After the tumultuous year that was 2020, business owners and brand strategists have been racing to catch up with the curve. It’s now more important than ever to position your service or product skilfully in a highly competitive market. Here are some strategies that brands are employing to stay dynamic and relevant in 2021.
1. A focus on ethical and sustainable practice
Surveys show that consumers, especially Millennials and Gen Z, are increasingly influenced in their shopping choices by sustainably-focused marketing. They are willing to pay more for goods that are environmentally sound, and produced by companies that employ fair working practices.
However, consumers are savvy about ‘greenwashing’, and firms will need to go beyond box-ticking exercises and virtue signalling to maintain a credible market position. Being transparent about supply chains with facts and figures, and honest about areas that need improving, will go a lot further than empty marketing phrases.
2. A focus on the local and personal
Focusing on small steps that everyone can take is more effective than generating a lot of guilt, gloom, and doom about the future of the planet. Rather than ask customers to make big sacrifices, focus on simple schemes that benefit local communities in the real world, and where possible source raw materials from local suppliers.
3. Be ready for the big bounce back
This might seem counter-intuitive to previous advice, but some commentators are predicting a post-lockdown ‘roaring twenties’, similar to that experienced after the end of World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic of the 20th century. There is a pent-up appetite for fun, freedom, and exuberance out there, for brands who are willing to catch the wave.
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