Innovation Acceleration
 

Innovation is fast replacing advertising as a go to growth engine for brands, particularly for FMCG. Startups and innovation rich Direct To Consumer brands are creating value and disrupting categories, and brands have to work harder and harder to meet consumer needs. Good Boston Consulting Group study here showing how leading CPG companies win, by: differentiating (product); targeting with precision (needs); and, by driving inorganic growth (startup acquisitions). Chobani is amazing at this. It recently turned yoghurt into a condiment, which is very very clever.

Pepsico meanwhile is also innovating its offer and the recent acquisition of Soda Stream for $3.2 billion shows its ambition, need and willingness to innovate and change. Soda Stream has come a long way and now markets itself as a health and wellness alternative to sugary sodas. It’s part of a strategic shift for Pepsico to shake off its old sugar, salt, fat reputation and become healthier and more socially conscious. Which is no bad thing.

Interesting piece here, on how marketing needs to own innovation so it all follows a shared brand and marketing vision. Makes sense.
 

The China Crisis

We rarely think about China. Out of sight, out of mind. Our frame of reference tends to be Western but increasingly, there's lots to learn from the East. In 2013 China's President Xi Jinping said “Our technology still generally lags that of developed countries, and we must adopt an asymmetrical strategy of catching up and overtaking.”. They’ve made it their business to catch up and we’re now witnessing the rise of the red unicorn and in 2018 China will take more VC funding then the US. China is developing at pace.

Great piece from the New Yorker on How ecommerce is transforming China. While they're still digging holes for water, they're setting up WIFI for their homes. In many ways they’re more advanced technically and in retail because there was never a shift to mobile, wealth is too recent, they leapfrogged PCs. Alibabba's Jack Ma said "in the US, ecommerce is the dessert, in China it's the main course”. 

According to a16z partner Connie Chan, in her Online to Offline 2.0 talk, China are moving from mobile first to mobile only and imagining a future where every surface is an output and every action an input. Alibaba is driving a lot of this change and its New Retail concept, outlined from 7:20 in this video, is pretty mind boggling, where it hopes to power (payment) and facilitate (data/analytics) the 6 million independent convenience stores in China. That's a whole lot of data.

But all this talk of China reminds us of Trump's Chyna Chyna Chyna piece, which still makes us laugh, a lot.