Why is agility a must for brand growth during a crisis?

Decidophobia* deters growth. These early brand performance indicators will spark your high velocity decision making.

365+ days later…and this pandemic is still testing our agility, with many marketers fearsome of making the wrong decisions. So, what are the early indicators of growth that can aptly point you in the right direction? These three marketing truths (accentuated by COVID-19) give us the answer.

What we predicted back in March 2020 as the most likely scenario of a ‘Brave New Reality’ is the one we’ve been living in for the last year or so. Our society has adapted to life with a pandemic. People have been moving in and out of lockdown mode, swiftly restricting and broadening their movement in line with social restrictions. Physical contact shrank throughout and, as a result, ecommerce pivoted into the spotlight, jamming nine years of share growth in only a few months**.

Businesses had to react quickly. At first it was about survival, but soon after, many brands realised that ‘thriving’ was up for grabs in our ‘living-with-COVID’, relatively stable and ‘can-turn-prosperous’ business environment. Our new state of affairs elevated three pre-existing marketing truths, so much so that they became a good omen for brand growth. To execute against them, successful brands have been making bold, confident and fast decisions even (or rather more so) in our times of uncertainty.

This article was published exclusively on Kantar.com on June 30, 2021.