#1 Strategy First

Marketers can expect to face budget cuts, as their brands face escalating input costs and supply chain shortages without the usual increase in demand. Successful marketers will refuse to pivot and adjust their tactics to achieve short-term relief without first reflecting on a consumer-centered marketing strategy that finds new creative avenues of activating demand.

To switch focus from business requirements to customer obligations aligns strategies across the organization with the consumer as the guiding principle — its North Star. Tactical responses are then always in sync with a consumer-centered holistic growth strategy, ensuring brand responses encompass consumer empathy and embrace new business opportunities.

Growth begins and ends with one thing: the consumer. In any situation, when the tide is high or low, the goal is to understand the needs consumers have and the challenges they’re facing. This enables you to turn them into opportunities for your brand.”

Catherine Gibson, Head of Global Sales, Consumer Insights & Growth Activation at GfK

The basic marketing best practice holds true even during a time of stagflation: strategy first, tactics only in alignment with this strategy.