Elastic Brands Macrotrend Summary

Businesses and brands can no longer afford to be stagnant. The past 12 months have been a battle of the fittest, galvanising companies into thinking, reacting and changing at a moment’s notice.

Unsurprisingly, not all survived this recalibration. American economists estimate that at least 100,000 small businesses closed in the first two months of the pandemic, while the Office for National Statistics found that 30% of UK businesses have less than three months of cash reserves.

It wasn’t only a global pandemic that triggered this point of reckoning. Consumers – once only engaged via a handful of touchpoints – are now turning organisations inside-out, blurring the definitions between brand and business. With a Post-purpose mindset tearing down the façade of advertising, customers are entering a more intimate relationship with brands. It is one tied to the transparency of their inner workings, from everyday operations to their supply chains and workforce.

This highly intricate space is now in the public eye, and the fundamental systems that previously made up your business are now your entire brand. ‘Brands are a collection of stories united by a belief,’ says Joel Fariss, senior associate of futures at Gensler. ‘The brand experience internal to the organisation has to align with the brand experience external to the organisation.’

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