Brands Innovate and Reposition: Study
Innovation and repositioning are enabling brands to remain competitive, according to a new study.
Some 70% of marketers launched new innovations or line extensions, while 44% also repositioned their brand this year, according to the first annual survey of marketing trends by Next Level Strategic Marketing Group.
The top regret was not investing more in understanding their customers.
Other findings include:
*62% deployed new marketing initiatives
*56% launched a new advertising campaign
*55% redesigned their packaging
*28% said they would have invested more effort in learning what motivates and influences their customers
*21% said they wished they had been less dependent on “tried and true” marketing tactics and found more creative ways to reach their audience
*17% would have focused more effort on the core base business instead of innovation
“Marketing executives who repositioned their brands or launched new ad campaigns told us that they did so for a number of reasons—to revitalize a brand’s image that was becoming outdated or losing relevance with consumers, to differentiate the brand more clearly from others in the company’s portfolio, or to support an on-going strategy to stay competitive,” said Heidi Krauss, director of Next Level SMG, and creator of the firm’s survey.
Not surprisingly, marketers intend to maintain a strong emphasis on innovation next year:
*64% plan to develop or launch new innovation or line extensions
*63% plan to launch new marketing initiatives (i.e. promotions, public relations campaigns, loyalty programs)
*53% plan to launch a new advertising campaign
*38% are looking to enhance or redesign their product
*30% anticipate the need for repositioning
*28% will want to do a packaging redesign
*52% think that they have the right number of brands to adequately cover the market
*17% think they have too few brands
*31% think they have too many brands
Next Level SMG fielded its Brand Strategy Trends Survey in October. The survey was sent to more than 800 senior marketing executives via email.
