In approaching new markets and opportunities, companies that apply strategic marketing make good practice of market studies and trend analysis, aiming to anticipate the needs and behaviour of consumers or potential client companies.
By investing in these processes, companies seek to develop a differentiated value proposition, which implies better positioning their brand, defining an offer of products/services with greater perceived value, and improving the experience provided throughout the journey, with the purpose of generating customer satisfaction.
In this context, let us now consider two questions:
- If we look back at trends in 2020, where do we find reference to the possibility of a global pandemic?
- And, if we consider the main trends, market studies and projections for this year 2023, where do we find references to the possibility of a war in Europe?
These two phenomena, in the last decades, are the ones that most impacted the world markets and, consequently, the ones that induced the biggest changes in the behaviour of consumers and companies.
Making the analogy with ocean crossings, I can say that, nowadays, the risks are democratic, and affect nations and social classes without respecting borders of any kind. So, in the ocean of discontinuities, uncertainties and disruption that characterizes the present, what makes the difference in business leadership and in the way, companies react to sustain profitability and, when possible, gain competitive advantages?
Faced with such dynamic contexts as the ones we have been experiencing in recent years, companies gain competitive advantages that, more quickly and effectively, are able to adapt to market changes and uncertainties, manage risks, and present solutions that allow meeting new customers’ needs and differentiate themselves from the competition. In other words, it is through an organization’s ability to read and even anticipate the changes that occur, and quickly adapt its system to the unfamiliar environment, with innovative and creative responses, that benefits are generated, and the difference materializes.
Like the processes adopted in technology, the agility of companies in marketing is evident:
- the way they focus on consumers and make the voice of the customer a priority;
- by promoting continuous improvement, through rapid iteration and learning cycles;
- the ease with which they promote change and adapt to respond to customers’ growing net expectations;
- and, through collaboration across the entire company, opening up to respond to customer needs.
Companies that, through culture, processes, and tools, are able to put these principles into practice, have the agility and time to respond to the markets distinguishing factors for profit.
In this more customer-centric world, leading organizations whose strategies combine technology with the human factor, which face the imponderable behaviour of consumers, interpret data in a timely manner and emphasize agility in the experience by routes not previously navigated, in which marketing asserts itself in the management of flows, as a beacon of growth and value creation.
João Filipe Torneiro
Consultor, Gestor de Negócios e Conferencista
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaofilipetorneiro/
