FOLLOW THE MONEY
Finding Growth in Uncomfortable Places
By Kantar Consulting — January, 2018
Growth is simple, but it isn’t easy. It’s simple because the complete answer to the question of growth is to follow
the money, or keep connected with demand. It isn’t easy because going forward, following the money means doing
business in uncomfortable places.
Growth has slowed for many companies, but growth hasn’t gone away. Growth has shifted. Companies must get
comfortable doing business in places that require new knowledge, processes and skills. This is the imperative animating
the commitment of Kantar Consulting to switch on growth for clients.
Shifts in demand are not new. But this time, shifts in demand are part of an historic pivot in the marketplace. Change
is more fundamental, much faster and less forgiving. Conventional rules of growth no longer work, especially those of
scale, value and influence.
SCALE
Internet entrepreneur and VC Joe Kraus summed it up best: “The 20th century mass production world was about
dozens of markets of millions of people. The 21st century is all about millions of markets of dozens of people.” Growth
will come from scaling small niches—particularly niches of one—into big brands, and this will take new skills like reverse
segmentation to pull together lots of small things rather than breaking one big thing apart.
VALUE
In the Kantar Consulting Global MONITOR, nine in ten consumers worldwide put a higher priority on experiences
than on possessions. This has amped up with immersive technologies. One key lesson from Amazon, Tencent and
Alibaba is that they don’t retail so much as they deliver an experience. Companies must reframe brand and category
management as experience management, with the product or service as just one element, albeit critical, in delivering
an experience.
INFLUENCE
The decision journey is being taken over by technology. With the IoT, every object will have sensors that collect data for
algorithms, which will align real-time options with a profile or a set of decision rules to make purchases, with consumers
barely involved if at all. Marketers must learn to advertise to algorithms, although the digital paradox is that analog
becomes more important because the way to get outside of algorithms is for consumers to ask directly for a brand.
Companies must tackle growth with a focus on whole demand, from strategy to activation, connecting marketing and
sales. The marketing and sales divide is a barrier to growth. The creation and conversion of demand is strategic at every
point. There are five commercial principles of whole demand:
WIDE-ANGLE
LENS
Seeing the whole
marketplace,
especially the
future ahead.
HUMAN-CENTRIC
Focusing on the
whole person,
especially lifestyles
not just consuming.
OPTIMIZING
VALUE
Turning the whole
enterprise into an
engine that unlocks
power for growth.
LEARNING-OBSESSED
Building a whole
understanding
using rapid,
smart systems.
EXPERIENCE-CENTRIC
Centering the
whole value
proposition on
experience.
Finding growth in uncomfortable places isn’t easy, but it can be accomplished through a commitment to the principles of whole demand. That begins with the simplest of ideas: follow the money.
Read the full Follow the Money report (pdf, 5Mb).