Does your business play where the puck is? Or where it’s going to be?
At a recent marketing and communications conference in Washington, DC, this question was asked several times of a captivated and inspired audience. Speaker Sonny Ganguly, CMO of WeddingWire, a category leader in online wedding planning, had all of us nodding and bobbing and bouncing our heads in enthusiastic agreement. Wow. Who knew a Wayne Gretzky hockey quote would have such relevance to marketing and brand strategy?
Brands that Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail
As it turns out, the full quote, “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be,” has been a mantra at WeddingWire for years. The point Sonny so eloquently made is that brands need to stay ahead of the game or they will get left behind. Simply put, invest in the future. Inadequate research and planning and failure to predict market changes will result in losses for your brands. He gave a few examples of brands hurt by their poor planning.
Kodak was reluctant to jump into the digital photography market even though it had developed the technology long before others. By the time they decided to market their digital products, users had already moved on to mobile phone cameras. MySpace is another example. MySpace failed to see what Facebook did – that real identity and relationships matter. They ultimately sold for a fraction of the billions they were once worth.
Bottoms Up to Success?
An example I can’t help but think of is in adult beverage. I’ve seen it time and again – a brand comes out with a new variant that does exceedingly well and suddenly every competitor has their own version of that variant hitting the market. Don’t you want to stay ahead of the curve? Be the one that everyone wants to copy? Get the largest share of the market?
The Ultimate Goal
At The Pert Group we understand the quickly evolving market and the need for you to stay on top. Our skilled team of researchers and marketing consultants will work with you to make sure what happened to Kodak, MySpace and countless other brands does not happen to yours. How? Our comprehensive approach guides you through the lifecycle of your business, from innovation to brand positioning and evaluating brand performance. Let’s talk about how we can make sure your business strategy results in the ultimate hat trick.