How some brands return to full glory
If I borrow from author Simon Sinek’s thinking that business is an “infinite game” that companies play, then recession is just another event in that game. Even in most challenging of times, brands need to remember they are playing the infinite game. They must keep one eye focused on the long term, even while managing the short-term crisis of loss of sales. However, this is clearly not as simple as it sounds, and the majority of brands don’t navigate recessionary times well.
Kantar BrandZ data from this region and around the world tells us that after the 2008-09 recession, strong brands recovered nine times faster than weaker brands. In many cases, the stronger brands were also the larger, more salient brands within their categories. Our analysis of purchase data from our consumer panels in Saudi Arabia clearly shows that the top 20 per cent of brands recovered sales volumes six times faster than the bottom 50 per cent.
Instant recall
We know that salience — the power of a brand to spring to mind when a consumer thinks of a category — is a strong driver of brand choice in the Middle East. Salience becomes especially critical in times of crisis, and brands that have strong mental availability tend to be more familiar and trusted.
To ensure sustained salience, brands need to continue communicating, even during recessionary times.
Analysis of our tracking database reveals that those brands punching above their weight on communication awareness as compared to their market share are six times more likely to see an increase in market share.
It is also a reality that budgets are under pressure during such times, so brands need to look for the most efficient and effective means of staying connected with their consumers. The means of achieving this are not just traditional media, which can typically burn through budgets, but also from a variety of other media and consumer touchpoints that the brand has at its disposal.
Our work in MENA clearly shows that more than 40 per cent of the impact that brand campaigns deliver comes from media synergies. So brands need to think of how best to optimise the impact through a combination of media.
Those brands punching above their weight on communication awareness as compared to their market share are six times more likely to see an increase in market share.
Not everything boils down to spending
■ Brands need to anticipate evolving consumer needs and tensions which the brand can address so that they continue to stay meaningful. Brands like Hyundai did this well during the 2009 downturn when customers could return the vehicle if they lost their jobs.
■ It also becomes important to reframe price as value, as Xbox did during the 2009 recession with messages like ‘Big fun, bigger value’. Or like Lipton did in the Mena region by communicating on the strength and personalisation aspects of its tea bags, and actively pushed smaller formats and packet tea.
■ Brands also need to reconfigure the basics of their business and customer experience, like Delta Air Lines did by controlling its cost base through multiple actions coupled with an improved cabin experience.
It is not a one-size-fits-all formula, but brands who put their customers first, keep a constant connection with their customers by communicating with them and are willing to reconfigure and reinvent their business will succeed in difficult times.