Marketers tend to believe that, to win in the market, the easiest element of marketing mix to alter is price. Seldom do they realise that price is a tactical lever and cannot be a brand building tool. Marketers need to add a little disruptive thinking to the mix to create new opportunities for growth.
If brands want to grow, they need to offer something different from competition, ideally in a way that makes the brand seem more meaningful to its customers or consumers. WPP and Kantar Millward Brown’s recently released “BrandZ™ Global Brand Equity” study shows that fewer than 10 per cent of the more than 2,000 brands monitored grew between 2014-17. But Amazon, the quintessential disruptive brand, more than doubled its brand value in the same period, simply by making more people’s lives easier.
Every brand can’t be an Amazon, Netflix or Airbnb, but just a 1 per cent change in market share for an established brand can deliver significant bottom-line growth. To change the odds in their favour, conventional brands must take their lead from the fast-growing disrupters.
Below are seven fundamental principles to create disruption and drive growth.
Get out of the comfort zone
Any brand can be disruptive provided it does something different from the norm that creates new value for customers or unlocks existing potential. In today’s digital world where everything is accessible at a click of a button, brick-and-mortar banks have had to come up with new business models. Emirates NBD launched Liv, UAE’s first digital lifestyle banking app. Allowing account opening via mobile is a bold move in the banking industry, which has so far been largely reliant on physical interactions.
Know what needs to change
Knowing how people think, feel and behave in relation to a brand can often reveal an immediate opportunity for growth. The challenge for a well-differentiated brand is to identify what will make it more meaningful to potential consumers. When BMW launched its SUV range, they stuck to the core brand promise of “The joy of driving”, which has been a key differentiator, but provided more options for potential consumers who were looking for multi-purpose vehicles.
Know who values your brand
On average, consumers pay 14 per cent more for brands they perceive to be meaningfully different. When it comes to profit, the biggest disruptive growth opportunity may come from targeting the right customers, and then curating perceptions of meaning and difference to drive up the brand’s perceived value.
Apple does this brilliantly by focusing on its loyal customers — getting them to attend “Invitation Only” events before a new launch enhances their sense of exclusivity and builds further brand loyalty.
Use consumer insights to inspire disruption
An established brand that lacks differentiation risks being commoditised. A disruptive idea may come from anywhere, but the ultimate test is whether it resonates with the target audience. This requires brands to have in-depth knowledge of their potential customers.
Nadec’s recent product innovation of date milk is one such example. Dates are an integral product of the Middle Eastern society, and Nadec combined its dairy competence with a culturally-relevant product.
Invest to make a difference
Simply spending more will not produce disruptive returns. Investing in a creative idea that fits the brand and the opportunity may be the best way for some brands to disrupt the status quo. A local example is the new innovation from Agthia Group — Al Ain Water enriched with Vitamin D and a first-of-its-kind in the world.
The product not only hydrates but also provides Vitamin D to the body — a relevant benefit in a market where Vitamin D deficiency is quite prevalent, as most people prefer to stay indoors due to the hot climate.
Learn fast to achieve greater returns
A brand can have an excellent product or idea and in-market execution, but can still fail to disrupt. Marketers need to behave as if they are in perpetual beta and fast feedback is critical to quickly identify opportunities and course correct. Dewalt, a manufacturer of power tools, relies upon a 10,000 strong online community of end users to provide feedback on their products, and also to co-create ideas for product development.
Continuously improve marketing effectiveness
A brand’s success today should be viewed as an opportunity to improve marketing effectiveness while looking for the next disruptive growth opportunity. Marketers need to measure what is happening to the brand and the consumer response in-market.
Brands are having to react faster to keep abreast of changing consumer trends — while this is a challenge, it also provides brands with more opportunities to find disruptive means of connecting with consumers.
— Aruna Rajaram is Brand Guidance Domain Lead at Kantar Middle East.
