Frequent check-ins with your customers or clients will help your brand stay ahead of the curve as market conditions fluctuate.
The current economic climate presents ongoing challenges for both B2B and B2C brands—from supply chain volatility to the rising cost of goods and services. At the same time, it’s becoming harder to anticipate how consumers will respond to pricing changes and evolving product availability.
What we do know: Consumers are looking for honest communication about how brands are adapting. They want transparency around product availability, pricing, and the actions companies are taking to minimize disruptions—whether that’s absorbing extra costs, improving supply chain resilience, or prioritizing customer needs in new ways.
In a market that continues to shift, brands must stay closely attuned to customer priorities and be ready to adjust strategy in real time.
Below are 10 strategic areas—and key questions—to help keep your brand ahead of the curve:
1. Brand Positioning
Is your brand speaking to consumer priorities, are you providing benefits that are relevant to their lives?
2. Price Optimization
Are your products priced competitively, do you have options that consumers feel provide value, and are you maximizing revenue potential?
3. Product Optimization
Do you have the right set of products that meet consumer needs today? Should you reduce or add SKU’s to ensure you have the right portfolio to meet consumer needs?
4. Customer Journey
How has the buying process for your brand changed, and are you connecting with consumers using the right touchpoints and messages at key moments?
5. Omni-Channel
Are you positioned well to be competitive in any channel, and how are you coordinating the buying process across channels?
6. Digital Discovery and AI Visibility
As consumers increasingly rely on AI tools, search, and recommendation engines to guide their purchase decisions, how discoverable is your brand in these environments? Are your digital assets optimized to surface in AI-powered and voice-driven search?
7. Innovation Pipeline
Is your pipeline designed to meet new consumer realities? Do you need to quickly move new products into your pipeline to better meet demand?
8. Value Proposition
How is your brand positioned against today’s financially constrained consumers? How are they evaluating the price/value equation for your brand, and what can you do to ensure they see your brand as the best choice for the money?
9. Brand Communication
Are you speaking to your customers in a way that reflects their current realities—financial, emotional, and cultural? Are your messages resonating across segments, or do they need to be adapted? Build in more frequent feedback loops so you can stay in sync with shifting needs and expectations.
10. Customer Experience and Service
How can you enhance these areas to address increased stress and fear among customers? Are you using the right channels to make it easy for consumers to connect with you, and if not, in what ways can you improve?
At times of uncertainty, it’s critical that brands continue to check in with their customers to keep ahead of changing priorities and adjust strategies.
Want to discuss more about how to check in with your customers on these brand issues?
