The wheel of fortune spinning faster has no consequence unless it settles on your desired outcome.
Yes, Product Innovation is outpacing change in customer behavior more often. But what is it to you if you can’t keep up balancing the ‘where’ of survival and ‘now’ of growth? Just because the ‘why’ is adaptable, sometimes it becomes a bit-of-a-stretch. Product portfolios and new verticals shouldn’t be incidental, but fundamental.
Over its lifetime, your brand will bet on many product innovations and create multiple verticals. To have a fair chance at success with any of them you must start building strong brand fundamentals - Who am I? Why am I here? And, try not to fix your answers on the most popular recent trend or success. It will pass and sooner than you think.
In the past 10 years fundamentals of change have evolved.
Market Share Volatility
Fortune 500 company turnover rate increased from 22% to 31% per decade.
Market leadership position changes occurred 2.3x more frequently in 2018-2023 vs. 2013-2018.
"Category king" longevity decreased from 7+ years to under 4 years.
Consumer Packaged Goods
New product introduction success rate increased from 15% to 25%.
Product reformulation frequency doubled in food and beverage categories.
Package redesign cycles shortened from 2 years to 10 months on average.
Patent Metrics
Global patent applications reached 3.3 million in 2023, up from 2.9 million in 2019.
Patent grant time has decreased by an average of 22% across major patent offices.
Cross-industry patent citations have increased by 35% over the past decade, indicating more knowledge spillovers.
Product Lifecycle Compression
Smartphone model release cycles shortened from 12-16 months to 9-12 months.
Fashion "micro-seasons" expanded from 4 traditional seasons to 50+ mini-collections annually.
Automotive model refreshes accelerated from 6-7 years to 3-4 years for major updates.
Innovation Investment
Global R&D spending reached $2.4 trillion in 2023, representing 2.5% of global GDP.
Corporate venture capital deals increased by 46% between 2019-2023.
Product development timeframes decreased by 30-40% across consumer sectors.
Industry Convergence Metrics
Cross-industry acquisitions increased by 38% since 2019.
Non-traditional competitor entry affected 23% more product categories.
Industry boundary-spanning patents increased by 47%.
Startup Impact
Unicorn formation rate increased by 3x since 2016.
Time to $100M revenue decreased from 7-8 years to 4-5 years for top-performing startups.
Corporate innovation adoption from startups increased by 58%.
Future gazing outside the usual tunnel vision of stiff category definitions and performance tracker templates helps. Though the most common hack still - look around and copy a success formula from near or far. Or, let's jump on this new wave too. It is tempting but a band-aid solution or an instant pain-relief pill at best. Ofcourse we’ve all been there, on the infinite staircase of Quarter-to-Quarter push and pull. But this is not the way.
Swayed by innovation around thus copy-and-conquer - wasn't the secret recipe of the 100 year old brand, TVS Motor Company which led itself from a closure in 1990 to becoming the only two wheeler company in the world to win The Deming Prize or for that matter claiming a leading e-bike in Switzerland, besides accumulating so many other achievements in a highly competitive category globally.
"The most dangerous phrase in the language is, we've always done it this way."
- Grace Hopper
The ART OF WAR is under RESET
There are board games and then there are boardroom games. 15 years back, bespoke WAR-GAMES used to be a thing with BIG clients. Played every year with gusto, we’d form a combined force of client and agency top brass and split them into teams. These teams would spend over 2-3 days building strategies as if they were our competitors trying to bring down our house of cards. On the final day we’d collate and present it to the Board and receive their wisdom and will on the stickiest of turfs.
Thinking of WAR-GAMES now would not be very relevant today because you can’t identify your competition as clearly as you could a decade earlier.
Open AI didn’t see DeepSeek coming. Global FMCG majors didn’t feel Patanjali rising.
In the 4th largest sector in India, traditionally dominated by majors like Hindustan Unilever, Nestle, P&G, Marico, Britannia, ITC among others, Patanjali, founded in 2006 rose fast and furious as a wake up call to their dominion. Patanjali today is well over a billion dollar (USD) player in annual revenues.
In a similar territory, Sri Sri Tattva (founded in 2003) is still a humble achievement, though it is clear about itself too. Its food products are sold through online marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, and BigBasket. The brand has also partnered with Nykaa for personal care products, and 1mg and MedLife for ayurvedic and other healthcare products.
Next up for Patanjali is probably Khadi, disrupting the indigenous textiles & apparel sector which should genuinely worry FabIndia or KVIC. The brand's flex is the deep and broad Indian Belief System, allowing them to toggle undeterred between food and haircare, copper-ware and baby care, and so on. I'd say their brand fundamentals are strong and clear.
Patanjali's MNC competitors believe its success is owed largely to the "Desi-brigade" as a customer segment or "Swadeshi" (Made in India/Vocal for local) as a sentiment. What do you think? Speaking of Desi - have you checked out the MAKAIBARI Tea Outlets at the Kolkata International Airport? What about the "Biswa Bangla" outlet?
Unlike the fore-runners of Indian Audio devices growth story (BOAT & ZEBRONICS), the brands mentioned above are all about dialing up to their own why and not about hitching a ride on a general lifestyle / trend boat. For one, what worked for NOISE in the wearables surge, didn't quite work out as well for BOAT.
The intent of Zara-fication in portfolio may turn into a "Big-Bazaar" distress.
When a JBL sits next to their product on flipkart at the same price point, both of these brands go numb. Neither BOAT, nor ZEBRONICS have any differentiation to claim in their own name on sound, nor even a cent for every dollar of revenue on R&D. Though both have big product portfolios built on their supposedly audio experience. Dolby Atmos signaling is just another recent trend in the category, which is even available with GOVO. And I wouldn't be surprised if the name GOVO doesn't ring a bell. On Flipkart’s audio & video section, you’ll see over 2400 names, out of which 422 come under the “fAssured” classification. Under Speakers you will find 180 “fAssured” brands with 3357 products to browse through.
Fundamentals are key. And its not about deriding the effort which went into building names like BOAT [Annual Revenue ('23-24) ~ INR 3103 Cr] and ZEBRONICS [Annual Revenue [Annual Revenue '23-'24) ~ INR 1300 Cr] in the Home/Personal Audio space. Albeit, in this low margin (2-5%) category, bleeding price competition, I don't see a better marketing and product genius than NOISE. The Khatri brothers are channeling their brand founded in 2014 stronger than a Boat or Zebronics in my opinion. Their acquisition by TATA's Titan company in 2022 (for wearables synergy) followed by a strategic partnership with BOSE ($ 10Mn funding) to create premium audio products, with sound technologies could well be worth each name.
Whatever sails your boat today is not a strategy for the faster spinning wheel of fortune. It is a one way ticket to get lost.
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