Brand Strategy To Be Key In 2020

2019 was a year of rising tension, across multiple levels. Trust, politics, rising costs, declining ROI and questions about growth and sustainability all contributed to a challenging year. 2020 is setup to be a year where this tension comes into sharp focus and a number of big questions are answered for brands in China.

Some brands will have to answer questions about whether they should continue to invest in the market - amid challenging circumstances - or pull out completely. Other brands will have to more clearly define their path in the market and make some profound strategy shifts.

Category leaders will want to press home the advantages they have built and consolidate their leadership positions to gain even larger market share leads. Middle-of-the-pack brands, will have to answer more challenging questions about sustainable ways forward. And, niche brands will need to find solutions to reliably scale up their businesses.

2020 will be a year, above all things, where the leaders separate themselves from the rest of the pack. It is therefore a year where strategies will diverge between the category leaders and the middle of the pack brands. In most categories, there is a growing consolidation of market share among the top players, in most categories the top 5-10 players have carved out a dominant share of the market. Brands outside of this dominant group, will have to re-frame the market and look toward new tactics, new segments and new geographic approaches.

Our major themes for 2020 all speak to this tension and the choices that brands large and small will need to make about how they approach the market.