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Striving for growth in today’s retail market can be made easier by focusing on winning customer missions, according to Uncrowd CEO Richard Hammond
The world feels like it’s upside down right now.
UK inflation reached a 40-year high of 9% in April. On top of this, 91% of UK households reported that their cost of living had increased in July 2022 compared with 62% in November 2021.
Is it any wonder consumers are tightening their belts and cutting back on discretionary spending?
While this is all certainly bleak for consumers, it’s just as dismal for retailers and brands, with retail sales falling to the lowest rate since the depths of the pandemic.
In times like these, when the market is shrinking, the first instinct of most brand executives is to halt all new investments and cut back on spending as much as possible.
But the pandemic taught the business world a valuable lesson – the worst time to hold back your investment is when the market is shrinking.
Fuelling growth
Coca-Cola is an excellent example of a brand that didn’t pull back on spending when sales hit a rough patch.
Best known for its soda products, the beverage brand pivoted and expanded its portfolio to include packaged water.
This strategy certainly paid off, as packaged water generated nearly as much retail growth in 2018 as all other non-alcoholic, ready-to-drink beverages combined.
Coca-Cola’s continued investment in this fast-growing market allows it to embrace a true total beverage company strategy, which will result in increased product sales, revenue growth, customer trust and market share growth.
Pivoting priorities
Not every brand can pivot or diversify its portfolio as well as Coca-Cola has done, but what they can do now is focus on winning customer missions.
In uncertain times, consumers tend to change their shopping missions based on their needs and spending power.
So, you’ll see many people are keen to maximise their meal budgets amid rising inflation and higher cost of living.
And with the summer holidays, you’ll see many families opting for staycations because their customer mission is to enjoy quality time with their family without breaking the bank.
So, brands and retailers must focus their efforts and budgets on winning these customer missions.
Plotting for growth
If you want to win customer missions and grow your market share in the way Coca-Cola has, then you need to know your own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of your competitors.
I know from first-hand experience that retailers and brands need a full 3D picture of the customer experience landscape.
This is the only way to truly know what spend and activations to pull back on and where to double down efforts.
Ultimately, this level of insight will result in consistent growth across product sales, revenue growth, customer loyalty and market share.
Richard Hammond is chief executive and co-founder of Uncrowd, the customer experience analytics platform that created and pioneered the Relative Attractiveness methodology for customer experience.
