From crisis cometh opportunity
A wise man once told me you should never use the word never, so I’ll start with this - there’s seldom been a better time for brands to grow quickly.
While old habits have been broken - research tells us only 10% of pub goers have so far returned to their favoured haunts - new ones are being forged at a rate of knots. Quicker, more adaptive brands, with well-developed brand equities and simpler routes to market, have experienced significant growth even during the last few months.
Regardless of how successful their attempts to make a hand sanitiser approved by the NHS proved to be, Brewdog undoubtedly reminded consumers how agile they were and their relentless drive to grow through innovation has only accelerated throughout what will no doubt be a famous Quarter 2.
RETURNING TO NORMALITY
While many alcohol brands have been able to mitigate on-trade losses with increased off-trade sales, brands that rely on physical presence need to work fast to get back to some sort of normal revenues.
In hospitality, fears seem to be reserved for independents, but many chains with their already high debt levels and significant head office costs, need to act fast and think beyond their over reliance on 241 offers to drive footfall.
While consumers are rightly nervous about their ongoing earning potential, it will take more than ‘good value’ to bring them back to the table. I genuinely fear for some of those brands unless they act soon.
INVESTING TO GROW
Of course, the accelerated pivot towards digital has proved crucial to those businesses that were ready in the first place.
The conversations I’ve been having with digital-first businesses are significantly more positive and optimistic and those conversations seem to be focused around the acceleration of growth.
My advice to them has been simple: now is the time to invest. With media affordability strong, and consumers receptive to change, this can be your time. But do so while mitigating risk.
Our understanding of marketing as a science facilitates this. Brands should not, in this day and age, feel like marketing expenditure is a risk. With robust planning and strategy, marketers as well as their wider board members, should have confidence in the only business expenditure that consistently generates revenue.
And if they don’t, well maybe they’re looking for guidance in the wrong place.
Chris Falconer, Managing Director