In a constantly changing environment, knowing how to adapt and grow has become a strategic necessity for companies, which must react by redesigning their strategy to achieve profitable growth, long-term growth that meets the interests and needs of their interest groups and society in general.
1. Grow by increasing market share.
A company has three options to handle the situation when its competitors lower prices: maintain its prices by introducing improvements in the product; offer discounts to large customers who push for a price reduction; and lower their prices for all customers.
2. Grow by fostering the commitment of customers and other stakeholders.
The cost of losing customers and having to replace them is too high, so we must learn to keep them. To achieve this, the best thing is to amaze them, turn them into followers and prescribers of our products.
The company must aspire for the client to go through the phases of: satisfied client, committed client, prescriber client, co-creator client and owner client.
To achieve this, a product must be significantly better than those offered in its category by the competition. All company personnel must show special interest in the client and respond quickly and thoroughly to everything they demand. The company must be generous when it comes to returns or providing advice to its customers.
It is our committed customers that we must focus on when planning our offering in the future, since we already know them. We must ask ourselves what else we can do for our clients, what other needs do they have that we can satisfy.
A committed and loyal client of a company will probably agree to become your prescriber, even if we do not ask for it expressly. A prescribing client could even become a co-creator. It would be the type of customer who wants to get involved to help improve the products, services, advertising and other aspects of the company.
To achieve the success of the company we must also ensure that employees evolve. They must go from being mere disinterested fill workers to passive contributors and ultimately employee ambassadors.
3. Grow by developing a powerful brand.
We must distinguish between three independent brand concepts: brand integrity, brand identity, and brand image.
Planning must start with brand integrity, since it is the phase in which the company objectively assesses what it is able to offer satisfactorily to its customers and target audience. Brand integrity is the company’s promise of value and is essential to achieving customer trust. Starting from this base, you can go on to develop the brand identity, that is, define how the company wants others to perceive it. The next step is to decide the brand image of the company or, in other words, define how it differs from its competitors. If it does not differ significantly, it will go unnoticed by a competitor who which does differ from the rest.
4. Grow innovating in products, services and experiences.
How much has your company innovated in the last five years? Has a new product or service been launched? If so, were they relevant or minor products? Has the company invented new marketing techniques to more effectively access the audience it serves?
Not innovating means stagnating. A company that does not innovate becomes outdated for its customers, distributors and suppliers.
Most companies will not be able to achieve permanent innovation, but they will still need to make some changes in their products, services, prices, distribution and promotion. They all need to train some of their employees not only to think outside the box, but also to feel free to try until they fail. As we already know, punishing those who fail is the certain death of innovation.