Futures as a behaviour not a project

What do pumping milk and car innovation have in common? Why can brands we'd never heard of like JAECOO UK and BYD disrupt the car market and Momcozy and Hegen the baby bottle market?

Because consumers are no longer (just) loyal to legacy brands, they’re loyal to relevance.

We see are lower barriers to entry, tech platforms expanding awareness and desire, and supply chains democratising innovation.

Brands that use consumer-first disruption and demonstrate cultural fluency are likely to appeal to an emerging cohort who value hacks and discovery alongside brand equity, heritage, science and engineering.

The future is not unchartered. Businesses could have seen this coming if they had time to put their heads above the parapet and scan the horizon every 6 months for current pressures and imminent trends. By dovetailing this with cultural and ethnographic insight, businesses have a head start on what's next.

The future is predictable. (Much of it).

Momcozy’s disruption of the babycare market came from focussing on the user experience of modern mums, delivered through tech, beauty and lifestyle credentials. Breastfeeding mums didn't want to sit still holding a breastpump which looked like it was designed in their mum's time while precious time sapped away. They didn't want to be hindered by the choices they had made for their baby, and they didn't want to feel unglamorous. Momcozy and many other brands recognised this.

It quickly established penetration through new routes to market through strong social media support, e-commerce, strong retail partnerships and product recognition and awards.

The playing field is expanding from expert and science-led to effective and emotionally resonant brands which address modern parenting challenges.

Focussing on futures that are predictable can help to identify potential shifts and challenge current assumptions about what’s important in your category to reveal future possibilities. Identifying pain points that exist today, help to sharpen future propositions.

A focussed approach to futures is what matters, and this should be done regularly, not every 5 years. Focus on little and often rather than big bang initiatives. Create futures underpinned by urgency, predictability and impact, with clear jobs to be done and filtered by strategic priorities.