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Tag: Rosie Hawkins

  • … in 2021, courtesy Kantar’s Global Business Compass, a study of ~4.5k business leaders across the world including India

    Marketing Imperatives for Rebound & Recovering

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    More than two thirds (69%) of businesses expect to end the second half of 2020 in decline. Just under half (45%) of those expect their business to be down by 20% or less, while one in five of those leaders expects their business to be down in excess of 40% y/y. As news of positive Stage 3 clinical trials emerges, just one quarter (23%) expect their business to recover within a six-month timeframe of a vaccine being widely available, while 41% expect recovery within a year. More than one quarter (27%) expect their business to take as long as two years to fully recover from the Covid-19 crisis.

     

    In Global Business Compass, a study of almost 4,500 business leaders around the world, Kantar identified that almost two thirds (61%) of companies had reduced their marketing spend by an average of 36.7% in 2020. This included half of companies (50%) cutting comms and media spend by an average of 39.3%. With this widespread economic concern, and the constraints being placed upon marketing, Kantar, the world’s leading data, insights, and consulting company has identified the three core strategies marketing teams should pursue to support their business’s ‘rebound and recovery’ strategy.

     

    Imperative #1: Digital Transformation:

    Omnichannel and ecommerce is surging. 40% of consumers say they have increased their ecommerce spend during lockdown, rising to 48% of households with children. 45% of consumers will continue shopping with online stores they found during the pandemic. 55% of companies invested in their ecommerce capabilities during the pandemic. The change is not only about online business, new buying patterns and behaviours are emerging making brands and companies more vulnerable to competition. With digital becoming an integral part of the new normal, brands that elevate the human experience will be strongest.

    Marketing teams can drive success through reinventing channel strategies, shifting towards the best performing channels. Testing new models of growth and partnerships (social commerce and direct to consumer) should be on the agenda of every CMO, while investigating changing needs, buying power and the importance of different touchpoints in new ecommerce journeys will inform those strategies. This understanding will require a purposeful data strategy that discovers the power of owned data within the organisation and integrates it with trusted third-party data to understand the new buying signals and deliver that data to the decision makers within the marketing and media teams.

     

    Imperative #2:  Purpose and sustainability really will make a difference

    The pandemic has made people re-evaluate the importance of purpose and sustainability in their priorities. 85% of consumers think it is important to buy from companies that support causes in which they believe. Brands need to have an impact in people’s lives and the world they live in. Purpose is a systemic stabiliser for brands in times of global economic recession. It is paramount to revive and reinvent relationships that connect the brands to emerging consumer needs. Businesses are under pressure to play a more supporting role in giving meaning to people’s life and position themselves on issues such as diversity, local culture vs. globalism, racial justice, sustainability and community.

    Marketing teams in 2021 should reflect on what explicit or implicit needs are being met and consider the impact you can have on users’ lives, functionally or emotionally. Integrate purpose as a living element of the communication, product, brand experience and brand commitment rather than treat it as an isolated concept. Re-engage with consumers and their issues in a transparent, meaningful, connected way, and be ready to make sacrifices for the public good.

     

    Imperative #3: Organisation performance and innovation:

    Almost two in three leaders don’t feel they have the right operating model to be competitive. During the pandemic 20% of businesses experienced growth. There are lessons to be learned from these companies that will transform how businesses are run. 59% of companies that achieved growth during the pandemic pivoted their business model, while more than a quarter invested more in innovation. Recovery will require businesses to make drastic changes to old ways of working and significantly review and invest in organisational performance.

    Create a feedback loop with your employees and consumers to ensure your corporate narrative and long-term strategic priorities are still relevant and to accelerate your learning curve and consistently scale best practices. People’s new rituals need to be at the heart of the portfolio innovation strategy. Innovation is one of the key characteristics that enable meaningfully different brands to rebound up to nine times faster. Reinvent channel strategies – remember people crave human connection. Elevate the human experience even in digital environments. Only one in four consumers are satisfied with retailers omnichannel presence. Siloed-organisations that isolate customer experience from sales and marketing need urgent reorganisation to get a holistic view of how to reactivate demand.

     

    In discussing Kantar’s advice for marketing leaders Rosie Hawkins, Chief Innovation Officer at Kantar said: “Adapting to new conditions and being brave are key to fast recovery. Virtually every business we interviewed for this study agreed that consumer behaviour has changed for good. Whether it is how they shop, their product needs, their customer service needs, we need to reset what we know about customer behaviour in the future. History has taught us that businesses that are brave during these recessionary periods rebound stronger. Understand your changing customer needs, invest as much as possible in gaining share of voice (and share of market), adapt your strategy to leverage more digital shopping and service channels. Every company has an opportunity to reframe the experiences they deliver to offer purpose-driven actions and they should not be afraid of serving this important new role in society.”

     

    Added Preeti Reddy, CEO – South Asia, Insights Division, Kantar: “In this changing world order, it is an imperative that organisations and brands continue learning about changing consumer preferences and adapting strategies on a real time basis. This will need businesses to be agile and to develop mechanisms that capture information from multiple sources to aid decision making. This will also mean that the need to build stronger, more resilient brands will only increase further; and also to build a strong communication network to communicate brand value and intent to customers on an ongoing basis. Consequently, the role of marketing in driving future strategies of the organisation will become even more significant.”

     

    Kantar’s three imperatives for rebound and recovery are part of Global Business Compass. More insights can be found on Kantar.com.

     

     

  • In the short-term, brands and retailers need to prove their value, notes Kantar’s Covid-19 Barometer

    Value and innovation: Finding growth in the post-pandemic recession

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Persistent safety concerns, financial pressures and sticky new behaviours mean consumers will not return to pre-pandemic behaviour any time soon. Marketers will need to pivot to finding growth in recession; delivering increasing value in the short-term to address growing economic concerns while innovating their way to sustained relevancy as behaviours and priorities change long-term. These are the findings from the fifth wave of Kantar’s Covid-19 Barometer, a global study tracking people’s attitudes, behaviours and expectations across more than 50 markets.

     

    Post-pandemic recovery delayed

    Only one third of people (37%) expect to return to non-essential consumer behaviour before 2-3 months. Even as many countries relax lockdown laws and commercial businesses reopen, across the world 66% of people say they will continue to avoid busy places, meaning a drag on physical retail environments. Beyond mandated hygiene and social distancing measures, 50% of people want regular testing for all and 43% want mandatory facemasks, led by demand in Asia, but more reluctance in western markets.

    Nearly everyone is experiencing increased anxiety over money. 56% of households across the world have now experienced a loss of income due to COVID-19. In India, the impact is even more acute, with 74% of households having experienced a loss of income due to COVID-19. This rises to 68% of the Millennial generation and 65% of GenZ. A further 19% expect an impact on their income in the future.

     

    In the short-term, brands and retailers need to prove their value

    As the financial impact of the crisis becomes increasingly apparent, across the world consumers consistently speak of a sense of pride in finding value, making smart decisions, and quietly enabling their own long-term success. 53% of consumers are paying more attention to products on sale (vs 36% in wave1). Offering discounts and promotions is now the third highest expectation of brands, (vs 5th in wave 2). 69% of consumers say a shopping list is more important now globally as well as in India.

    Beyond pricing strategies, consumers expect brands to keep advertising and acknowledge the crisis; three in four (74%) are happy with the volume of advertising, and only 14% want to see pre-pandemic ‘normal’ advertising. Two thirds of consumers are looking for help and advice – for themselves (64%) and their communities (65%) in the adverts they see and in actual brand behaviour. In India too, more than half of consumers would like to see lot more of advertising which shows what brands are doing to help the community (57%) and the people themselves (54%).

    Grocery stores are recognised as delivering value in the short term. 40% of consumers globally and 60% in India perceive their grocery store experience to be more positive while 69% perceive employees to be friendly and helpful and grocery stores to be acting on their promises; both metrics significantly outperforming CX benchmarks. Ecommerce usage continues to soar. 40% (vs 33% in wave 3) of consumers now say they have increased or significantly increased their online purchasing, rising to 48% for households with children and millennial households. India too shows a positive trend for Ecommerce usage (45% vs 40%) in Wave 3). Low pricing and promotions rank as the biggest reasons.

     

    Innovate to align with the new rhythms of life

    People have started to like their lockdown habits. More than half (52%, 57% Millennial, 55% GenZ believe they will maintain lockdown behaviours post-pandemic. In India too, (53%, 56% Millennial, 61% – 35+ year olds) likely to maintain behaviours adopted during the pandemic. Increased hygiene, healthier eating, spending time with the family and personal development are most likely to be maintained. More than half the world (51%) now claim to be trying to exercise more. These changes all lead to different needs and spending patterns, and with more than half the world also feeling financial pressure, brands need to ensure their products make the cut in being considered vital in the new rhythms of life. This is amplified by the increase in willingness to switch. 45% (rising to 50%+ of households with kids) of consumers say they are prepared to keep using products and online stores they found while in lockdown.

    Said Soumya Mohanty, Chief Client Officer, South Asia, Insights Division, Kantar: “Indians are still in the phase between a lockdown and unlock. Some habits are starting to stick – eating healthy, hygiene while new ones around social distancing are emerging. The way we shop and interact will change but in an emerging, aspirational market the meaning of sustainability and responsible consumption differs. Brands will need to move from emotional succour and social solidarity to fundamentals of value, functionality, innovative delivery and simple mental availability. Simplicity could well be the new mantra as we navigate an uncertain world.”

    Commenting on the findings, Rosie Hawkins, Chief Innovation Officer, Kantar observed, “Adapting to life post pandemic, we’ve started to appreciate, and want to maintain our newly formed healthy behaviours, our more considered and purposeful personal connections and our online shopping habits. Brands and companies first and foremost need to ensure that their goods and services are safe to use and that precautions have been taken to guarantee this. As lockdown restrictions lift, consumers’ lives will continue to change and so brands will need to reassert their relevance in these new environments.”