Plugging into people and pushing boundaries: Driving commercial impact

Room 2 | 11:30 am - 12:00 pm | Wednesday, May 8, 2024

With budgets tightening and a focus on prioritization, it’s easy for brands to play it safe for short-term wins: research shifts from the truly exploratory to churning out regenerative propositions and getting feedback on slightly evolved stimulus. We need to think bigger. We need to focus further ahead – we need to disrupt, to challenge, to change brand perceptions, accepting nothing less than strong growth in underperforming areas.

Whitbread’s Insight Lead Jess Davies joins Zoe Evans to share the revolutionary journey that Premier Inn took to increase revenue in their food and beverage business. From investing time in stakeholder management, driving confidence through triangulation of data sources and thinking about “people” rather than “customers,” they tell how delving into needs and behaviors outside of their brand interactions was the key to unlocking growth.

Pushing boundaries was crucial to this project: being brave, bold and plugging into the possible. With revolutionary overhauls of hotel ground-floor spaces, we explore the risks and the incredible benefits of taking a leap of faith and going further than previously thought possible.

Jess and Zoe dig into what they did, why and how they did it, showcasing the impact and influence the work had on internal stakeholders and the business as a whole.

Beyond hospitality, we draw on extensive cross-sector experience to share multiple examples of the principles in action – explaining how brands can dial up or tone down elements of these areas to suit risk tolerance, time and budgets.

This is inspirational and practical in equal measure giving delegates powerful case studies to take back to their businesses and the confidence and knowledge to try new things.

Key takeaways:

1. Effective engagement of stakeholders: how to generate stakeholder buy-in for greater impact and implementation of recommendations.
2. Beyond your bubble: the benefits to understanding your customers/consumers as people beyond your brand.
3. Pushing boundaries: practical ways to suit all budgets which showcase how boundaries can be pushed to achieve quicker wins and defined parameters for success.

Case Study Consumers Joint Presentation