Invent now

When times are tough, take big risks. This may sound counterintuitive, but it’s what great brands do. For them, a recession is the best time to launch something new. Look at the last three downturns.

In 1984, Apple launched the Mac, and Virgin launched Virgin Atlantic.

In 1992, Nokia launched its first GSM mobile, the Nokia 1011.

And in 2001, Toyota launched the Prius globally, and Apple launched its iPod.

All went on to create new demand, generate big revenues, and in some way change the world.

Each responded to, and helped shape, the spirit of the age.

At the beginning of the era of deregulation, the Apple Mac and Virgin Atlantic both aimed to free people from the tired old establishment.

At the start of the liberating age of the mobile and the internet, Nokia was a completely fresh brand from social-democratic Scandinavia.

And as blatant consumerism started to wane, the Prius and the iPod were both understated, highly designed ways of showing off.

What does all this tell us? Recessions are a time when entry costs are often lower. But they’re also times when people rethink things, when they’re open to something new – in fact, when they most need something new.

Right now, the best brands should be lining up new things that build their brands, and that shape a new world – things that give individuals new powers, that cross public-private ownership, that are ethically unimpeachable, that aren’t too western, that demand collaboration rather than consumption, that in some way fix the world. As Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said in the London Sunday Times (29 March), ‘There's never been more opportunity… Now we can start again and do things properly’.

28 April 2009, posted by Robert Jones