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Reaping The Whirlwind In 2022

 

By Ray Chelstowski / Hilton Barbour

The past year has been a whirlwind for every business and their ability to adapt and adjust in the moment often dictated their ability to ride out the storm.

Retail is a category that has possibly been changed forever.

Like many sectors the biggest change was an unprecedented acceleration of (all things) digital. The pandemic served as an accelerant for some projects that had languished or hadn’t had the full-throated commitment of the organization. In many cases, fast-tracking solid three-year growth plans in under six months. From direct-to-consumer brands setting up pop-up shops to the rebirth of “store-within-a-store," the industry continues to dramatically transform.

In 2022, look for these types of bold marketing tactics to continue—and get even better.

Technology has enabled much of this 18-month evolution but to meet the challenges of 2022 smart marketers are beginning to realize that they don’t need more technology.

They need technology that solves more urgent problems.

Evolving consumer habits, partially driven by the yo-yo of Covid-related restrictions and the uncertainty of global supply-chain, are fueling new channels for discovery and opening avenues for more purchase opportunities. The eternal challenge for brands and retailers is to anticipate their consumers’ changing routine and position themselves at the forefront. What is already evident is they will need to meet heightened demands of transparency and reliability, leverage social listening to stay ahead of trending products and personalities, and thoroughly re-examine their targeting playbooks.

At Kognitiv, we believe that you can stay several steps ahead of your customers next move and make predictive strategic engagements that enhances loyalty, drives more commerce, and impacts Customer Lifetime Value. The secret is peer-to-peer collaboration coupled with the insights from our SmartJourney methodology.

The one-two punch is that, firstly, SmartJourney uniquely identifies the most important customer groups in your existing business and the money you’re leaving on the table by poorly targeting or poorly fulfilling their needs. The Kognitiv platform then puts you squarely inside a thriving ecosystem where you can collaborate with non-competitive brands to create new value to tackle those evolving consumer needs. That collaboration accelerates your ability to adapt to your consumers while giving you the confidence of knowing you’re targeting the audiences with the most growth potential for you.

2022 won’t be easy for brands that aren’t open to further change - and more technology won’t be what catapults them forward to where their customer has just moved. Ultimately, it’s all about the human connection that a brand can establish with their most loyal customers and the technology that makes that happen in a seamless and efficient way.

In 2022, brands that purposefully create that adaptability will have a different kind of whirlwind year.

And reap an entirely different set of outcomes.

ray.chelstowski@kognitiv.com

hilton.barbour@kognitiv.com

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