BrandMatters

Industries to Fly

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

As new financial year rolls out, industry research specialists IBISWorld have released their report on the top five growth and decline industries for 2010 – 2011.

IBIS World Forecasts Australia’s Top Five Growth Industries in 2010 – 2011
Rank	Industry	Revenue Growth (%)	Total revenue ($ billion)
1	Organic Farming	15.1	0.45
2	Online information services	8.7	1.56
3	Insurance Brokerage	7.2	11.2
4	Mobile telecommunications Carriers	6.9	19.6
5	Alternative Health therapies	6.5	3.46

The Top Five
Organic farming, online services, insurance brokerage, mobile carriers, and alternative health therapies are in the top five growth industries for the next financial year. As a whole, the market size for these industries are is growing massively, and consumer demand doesn’t show any signs of declining for a while yet. Organic farming alone is looking at a revenue growth of 15%, while online services have a growth rate of 8.7%.

Businesses in these markets need to leverage their business and market perceptions to take advantage of the opportunities of a booming market. Brand strategy and identity need to convincingly convey the strengths of a business as well as where it sits in the market.

Businesses in parallel or linked industries must be flexible and wise in their use of their brands to move into these markets if they are not there already, or to leverage their brand to receiver benefits of close association from these burgeoning markets.

IBIS World forecasts Australia’s Bottom Five Growth industries in 2010 – 2011
Rank	Industry	Revenue Growth (%)	Total revenue ($ billion)
1	Insulation Services	-24.1	0.84
2	Wired Telecommunications Services	-4.8	11.10
3	Paper Manufacturing	-3.1	2.68
4	Video Hire Outlets	-3.1	1.04
5	Grape Growing	-3.0	1.50

Bottom Five

Those industries experiencing the most radical drop off include insulation services, wired telecommunications, paper manufacturing, video hire, and grape growing. Some of these industries have are the victim of technological changes (industry, wired telecommunications, video hire), political mistakes (insulation), and market saturation (grape growing, and possibly insulation). They are each have found themselves in different stages of decay.

Businesses are in need of getting their businesses to work despite or even through declining market conditions. Some brands may have serious trouble because their identity is linked so closely to that of an industry in downturn. The very association with a market or product genre perceived as on the decline can damage a brand.

One example is Telstra. Whilst they are major players in mobiles, their identity for the last several decades has been that of Australia’s provider of wired telecommunications. It will be vey hard for them to shift brand perceptions to that of mobile specialists. In any case this would not match their business reality. Grape growers may be in a similar position, having spent years cultivating a brand that speaks wine, they now need to assert independent identity to really stand out from what’s become a massive pack.

Possibilities here in this kind of market, could be shifting their brand to a niche grape product that still has growth, or emphasizing an element of their identity that has the vigor to outlive the current downward cycle. That aspect could be heritage, or high quality, or ‘Australian made and owned’ or something else that will give them an edge over their competitors and allow them stronger visibility in a glutted market.

Brand Work
Brand is key in allowing businesses to shift their position in various markets. A right sized strategy needs to be carefully considered, whether it’s shoring up a brand position for maximum strength in a strong and growing market, shifting into a growing market, or moving out of a falling industry, finding a quietly thriving niche within it, or devising a strategy for long term survival.

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