Leadership vs. Assumption.
Are You Solving the Right Problem?
There’s a crucial question every business leader must ask in today’s fast-shifting marketplace "are we truly solving a real problem or simply responding to surface trends with costly illusions of innovation?"
The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute analysed case studies and survey responses from 569 brand managers, finding that the most common trigger for redesigns is the belief that a brand looks outdated. However, without clear evidence of changing consumer needs, redesigns based on surface-level trends frequently fail to deliver.
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo both learned the hard way. Their attempts to follow the health trend with Coke Life and Pepsi Next failed, not because consumers didn’t care about health, but because the companies misread the type of health consumers actually wanted. The market had already moved toward sparkling water, kombucha and clean-label drinks. The redesigns weren’t bad, they just didn’t solve the right problem.
