What is your 4 minute mile in 2016?
In the 1940’s the record time for running a mile was 4.01 minutes. The record had stood for 9 years. The conventional wisdom was that the human body was simply not capable of running a sub 4 minute mile. The ‘experts’ thought it was impossible. And dangerous.
Then on May 6th 1954 Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute barrier, running the distance in 3:59:40. Over the next 4 years, 17 more runners went under 4 minutes. A total of 18 runners had achieved what was considered to be impossible 4 years earlier. Now the mile record stands at 3:43.
There are a few lessons from this, but we think you can boil it down to 3 key things. Firstly, the importance of believing you can do something, even if it feels hard. Secondly, the importance of actually doing it. The biggest thing Roger Bannister did was prove to everyone else it could be done. Thirdly, is the power of being the first mover. Most of you will have heard of Roger Bannister. But how many of you have heard of John Landy, who broke Bannister’s record on 21st June 1954 – 7 weeks later? Probably not many of you.
Why are we talking about this? Well in many of our blogs in 2015 we’ve talked about challenging the conventional wisdom in our industry. Not just doing things because we have always done them. Not just following the implicit ‘rules’ that govern a lot of activities – because the ‘rules’ can change. Big stores were better, until they weren’t. More range was better, until it wasn’t. People wouldn’t buy fresh food online, until they did.
If you do what you have always done, you will get the results you have always got. And in a market where growth is hard to come by, those results may not be good enough. So our respectful…challenge to everyone who reads the blog is to identify and then do, at least one thing, in 2016, that breaks the rules. To do something differently – something that your competitors won’t be doing.
So, what could some of these things be?
Promotions. What if you developed and ran one or two added value promotions and offered shoppers an incentive that wasn’t a price discount? What if you ran a promotional activity that rewarded loyalty and repeat purchasing rather than encouraged promiscuity?
Launching NPD. What if you looked to extend the launch window and not just rely on a 2-3 week burst of activity? What if you focused as much attention on securing the second and third purchase as the first?
Layout & Merchandising. What if you focused less energy on the ‘decision tree’ and more energy on making the shelf layout as simple and intuitive as possible? What if you designed executions that can be rolled out to hundreds of stores not ones that look great in only one?
Proposition & Messaging. What if you only focused on one message for your brand (or category or store) in 2016? Not telling shoppers everything, but the most important thing. And then relentlessly reinforced that message. We can guarantee that you will get bored before shoppers will.
Design. What if you took 3 visual elements off the front of your pack? Would shoppers even notice? Not many. Would more shoppers see and engage with your brand? Probably.
Innovation. What if you took your best selling SKU and put it in as many relevant formats and pack sizes as possible. What if you didn’t launch a single new flavour or variant?
We know it is easy for people like us to write stuff like this down. We know it is much harder to actually do it. But remember that everything you find easy in life, you once found hard. Breaking the 4 minute mile was hard. Actually most people thought it was impossible. Until someone did it. Then a lot of other people started doing it.
What is your 4 minute mile for 2016?
This is our last blog of 2015. Have a great Xmas & New Year. Speak to you in January.