Bold, actionable strategies for breaking through your brand growth plateau

THE GROWTH PLAYBOOK

😫 STUCK AT THE PLATEAU? HERE’S YOUR WAKE-UP CALL

Your growth curve has flatlined. Inflation is climbing, tariffs are biting, and your board is asking hard questions.

This week’s CPI numbers confirm what many are feeling—prices are rising at the fastest pace in five months. Businesses are passing tariff-related costs to customers, and mid-stage companies like yours are feeling the squeeze.

Here’s the truth: this is exactly the time to get aggressive with brand. When competitors pull back, you can pull ahead.

PLAY #1 – PROTECT YOUR BRAND EQUITY, EVEN IN A DOWNTURN

Cutting marketing may look good on a spreadsheet now, but it erodes your brand value and market share—fast. Once lost, it’s expensive to claw back.

• Competitors will seize your share if you go dark.
• Even reduced budgets can keep awareness alive, protecting your health metrics.
• Consistent brands outperform the S&P 500 and MSCI World Index (Kantar).

“Brand is a company’s most valuable asset… marketing is a measurable, mission-critical investment.” — Mary Kyriakidi, Kantar

CEO Takeaway: Your brand is like compound interest—the gains come from consistency, not sudden big bets.

PLAY #2 – REALLOCATE, DON’T RETREAT

Think of marketing as an investment portfolio, not a fixed budget line. Adjust where and how you spend based on:

1. Profit Margins – Use price elasticity to fine-tune price & promo strategy.
2. Growth Prospects – Keep one eye on macro trends, one on market share.
3. Investment Costs – Hunt for media bargains, maintain share of voice.
4. Cost of Capital – You can’t change interest rates, but you can reduce perceived risk with measurable impact data.
5. Efficiency – Shift budgets, don’t slash. Focus on shareholder value over short-term ROI.

CEO Takeaway: Treat your marketing like your investment portfolio—diversify, optimize, and stay in the game.

PLAY #3 – BUILD PRICE RESILIENCE BEFORE YOU NEED IT

In tough economies with inflation, pricing power is everything. Strong brand equity makes customers less sensitive to price hikes.

• A 1% lift in uniqueness & meaning = 0.6% lift in pricing power.
• A 10% lift = 6% pricing power gain — for a $20M company, that’s an extra $1.2M annually without selling more units.

CEO Takeaway: When you have brand equity power, you can raise prices without raising eyebrows.

PLAY #4 – MAKE YOUR DOLLARS WORK HARDER THAN THE COMPETITION’S

Equity-led advertising does much more than create warm fuzzies—it:

• Builds positive associations.
• Makes your brand easier to buy now.
• Can be dialed up or down for cash flow flexibility.

CEO Takeaway: Don’t just spend—spend in ways that build value now and in the future.

PLAY #5 – LEVERAGE BRAND AS A GROWTH ASSET

Investing in brand can increase ROI significantly when moving from a performance strategy to a mixed approach.

CEO Takeaway: Add brand to the mix as a way to increase ROI

PLAY #6 – FIND YOUR NEXT GROWTH LEVER - THE “PLATEAU BREAKER”

When growth stalls, it’s rarely because the market is “tapped out”—it’s because your marketing mix is over-optimized for today’s customer. The fastest-growing mid-stage brands do a market stretch to reignite momentum.

Three ways to break the plateau:

• Adjacent Audiences – Who’s almost your customer now? Create one offer or campaign to pull them in.
• New Channels – Where is your audience spending time that your competitors ignore?
• Category Reframing – Redefine what you are so customers see new relevance (e.g., “We’re not a meal kit—we’re your weeknight dinner partner”).

CEO Takeaway: When the curve flattens, the answer isn’t always “more”—it’s “different.”

CASE STUDY – MAGNUM ICE CREAM’S COLD-WEATHER COUP

Magnum didn’t have the budget to dominate London. So they went against the category grain.

• Targeted Glasgow—one of the coldest UK cities.
• Ran “Find the Summer”: an ice cream-in-winter challenge.
• Drove +38.9% sales and +30 brand power points—highest in 5 years.

CEO Takeaway: Constraints breed creativity—use them to outthink, not outspend, the competition.

🚀 THE FEARLESS GROWTH CHALLENGE

If your brand is stuck, take one bold brand-building action in the next 30 days. If you can’t think of one—let’s create it together.

📅 Book 30 Minutes with Me — we’ll find the play that gets you moving again.

Be Bold.

Be Strategic.

Be Fearless.

Until next time,

Anna

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