Why brave brands should disrupt themselves.

Substantial change is rarely easy, but it’s how great brands survive and flourish. Brave brands don’t wait for the world to change around them: they change the world.

The world is in flux. It’s getting harder for brands to cut through, and it won’t get any easier. To compete in this environment of rapid change and disruption, companies must build a powerful, positive change engine. One that fuels dynamic, visionary leadership. This is achieved with a strategy that looks beyond the short term and builds the habits and behaviours to compete in the long term. Reactive changes aren’t enough: you need to spark powerful evolution, whilst laying the foundations for game-changing revolution. How does that happen? You need to listen. Listen to your team to explore what really makes your business tick, at every level. Listen to your audience, to understand why they behave the way they do. And constantly stay abreast of macro shifts and consider how they could be uniquely relevant to your brand. Unearthing the insights is the easy bit. The value comes in what comes next: how that intel shapes your brand strategy now, and in the future. Brave leaders understand that the toughest problems must be tackled first. Head on.

“Reactive changes aren’t enough: you need to spark powerful evolution, whilst laying the foundations for game-changing revolution.”

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Why your audience must drive your evolution.

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You may have to smash internal silos and address legacy issues that have been circulating for years. But if the changes you’re making are driven by navel-gazing, it’s pointless.

At the heart of your strategy should be real people, in the real world. The people who experience your brand daily. Real people don’t slot neatly into marketing demographics. It’s richer and more meaningful to consider shared attitudes and behaviours – the things that transcend age, gender, location and background. That's how you build a flexible, future-ready brand that resonates on a global scale.

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Why your rivals shouldn't matter.

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Once you see your audience in terms of how they think and what they do, rather than who they are and where they're from, it becomes clear that you're not just competing with category rivals. You're jostling for headspace and timeshare with countless other brands.

Hungry challengers may use the market leader's slipstream to slingshot them into the lead, for a time. But challenger or leader, the bravest brands don't disrupt the competition. They disrupt themselves. Constantly. To do that successfully, you must truly believe in what you're doing. Breaking new ground means trusting the power of creativity, even when there aren't always concrete proof points to back up every decision. After all, someone needs the courage to go first. To produce the ground-breaking, industry-defining work you dream of making, you must reject convention, and overcome the fear of change. That takes brave leadership from you, and an equally brave partner to make it happen.