As an industry, we like to talk and think about the next big thing.  The new product, the new retail format, the disruptive market entrant.  The temptation becomes even greater at the time of year for resolutions.  But the best way to a successful 2018 is to focus on the same big things.   The things that have always mattered.  The things that make the difference between the winners and losers in our industry, year after year. Here’s three.

First, understand the rules of usage occasions.  If you are in food, that means understanding breakfast, quick lunch at home, weekday evening meal, Sunday lunch, and so on.  Know their size and value but most importantly know what the rules are, which successful products or services obey.  So for quick lunch at home, the rules might include “takes less than a minute to prepare”, “costs less than £1”, “effortless to clear up” and “long life”.  Sometimes companies start by thinking about what their know-how and equipment can make, sometimes they even convince themselves the rules can be broken to accommodate that new idea.  They can’t.  The only way is to understand the rules, then work out what you might offer that plays to those rules.

Second, practice shopper realism.  Know how shoppers allocate attention, how their attention is attracted, how they arrive at their decisions and choices.  Companies are investing more and more into this understanding.  It is critical for effective packaging, merchandising, Point of Sale and promotions.  Take packaging.  It is still common for it to be judged in isolation, perhaps on a big screen or board.  But the only right way is to consider the pack in the context of many competing packs on shelf.  Mindful of a shopper who cares a lot less than us, who is willing to commit limited time and energy into finding our pack, then processing the messages we want to get across.  Online is no different.  20 years in, and we still often see brand images that are clearly not optimised for the online shopper.  For instance, pack size being hard to judge or key messages hard to read .

Finally, 360 degree commercial planning. Getting products or activities right for consumers, shoppers but also Retailers and their Suppliers, isn’t as simple as it may appear.  There’s little chance of it working without thoughtful, cross functional planning.  For example, there’s no sense in finalising for a new product launch, the pack size, recommended price and margin aspiration, only to discover later that aggressive promotion will be required to get the necessary trial and repeat.  That sounds incredibly obvious and indeed there are normally plenty of people in the organisation with the necessary knowledge.  But too often the right people don’t join up on a plan early enough.  Perhaps that is the most important resolution for 2018.  Not to be involved in any activity which we could look back on later and say “we didn’t plan that carefully as a team”.

Understand the rules of the occasion.  Practice shopper reality.  Engage early in 360 degree commercial planning.  The same old things, but key to winning in 2018.