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Catalyst issue 2 | 2025: Range anxiety
- 10 April 2025
Remember the story of Icarus? The golden child who ignored his father’s warnings and flew too close to the sun, so his wax and feather wings melted and he plummeted to earth?
That fable is typically used as a warning for anyone who’s getting too big for their boots, but it could equally be a cautionary tale for any inventor. Can they make sure a project thought up in the workshop survives an encounter with the real world?
Many brand innovations have their ‘Icarus moment’, driven by hubris or shareholder pressure to push boundaries too far. But there’s often a legitimate reason to venture into the unknown.
Companies must find paths to growth. You can either find more customers, or different things to sell to existing customers. Or a bit of both. If you build new products but they’re similar to ones you already produce, or those made by competitors, is it a compelling proposition for consumers?
At some point, brands look to strike out into completely new areas, creating entirely new markets and sectors. There’s a lot to be gained from this. First-mover advantage, virgin territory to set the standard, zero competition and kudos for solving an unmet need.
But there’s also risk. An unmet need may also be an unidentified need – the consumer simply doesn’t think they need this new thing. The brand will have to do a lot of work to persuade them otherwise.
Then there are the glitches. Version 1.0 is rarely without its faults. The proposition may over-promise and under-deliver or is so new the consumer doesn’t know how to get it to work properly. Brands must have super-strong equity and make a product that is still compelling despite its faults for the consumer to bear with it until the kinks are ironed out.
Our cover story this issue delves into why some brands succeed while others fail in the great innovation gamble. We explore three of the biggest changes in the consumer landscape to happen over the last three decades – mobile internet, organic food and electric vehicles. From these, we gain learnings about what marketers need to focus on when innovating and expanding to futureproof their brand.
Looking to the future can stimulate feelings of expectation, fear and excitement. But the fact that we have the luxury of anticipating a future is something most of us take for granted. Those who experience suicidal thoughts have a very bleak view of the future indeed, and it’s something Simon Gunning, CEO of CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) set out to change when he joined the organisation in 2017.
Our profile documents his early career as a music manager, and latterly digital media maven in charge of the BBC’s ‘future media’ as well as marketing and audiences. But it was when he joined CALM that we saw just how much difference positive communication can make to people’s lives. Because, while dealing with a topic that many people shy away from discussing – someone in the UK dies by suicide every 90 minutes – his main message is that the future can be positive, and “life can be better”.
All too often, marketing is dismissed as fluff – ‘colouring-in’. Or that somehow, because the activity ultimately leads to selling something, it’s less worthy. I think it’s clear from the work Gunning is doing at CALM that the marketer’s skill can be put to great use in some pretty challenging circumstances. But whether it’s orange juice, mental health, summer holidays or credit cards, the marketer plays a vital role.
Which is why in this issue, you will also find the results of an exclusive in-person roundtable that Catalyst hosted with CIM Chief Executive Chris Daly and leading marketers to discuss what it means to be a professional marketer. It was at this meeting that CIM launched the Global Professional Marketing Framework (GPMF) which acts as a guide for the development of skills, capability and behaviour of marketers across the profession. This framework was developed through consultation with industry and extensive research which re-enforces the knowledge and insight that we hope you will also find in this, and every, issue of Catalyst.
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