Innovative businesses can make exceptional gains even amid the prevailing economic turmoil, writes Sherine Nasr The 21st century consumer has got it all, and it is up to businesses to meet ever-growing demands and expectations. In a world shaped by a highly demanding consumer, there is little room for non-conventional trends. However, as the market shrinks and competition booms, the only businesses likely to survive are only those which realise that the consumer is more important than their product or service. As such, big brands frequently send their staff out to shop among customers to find out what they think, what they like and which products they seem to care about. "A consumer's perspective is definitely much broader than that of the business. So defining the market in the way a customer likes is more successful than simply thinking in terms of how to sell more products," said Peter Fisk, the globally recognised marketing expert and author of Genius Marketing, while on a recent visit to Cairo to attend the 360 Consumer Conference and meet with senior marketers and CEOs to discuss ways to unlock growth potentials in these most challenging times. The 360 Consumer Conference is one of a series of conferences organised worldwide by Nielsen, a global information and media company, active in more than 100 countries. During the Cairo event, it became clear that consumers, who now have the luxury of multiple choices, will not remain loyal to any one brand unless it fulfils an innermost desire for them. According to Fisk, traditional approaches to sales improvement -- including campaigns and a reduction of production costs -- only provide temporary solution, but spell failure on the long run. "Winners will be those people who can design their businesses from outside in, and not the other way round. Customers expect businesses to do things differently and more personally and they will stick to the more innovative and personalised products," said Fisk. Therefore today it is all about innovation, not imitation. Nielsen's studies have shown that true innovation has greater success than imitated products or line extensions. According to the studies, innovative businesses make more profits and have more lasting advantages. It is worth noting perhaps that among the top 20 innovations of the 20th century are frozen food, plastic bottles, disposable nappies and razors, artificial sweeteners and sanitary products. The list of other innovations continues -- and indicates to a large measure just how innovative products have gone from being inventions to becoming absolute consumer necessities. "A successful manufacturer, therefore, needs to do two things: develop a relevant innovation, and execute it perfectly," said Jonathan Banks, business insight director at Nielsen. One of Nielsen's surveys sampled 5,412 Egyptian respondents to examine how receptive Egyptian consumers are to innovations. Surprisingly, 30 per cent of respondents said they enjoy staying ahead of the game, are willing to try new products out and will frequently inform others of their existence. On the other hand 47 per cent will not go out of their way to try new products available on the market. The remaining 23 per cent do not generally waste time trying to keep up with new things: they know what they like. Meanwhile, with the advent of the Internet, consumer trends have witnessed a drastic change. Microsoft Egypt Managing Director Karim Ramadan underlined that there are 1.1 billion PC users worldwide. "PC users are younger in age, more innovative and more open to try new things, and will grow bigger in numbers and expectations," Ramadan said, adding that Microsoft Egypt has not to date felt any negative impact in spite of the current financial crisis, and that it is moving full-sail ahead. According to Ramadan, the web is fast becoming an extremely powerful tool in Egypt, as well as in other parts of the world. As a matter of fact, the web has started to shape the future of advertising and marketing not only in Egypt but also worldwide. "Online advertisement is becoming a very effective tool. Egypt is the fourth largest country in its use of online ads in the region," said Google Egypt's Wael Fakharani. Furthermore, he underlined that there are at least one million Egyptians on Facebook. "There are 10 million Egyptians online, representing at least 80 per cent of the target customer of any business," added Fakharani, explaining that Egyptians access the Internet to search for and share information, conduct e-commerce and communicate. As such online campaigns can no doubt begin to play an even more crucial role in determining the future of a product or a service. "Online campaigns can be created in less than 10 minutes. They are run, modified and circulated instantly around the world 24/7. Campaigners can interact with local and international customers, acquire customers online and receive comments," said Fakharani. Over the past 10 years, the industry of Internet advertisement worldwide has grown by 101 per cent from $100 billion to $201 billion. Further growth is expected as the number of hours spent online per month rapidly grows. In 2003, a person would spend 11 hours per month online, increasing to 16 hours per month in 2007, and expected to reach 32 per month in 2012. "Internet should thus be on the agenda of any marketing policy," said Fakharani.
