Brand Roadshow 2026: Out of the doldrums, back to growth

The industry seems a little unsteady at the moment. It is looking for orientation in an economy that is weakening and in a communications world that is constantly being restructured digitally on an almost daily basis. Everyone is talking about efficiency, AI, performance and new levers. But often enough this leads to a hectic pace: more actions, more tactics, more reaction. The 35th Brand Roadshow on April 14 at the House of Communication in Zurich set a pleasantly different tone.

The title was: «Back to growth - but how?» The answers were provided by Esther Busch, Managing Partner Mediaplus, Michaela Albrecht, Customer Success Leader Brand & Media Germany at NIQ, and Raul Serrat, Chief Creative Officer & Partner at Serviceplan Suisse. Their approach was not fashionable, but analytical. Not trend hunting, but visual instruction. Not a battle of tools, but the question of why some brands make gains in a stagnating environment, while others remain stuck in actionism.

The focus was on four brands that have bucked the trend. And with them a realization that sounds almost too simple to be true: Growth in difficult times does not come from nervousness, but from consistency.

When the market no longer helps, the brand has to carry the load

The economic backdrop against which this roadshow took place was anything but rosy. Weak growth, rising prices, geopolitical uncertainties and a consumer climate that is not exactly conducive to frivolity. If you want to grow under such conditions, you can no longer hope for a friendly overall market in many categories. Growth is then primarily at the expense of competition. Market share becomes the real discipline.

This is precisely why the data basis for the presentation was so important. NIQ analyzed around 49,000 brands from FMCG and Tech & Durables between 2021 and 2025, not on the basis of surveys or perceived brand images, but on the basis of hard sales data from retailers. The bar was set high: continuous growth, outperformance compared to the competition, structural growth from the core business instead of just through promotions, plus a relevant economic scale. In the end, just 87 brands remained. 0.2 percent. This figure alone makes the morning interesting. A lot of people talk about growth. Very few actually organize it.

Out of the promotional loop, into the core business

The roadshow clearly highlighted where many brands fail. Not due to a lack of knowledge. Rather a lack of discipline. Because much of what Busch, Albrecht and Serrat showed was not revolutionary news at its core. Product, price, distribution, consumer understanding, creation, media: It all has to work together. And the brand must remain at the center.

It is precisely this that often seems to be lacking. Instead of strengthening the core business, many are fleeing into a spiral of action. A promotion here, a price lever there, a quick new narrative or a fast-acting channel. This creates short-term spikes, but rarely sustainable movement. The baseline stays where it is. Or worse: the brand loses focus.

The four cases at the roadshow therefore did not lead us into the world of spectacular advertising ideas, but back to the real question of craftsmanship: How does a brand stay on course in turbulent times without standing still?

Frosta: Growth through strategic stubbornness

Frosta was an almost textbook example of this. The brand increased its sales by 81% in the period under review and at the same time achieved a considerable price premium. In a category with a tailwind, but by no means a guarantee of success, this is more than just a good result.

The decisive point: Frosta remained true to itself. The Purity Command, i.e. the clear stance against flavor enhancers, colorings and other additives, was not rewritten every few years, but consistently carried forward. The brand has not changed its core, but has reinterpreted it over the years: sometimes factually, sometimes humorously, sometimes with a contemporary twist, but always recognizably Frosta.

In this context, Serrat spoke of «strategic stubbornness». That fits the case very well. Frosta did not jump after every new fashion, but remained the same in essence and simply adapted its expression, products and staging to new needs. In this way, consistency did not become stagnation, but a growing capital of trust.

The point is almost old-fashioned: not every brand needs a big creative big bang. But every brand needs a core that is strong enough to be credibly developed over the years.

SharkNinja: From the community to the big stage

The Case SharkNinja was much more dynamic. The brand has taken small household appliances out of the functional corner and transformed them into products that are thought of almost at the pace of tech brands: fast, desirable, talkable. The result: massive growth, enormous relevance for category growth and a brand that has turned everyday problems into a scalable business model.

The key to this lies in brand management that not only addresses the consumer, but makes them the starting point. SharkNinja listens first. Social listening is not a friendly accessory here, but an operating system. The brand asks its community where friction arises in everyday life, which small problems are annoying, what could be simplified, accelerated or made more pleasant. Only then do products emerge. Then it is fed back, tested and fine-tuned. The product does not simply enter the market, but emerges from the market.

What was particularly exciting about this case was the staggering of communication. It starts with the community itself: People who use, show and discuss products, thereby building organic credibility. The next stage involves celebrity amplifiers, such as David Beckham, who lends the brand additional appeal without destroying the everyday character of its products. And then comes the creator level: more approachable than classic testimonials, closer to real application, often with the right not to make everything look slick. It is precisely this mixture of community, celebrity and creator culture that makes SharkNinja so appealing at the moment.

This creates a cycle of proximity, desire and reinforcement. The community provides relevance. Celebrities provide radiance. Creators translate the whole thing into everyday digital life. Products are not simply introduced, but expected. They are teased, discussed, tried out and passed on. The launch is no longer just availability, but an event.

And it is precisely at this point that the case becomes interesting in terms of media strategy. At some point, social first is no longer enough. Anyone who has grown from digital proximity must at some point lift the brand out of the bubble and anchor it more broadly. This is where TV and Out of Home come into play. Both media were explicitly mentioned by the speakers as the next stage of growth. TV creates the big stage, Out of Home the physical presence in everyday life. Both together turn social momentum into greater brand awareness. SharkNinja thus shows in an exemplary way that digital community proximity and traditional reach are not opposites, but rather reinforce each other in the best case scenario.

Tetesept: Modernizing trust without betraying it

With Tetesept, a completely different type of brand then emerged. A brand with pharmaceutical origins, i.e. with a heritage that radiates seriousness, effectiveness and trust. Such origins can be an advantage. Or it can be a drag. Tetesept has translated it into a new currency.

The brand did not use its credibility as a nostalgic museum asset, but as seed capital for the move towards lifestyle, self-care and preventative well-being. New products, new formats, new shelf space, new moments of use - but no break with the core of trust. The old expertise was retained, only it was translated into a different everyday life.

In terms of communication, too, it was less of a firework display than a clean balancing act. The imagery became more modern, more human, more emotional. At the same time, the pharmaceutical impression remained present where it supported the premium positioning. Expertise was not disposed of, but stylistically loosened. In this way, Tetesept achieved something that many traditional brands fail to do: modernize without betraying themselves.

Schaebens: Focus beats folklore

Finally, the case of Schaebens was particularly appealing. A smaller, owner-managed brand in a field dominated by heavyweights such as L'Oréal or Garnier. And yet it managed to grow - including at a higher price level. This is particularly interesting because this case did not require a very large budget.

Schaebens' strength lay in its focus. The brand consistently focused on face masks, but interpreted this category broadly enough to create new connection points: Eye pads, serums, adjacent applications. Not wild diversification, but controlled thinking ahead.

Added to this was a communicative attitude that Serrat beautifully described as a «brand without a mask». While many beauty brands continue to bathe in artificial images of perfection, Schaebens moved closer to everyday life, to real application, to people instead of high gloss. Especially in a category that often appears over-aestheticized, this creates trust. And at the point of sale, where Schaebens is particularly strong, it is precisely this closeness that pays off.

The case also showed something else: even small brands can shape a category communicatively if they don't want everything at the same time. Focus is not the opposite of growth. It is sometimes its prerequisite.

The lesson of this morning is amazingly clear

So what remains of this roadshow? Above all, a pleasantly sober conclusion. The winners in this stagnating environment are not the brands that jump on every trend the loudest. They are those who understand their brand, take their consumers seriously, have their distribution under control, do not decouple their creation from their impact target and do not see their budget as just a cost block.

None of the brands shown grew primarily through discounts and hectic pricing policies. None lived from a single magic idea. None replaced strategy with continuous operation in the channels. Instead, they demonstrated something that seems almost old-fashioned in the industry and is perhaps precisely why it is back in fashion: growth is often the result of clean, long-term brand management.

Or to put it another way: getting out of the permanent stress loop is not about more noise. It's about more line.

This is precisely why this morning at the House of Communication in Zurich was so valuable. It did not offer a shortcut out of the doldrums. But it did show that there are ways. And that they surprisingly often start where many brands don't look enough: with their own consistency.