You Need Innovation Now More Than Ever

Innovation is the foundation of economic growth and prosperity for any business, and any industry. Without a key focus on the means one can innovate, it’s virtually impossible to stay competitive and attract the right audiences.

Consumers change their behavior, sometimes rapidly. The market is quick to follow these changes and rewards those who hold their ear to the ground, ready to hop on trends. But in some cases, it’s the business that establishes the trend, and the consumer and market follows.

And this is done through innovation. Though deeply grounded in consumer and market behavior, innovation always comes with an outlook for the future, sometimes looking 3 or even 5 years ahead.

Here are 4 reasons why innovation is important now more than ever, considering the effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic and economic turmoil that could follow.

1. Allows Room to Grow and Improve

Innovation gives businesses enough room for continuous improvement across several different internal operations, but also when it comes to the quality of the products and services they provide.

This, in turn, gives a sense of sustainability to the business and places more value on creativity and out of the box thinking, which could come quite in handy in difficult moments such as the pandemic, when you need creative thinking to adapt operations.

2. Reinforces the Brand

Innovation can often help with brand recognition, as consumers can easily spot which player is shaking up the game. When it comes to your branding efforts, nothing supports this strategy more than being at the forefront of the competition.

3. Allows You to Leverage Opportunities

When you have a dedicated team tasked with business innovation, part of their job will involve identifying market trends, and establishing which are beneficial to the company, and which are not. This can ensure you don’t miss out on some rather important growth opportunities.

4. Receive More Public Recognition

Again, innovation allows businesses to set themselves apart from competitors, which the public will notice, especially if you leverage tools such as social media to spread the news.

This can be especially effective if you innovate in areas that your target audience either expects you to or implement changes they want to see.

For instance, growing interest in modern lifestyle challenges such as mood health, or global issues such as environmental-sustainability, gives businesses enough motivation to find new ways to innovate their offerings. This news could have the potential of strengthening your relationship with an established audience and attract a new one.

Over to You

Innovation cannot be excluded from a businesses’ focus points, especially now that the market is experiencing higher levels of volatility. It’s important to dedicate sufficient thought and effort into improving products, services, and operations, and not just try to advertise more aggressively.

Good thing we introduced LAUNCH Innovation, our sister agency, dedicated to helping you with all of the above. Don’t hesitate to reach out for more information about how we can help.

Meet Francesca, Partner at Canopy

When it comes to a fun-loving, smart, relatable and honest partner, I couldn't ask for anyone better than Francesca Vitali-Allevato. 

Fran and I have worked together since 2004 -- a daunting number of years considering how difficult I can be to work with ;). From our days at Sterling Brands, to today, our brother-sister relationship has never wavered, outside of the usual kicking and screaming I do, which is why we work so well together. She keeps me sane, and protects the integrity of everything we do.

Francesca's 20 years of experience in the world of branding, strategy and innovation gives us a major leg up in the industry. She has innovated and created brand strategies for some of the biggest global brands, such as Lonza, Mondelez, Nestle, Unilever -- as well as creating and launching successful challenger brands. Her categories of focus are food and beverage, wine & spirits, fashion, beauty, health & wellness.

From innovation, brand strategy, naming and product ideation she’s been able to reinvent, reposition, establish and reestablish brands old, and new.

She believes strongly that (and I love this quote), "Where there is tension there is great opportunity.”

“I look at brand strategy and innovation as a building block for untapped opportunities. By understanding global shifts with consumers, brands and businesses across health and wellness, CPG, beauty and retail, I look to uncover ground breaking insights, and bring them to life creating new opportunities.”

— Francesca Vitali-Allevato

Francesca is comfortably set in the sunshine of our Laguna Beach office, where she can literally hear the waves crash. A bit of a juxtaposition from the noise we hear in our NYC office, which is a very nice balance.

Fran and I have also partnered together on a new sister agency to Canopy, LAUNCH Innovation, which she founded in 2018. Here, we partner with Health & Wellness and Consumer Nutrition brands by conducting proprietary innovation workshops and strategies that inspire new, market-ready product ideas.

THE CULTURE RESET: Unsettled Times. Unsettled Culture. Unsettled Brands.

It's time to address the challenges your business is adapting to today, and capitalize on it for years to come. How? Through proprietary insights that determine how generations will make their purchasing decisions.

These unsettled times we're living in have shattered the fundamental meaning of brands. Importantly, this is a "cultural brand leveling" moment for consumers and marketers. A moment in time to smartly re-examine, reposition, reinforce, even reformulate your brand to achieve new revenue goals.

Enter THE CULTURE RESET PLATFORM -- designed to create and maintain brand saliency in these changing times. The platform provides proprietary thinking and key consumer connection points. 

We unlock Generational Consumer Resonance, Cultureography, Narratives and Visualization for defining and optimizing your brands ultimate 'Culture Truth'. They are guaranteed outcomes.

What are the key steps you ask?

1. Virtual Briefing -- A complimentary 30 minute briefing session to take you deeper into the entire platform solutions package and guaranteed outcomes on how people decide what they decide and why they value what they value.

2. Fast Track Thinking Session -- We conduct two 90 minute sessions where we arrive at a group consensus, common vision and action points. It’s our highly collaborative approach to arriving at an initial culture truth platform statements.

3. Synthesize & Shape -- We agree, focus, and shape what we’ve uncovered into final culture platform statements.

4. Generational Resonance -- Recognizing that all truths are generationally shaped, we will provide a structure insuring the message is universally powerful, as well as applicable to that consumer's journey.

5. Visualization -- We create visual design cues to bring these truth statements to life for consumers.

6. Testing (optional) -- Available if you so choose using our video research network.

7. Final Culture Reset Recommendation -- The final strategic roadmap that defines your brands ultimate culture truth along with key narratives for generational resonance going forward.