Am I (business) still Relevant?
What according to you is the biggest problem for a business in today's highly competitive industries and businesses? Is it hustling to remain profitable? Is it constantly churning R&D expenses to come up with new innovative products? Is it trying to cut costs to cater to a larger audience? Well, yes and no. The biggest problem statement is actually an extension of these binary questions.
The biggest problem one business has to tackle today is how does it stay RELEVANT to the audience.
The core of relevance, according to me, comes from staying in touch with your target audience rather than just staying ahead of your competition in isolation. Many companies end up making the mistake of assuming that being the first mover would always make them relevant to their audience. Even the biggest of companies fall prey to the trap of relevance, either due to arrogance, or due to ignorance of the shifting trends in the industry. Take, Blackberry for example, the go-to high security device for the high end smartphone of the planet. It took the upcoming trend of Android and iOS phones as a passing fad, blissfully basking in its own arrogance of assuming its people will stick to it despite the over-the-table upgraded features provided in the new devices. It eventually caught up with the wind of the shifting trend, only to release sub par devices, which not only degraded its premium status, but also lost the company its most loyal consumers. And, as Indians, we all know the ill-fated 'Nokia' story.
We, the millennial generation, live in a world of instant gratification. This is only possible through technology. And thus digitization essentially becomes one of the aspects of staying relevant in consumer facing industries. You want to buy something, it arrives the next day at your home (Amazon Prime). You want to eat something, it arrives within one hour (Swiggy, Zomato, etc), you want a service to be done, it arrives at your scheduled time (Urbanclap), You want to book a travel, flights, hotels, everything is there at the palm of your hand (Make My Trip, Yatra, OYO). What even is 'cash' when you have Google Pay and PayTM!
This is all an interconnected Ecosystem. Where, innovation in one industry, becomes an anchor to another. One industry's downfall is another industry's curse. Relevance can come in many forms. Relevance in the way users consume your content, how they interact with your product, how they transact, end-to-end touch points need to be covered.
78% of consumers say that personally relevant content increase their purchase intent. (Source: Marketing Insider Group 2016)
This brings light to one important factor, personalization. This combined with relevance creates an enigmatic experience for the user, that brings them back to your product again and again. While, the self centered inflated sense of self importance is a greater negative uprising in the society, you would be foolish not to leverage this growing trend in the young generation to custom tailor your product to their needs. You have got to stay relevant! The vague sense of creating an 'impact' for this generation needs to be fueled with all the right infrastructure. If it is not relevant and aligned to their cascading ladder needs, will not be used by the users.
Take a look at few of the well known downfall of major companies in the recent times. the shift in the way users consume content started changing and so the relevance of these legacy companies started decreasing. Here, customer centricity, becomes one more important aspect of business relevance. The more power you give to the consumer front, the more they will adopt to your product, the more adoption rate.
While, innovation still remains the go-to discussion word in most board rooms across the business landscape around the world, it is interesting to see how it results into their products and adoptions across the consumers. The numbers speak for itself!