We are all consumers of someone else's business, every day we make an unconscious bias in our decision to shop with one company/brand over another.  

With HoF, Debenhams, John Lewis, M&S, Sears, Nordstrom and no doubt others in 2023 finally succumbing to the reality that simply stacking the sales floor with the same old same old doesn't quite cut it in today's digital and socially savvy multi-channel world what lessons can/should be learnt as we slide into 2023?

Business transformation initiatives shouldn't start with being about digital, channels, tech, Apps, websites, or other fixed mindset stuff. The entire process should be about being consumer centric, then working out how you can add value by leveraging what you currently have to build the transformation bridges to the new future.

What I mean by this is that every single business I've been called into when dealing with a turnaround were on a race to the bottom because they lost focus on the core reason 'why' consumers previously chose to shop with them and now prefer a competitor.

One common aspect of all these businesses is they forgot to 'listen' to the changes in consumer behaviour and clung onto how things have always been.

The definition of what we consider as “marketing” is changing and becoming broader. No longer is it just about branding and advertising, marketers must work together with other departments to focus on building great customer experiences and engaging customers for long-term relationships. 

Company culture and brand are now merging and some experts already consider them to be synonymous. To put it another way, your branding and content marketing strategy can’t be separated from your company culture as a whole.

Employees who work in a trust-based company culture are 8x more likely to say they’re proud to share where they work, which helps to promote the company brand.

However, less than half of the employees surveyed for a global study say they have “a great deal of trust” in the company they work for. 

For brands to succeed in the new era of influencer marketing, where their advocates are their own employees rather than celebrities and social media personalities, it’s vital to build this culture of trust.