• by Nikos Acuna , Op-Ed Contributor, June 2, 2017

The story of David and Goliath is a well-worn reference for anyone trying to set the scene for an underdog story. But for marketers in 2017, there is more than meets the eye in this seemingly simple tale of a small shepherd boy using his wits (and a sling) to defeat a giant.

The obvious business angle is for challenger brands to ask what their “sling” might be in 2017. This is a fine time for such discussions because in recent years upstart brands have used incisive consumer knowledge, maddeningly inexpensive viral media exposure, and technology-enabled direct sales channels to upend long-stable industries. In the case of Dollar Shave Club, the “sling” was a combination of all three.

As with most breakthrough achievements in business and marketing, technology was at the center of Dollar Shave Club’s success. Others have written plenty about how brands can hope to catch the same kind of lightning in a bottle, and so we will not consider how best to craft a budget viral video. And as far as underdog brands go, Dollar Shave Club is old news: Unilever bought the business for $1bn in a bid to challenge category leader P&G.

We are not as interested in whether other Davids can find new slings — they can, and they will. The multibillion-dollar question is whether Goliaths can find a sling of their own. 

It is easy to see some of the positives in being a new, small brand: lack of legacy business systems and structures, lack of potentially outdated brand associations in the minds of consumers, organizational agility, authentic presence and comfort in digital environments such as social media, and more.

On the flip side, it is easy to see how incumbents’ moats are starting to feel more like prison walls. Some examples: legacy supply chains and products that are not specifically tuned to the tastes of the moment, mass production and marketing infrastructures that depend on economies of scale and struggle with quick or frequent changes, enormous brand awareness and deeply rooted associations that become anchors when they fall out of fashion.

The last 10 years have seen a technology-driven sea change of capabilities and expectations across all facets of consumers’ lives. In particular, information access, multimedia communication, multimedia consumption, commerce, and transportation have all been changed forever. This period of disruption and rapid change created opportunities for new companies, new business models, and new strategies. In short, it’s been a good time to be a David. 

The next 10 years will also see change, but in some areas that change is more likely to be incremental. Consumers today demand personalized experiences from brands: will they suddenly transform back to being content treated like a number? Probably not. Consumers today are perpetually connected to the internet (and each other) via digital devices. Will the device roster continue to evolve? Of course. But will consumers “unplug” at scale and revert us back to the heyday of analog media? Unlikely.

Here is the upshot: relearning the rules of the road is painful, but now that they are known there is no reason that smaller competitors should enjoy an inherent advantage. The low-hanging fruit has been gathered, and brands are looking for the next decisive “sling” in the battle for consumers’ minds and wallets. 

Our take: social media was the “sling” that separated the winners and losers of the last decade, and artificial intelligence will play the same role in the years ahead. In hindsight, social media was clearly the culmination of several converging developments — social networking, mobility, consumer empowerment. Artificial intelligence is similar in that it represents the logical next step as the business world adapts to ever-increasing data availability and ever-decreasing computing costs. This new era will be defined by predictive marketing, and the most effective brands will be those that evolve from responding to consumer needs and begin meeting those needs proactively.

The good news for Goliaths is that artificial intelligence, like mass marketing and manufacturing, becomes more effective and efficient as volume increases. Brands capturing millions of data points will move more quickly toward a predictive model of their target consumer’s preferences and behaviors, and the corresponding optimal product, positioning, pricing, and distribution.

Big brands should find inspiration in Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.’s famous book title, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Or was it, Who Says Goliaths Can’t Use Slings?