Much like college football’s national championship this week, the new year promises to be a decisive and defining one for most businesses. It will be a year that separates companies still stuck in power-save mode from those that step out and make intelligent, creative, calculated risks.
For this latter group—entrepreneurs and companies poised to grasp market share—the following trends are likely to fuel their positive year ahead:
1) Digital Collaboration and Feedback. The ability to gather inputs from customers, vendors, colleagues and analysts is at an all-time high. Social media technology has enabled this capability for virtually zero infrastructure cost, though it still requires careful management and analysis. An intentional social media strategy will become standard equipment for most successful companies.
2) Enabling Self-Sufficiency. Businesses will make their customers more self-sufficient. Authors will publish more of their own books. Patients will handle more of their own health records. Music lovers will configure more of their own radio stations. And consumers will design more of their own apparel. Trying to hold customers captive will backfire as they instinctively move to open source solutions.
3) Technology-Driven Innovation. Even as the world languished in a year of deep recession, technological innovation steamed forward largely unabated. The convergence of phone/computer/television/camera/PDA/radio will continue to improve the quality of the user experience, getting faster, better and cheaper with each passing day. But this means that companies will need to have a broad, multi-platform communication strategy to be sure they are reaching their audience. Going granular and reaching that “audience of one” on his or her terms—and doing it a million times—will pay big dividends that mass media can no longer deliver.
4) Brand Still Rules. Technology changes, but people don’t, and therefore the importance of brand remains. Brands are belief systems, and people will still make choices—for products, services, candidates and policies—based on the credibility and attraction of the brands they encounter.
5) Good Execution of the Details. With more moving parts in the marketing toolbox than ever before, good tactical execution will separate the winners from the losers. This great execution will need to happen even as prices for many products and services are still dropping. The old adage “do more with less” will define the demands of consumers and B2B buyers alike in nearly every category. Only the truly proprietary service or product gets a free pass here.
The new year began with 34 college bowl games, and now the slate of NFL playoffs is set. As every football fan knows, third down efficiency is one of the keys to success for any team—perhaps one of the defining statistics of championship teams. This economy still has most of us in a “third and long” situation, but that’s when we are all at our best. Convert a first down, and you get to keep playing.
The only other alternative is to punt.