Strategies for growth-oriented consumer brands to leverage in 2023

As early as 500 BCE, it was recognized that “the only constant is change,” but today, I’d say fear of change is almost as constant. And this should not be. Change reveals opportunity, spurs progress, and forces us to reevaluate what we thought we knew about our ecosystem and what it takes to stand out. The best brands institutionalize how they feel about change and the steps they take to make the most of the opportunities it presents. But those are not unique approaches that cannot be leveraged by any brand that aspires to capture hearts and minds. Although we have all just been through a couple of years packed with more change and disruption than we’ve seen in decades, today is a perfect day to future-proof your brand because it is safe to say we will face more disruption sooner or later. If you want to dominate your market, consider the following critical efforts for 2023.

Upgrade the promises you make and how you keep them.

Ultimately, all goods and services are essentially commodities—even if they primarily appeal to vegans seeking science-backed confidence in their cosmetics or some other seemingly narrow segment. But well-positioned brands cannot easily be replaced because people like who they get to be when they engage with those brands. When there is a strong alignment between what the brand means and what is essential to its audience, attributes like flavors or formulation become secondary concerns. The brand is then protected against economic downturns, supply chain challenges, and new market disruption. When your mission is clear, and your products, efforts, and actions are aligned with that better way of life you are offering your customers, your brand is untouchable by disruption.

Look at who your audience is and who they could be.

After years of scarcity, shopping online, and retreating to nostalgic comforts, people are back in a big way. And they are spending money despite continual threats of recession. They want to feel free and alive and are highly open to trying new things. It is the perfect time to gain new customers. But who? Instead of looking backward at your current audience and what they’ve been buying, assess your landscape and audit your competition to uncover the customers you might have in the future if you only spoke to them.

Think about the what and the how of what you offer.

After looking at your positioning and promise and evaluating your current and future audience, look hard at your portfolio of offerings. Did you need to make hard choices over the pandemic about ingredients and production? Did you cut or add products quickly that may have confused your brand architecture? It might be time to take a step back and really look at each offering both on its own and in the context of your complete portfolio and see if it is manifesting your brand purpose in the right ways to the right people without taking away from something else. This might also reveal gaps and identify opportunities for innovation and new product development.

Grow the daylight between you and your competition.

A focused and strategic story that serves as a rallying cry can be the perfect way to build an island for your brand by accentuating defensible differentiators, aligning internal teams, arming sales staff with a compelling narrative, and setting up brand loyalists with the tools to get out and advocate, building your base. By pulling together all of the above—why we exist, who that matters to, what we do for them, and how—strategy can be codified and made actionable so that everyone can understand and get excited about it. And inspiring excitement or awakening passion for your brand strategy is the best way to ensure it succeeds.

Ensure you are getting the proper attention.

That strategic story is only powerful if you can communicate it effectively. Since packaging is the primary touch-point for many brands, take the opportunity to evaluate your packaging system. Are there places in the supply chain or in commercialization that could be better aligned with your purpose? Does the design itself manifest those core values, and do so in a way that will resonate with your future audience as well as current fans? Does it defend your reason for being in a compelling way? Does it explain the product’s role in your portfolio, and is it easy to both shop and recall? Does it do all that in 2-3 seconds, depending on your category? If not, it may be time for a refresh.

Mitigate risks by investing in your brand.

Don’t get stuck following the old paradigm of cutting costs and protecting the core when faced with challenges. Leaders who play the long game win every time. By investing in good insights, actionable strategy, and effective design, you can mitigate many of the possible risks facing your brand. There will always be some brands that make intelligent, timely investments while others retrench, and they are the ones that become loved and dominant in their categories. After seeing the effects of nearly three years of chaos, market innovation, and drastic changes in basic behaviors, I can’t think of a better time to invest in future-proofing your brand than now.