (thank you TOM), but....

10. What I would like to add is, and feel that it will be even more important than it has ever been, is the word SYNERGY! It is interesting that this word did not come up even once in this (summarized) text, while innovation, another MOST important word (as it had been for the past few years already) has come up a few times, mostly in connection with the media & advertising. Innovation can sometimes give such an energy to a product/brand that price may no longer matter (for a while), differentiation may be huge, engagement may be sparked at the consumer side, especially also if innovation fulfills one of the other criteria as in #5, 6, 7 and 9, to meet & exceed #8 above, better.

But if there is no such innovation, or even if there is a viable, adaptable one for the purpose, creating synergies within the new or existing brands, channels, markets, products, or medias, can result in cutting costs (basic economics), increasing brand awareness (through piggy-back advertising, for example), differentiation (against a limited, cheaper but "too local" product, for example), greenness (by causing a smaller footprint, less CO2 emissions, for example), engagement (all-purpose, omni-present products/services), deeper insight into consumer behavior (thus fostering better behavior), simplification (meets more than one need/comes one or more steps closer to the consumer & his needs, etc.) and the list can go on & on, so with synergies, literally, SKY is the limit. :)

Therefore, I think the buzz word and one of the most important ways of doing better & more business in 2009 & beyond will be by seeking, creating and engaging in SYNERGIES, on all fronts, ie. doing synergies in AND through innovation and even doing innovation in AND through synergies, as well as in all of the points described above.

I think therefore, that our dear TOM Merilahti has not named his esteemed network "SICU Synergy Solutions Group" by chance... do you? Kind regards and a Happy New Year to all (and a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it).

SKY
Synovent Synergical Innovation R&D Design Consultancy Ltd.

[TOM Merilahti]

SKY, Thanks a million for your support and for helping me out!

I have fostered the word and concept of Synergy since 1999. Then I founded Synergialaitos.Com ("Synergy Society") and developed the philosophy behind it together with an old friend of mine, Richard Stanley.

I have become careful not to over cultivate it. But now you gave me a chance to remind you all about this again:

Ideas + Exchange + Energy = Synergy

Synergy is energy moving in-sync. The experience of being in-sync is characterized as feeling good, things are easy, everything is flowing, and we're in harmony. Synergy is an elusive state of mind that occupies much of our daily strivings; simply it's the pressing desire to be happy.

Creating synergy is not a superficial pursuit for short-term gain, but a deeper blending of the wisdom from multiple perspectives that converges into a sense of fullness and appreciation for all that life can offer.

TOM
SICU (Synergy Integrated - Connects the Unconnected)