What to wish for your Business and Brand in 2019? Changes.

Usually, business teams in large multinationals, but also in small-medium sized companies follow ‘policies’, regulations, and a ‘Culture’ of approvals, consensus or obedience (from the so-called Seniors).

This phenomenon is as historic as the desire of Man to rule over others. Don’t take me wrong, discipline and framework are indeed needed in the business making. But what has happened to the idea generation? Where is the creative inertia and thinking of good people working to serve Brands and their franchise? Isn’t it cool anymore to have great ideas?

“We obey his master’s voice”

From budget acceptance up to analyzing customer behaviour (even the google analytics observation), there is a huge gap between Creative great ideas and the XYZ-years’ routine implementation in-companies.

Marketers are trying to learn the ‘digital living’, yet shareholders don’t yet see Growth ahead, out of poor Marketing, Communication, Service and support performance. The main reason for this is, again, that working people don’t challenge the ‘establishment’ in a company. They know, they hear, they even read surveys, but they don’t fix the bloody issues at hand. They are not permitted to?

The ‘fake’ beliefs rule the Marketing world

Now on to our recipe: put in the boiling pot few interns, arrogant digital natives that know it all, old-school (dinosaur) Marketers, many ignorant teams on behavioural data rooted on reality …and voila! you have a volcano of problems and silos not working together but antagonizing over ‘rules of power’.

Everything is ‘fake’: we work for Growth (but our prices aren’t matching realities); we innovate (but we don’t approve an employee project management software to save them time from meetings, approvals, and bureaucracy); we need better customer service (but we don’t match competence to people and jobs). Even the fabricated (hype or) belief that customers want ever more personalized messaging (the truth is, they avoid it like hell – please check Mobility reports), to the belief that millennials need your “Brand to take a stand”.

The millennials who still can’t make through a volatile job market. Same people, that can’t get access to VC capitals or partnering networks? The segment with the buying power that decreases by 10% every month, due to the expensive cost of living? Are you kidding me?

Companies ‘die’ of complacency

We know what we are doing. We’re experts. We have Leaders that are visionary. We have the best product. We are now digital. We hunt for Growth every day. Cliché phrases. Old-school irrelevant. They show huge resistance to change and “This is NOT how we do things around here”

But the loyalty is dropping across the Western world. The disposable income’s challenges turn Consumers into suspicious beings and they don’t feel Brand value and rewarded (by quality) exchanges.

While industries transform, ordinary people are a bit hostile to the marketing ways of the past, but companies repeat their same plan almost every year. Yes, the same. Because they know best. They have a plan-tick-box in every corporate, marketing, HR activation. They are ticking all boxes to make their line Manager proud…

It sometimes feels that the route to a company’s success has been decided by committees, we read it on some website/media and suddenly applies for all Brands everywhere. All insurance propositions do this. All cars advertise on these channels. All hotels should have a travel blogger. All supermarkets do price incentives’ schemes (while other supermarkets transform with self-driving units!!!). Banks should connect to youth …or better, invest in #fintech!!!! Ha, ha, ha.