Articles

Where Should Brands Go Next?

It’s around the corner.

Your future.
Brands wake up.
Brands rise.
Brands find you next new.

You’ve been shut down.
You’ve been locked out.
You’ve been isolated.
You’ve pushed your team to the four corners.
You’re more Zoom than conference room.
Your customers don’t remember you.

It’s not you. It’s them.

They’re too busy looking for toilet paper.
They’re too busy lining up for food.
They’re too busy trying to figure out why next day Prime is now 4-6 weeks away.
They’re too busy trying to WFH.
They’re too busy updating their LinkedIn profile.
They’re now the Vice Principal, the homeroom teacher and the librarian.
They’re too busy being furloughed.

Where should brands go?

Build on what you were faced with when the pandemic came.
Be like the local sushi chef.
The one place where you could never get a seat.
No reservations for the next few months.
Be like the local sushi chef who needed his next now.
They’re now offering pickup (with social distancing).
They’re now offering free delivery.
They’re now offering the ingredients.
They’re now offering the recipe.
They’re now willing to teach you how to make sushi online.
They’re now offering virtual hang outs and sushi chef chats.

They went from product to new services to new products.

They went direct to diners.
They went to online teaching.
They went to subscription models (weekly sashimi, anyone?).
The went from “check us out” to “let us come to you.”
They went from “it’s best here” to “it’s best if you do business with us.”
They went from an open kitchen concept to an online learning platform.
They went from buying tuna at the market to building an entirely new marketplace online.
They went from a waiting list to an email list.
They went from menus to Shopify.

This sushi place just figured out a handful of new business models in the blink of an eye.

This sushi place better embrace, engage and pursue these new business models when the lights come back on.
That’s where your brand should go next.

Your brand should go everywhere.

Because if your brand isn’t everywhere, how will it connect?
This is what consumers are looking for.
This is what humanity is looking for.

Connections.

More connections.
Make connections.
Make your connections count.

I’m counting on you.

I wrote this piece for the Canadian Marketing Association. You can view the original article right here: Where should brands go next? Your brand should go everywhere.

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Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.