Kolume, by the way: When it gets harder and harder to come up with something new to say

Products are getting better, services are becoming more convenient, and offerings are being tailored more precisely to different needs. At the same time, it’s becoming harder to develop something that’s truly new to people and makes a meaningful difference. This is, first and foremost, a challenge for product development.

But increasingly, it's also used for communication.

What else should we actually develop?

Anyone who has worked in product development long enough is familiar with this question: What else can we develop that’s truly new? Not just another flavor. Not the next additional feature. Not a minor improvement that, while measurable, is barely noticeable to customers.

Rather, something that makes people say, “That’s interesting. I’d like to try that.” Because the more mature products and markets become, the harder that gets.

Many basic needs have long since been addressed. Products have been improved, expanded, and diversified over the years. As a result, innovation often takes place in increasingly smaller steps.

And that's exactly where the problem with communication begins.

Make a difference with it …

After all—the expectation remains the same. Brands should stand out. Products should be distinctive. Campaigns should capture attention. Customers should be given a reason to take an interest in your offering rather than someone else’s. So communication is tasked with a challenging mission:

Make it something special.

This works well when there really is something special about a product. It becomes more difficult when the differences between products are becoming increasingly small, but at the same time, the differences highlighted in marketing communications need to be emphasized more.

Perhaps that is why it is not just communication that has become more interchangeable. Perhaps what communication is supposed to convey is also becoming increasingly interchangeable.

Good communication becomes a given

At the same time, the craft is changing. Professional copy, high-quality images, content tailored to specific audiences, personalization, and the ability to quickly create variations are becoming increasingly accessible. AI is further accelerating this trend. This is positive at first, as it leads to higher quality.

But if many companies are able to communicate professionally, professionalism will increasingly become a prerequisite rather than a distinguishing factor. Then the question “How can we make our communication even better?” will no longer suffice.

First, there would have to be another one: Do we even have anything that makes a real difference to people?

Ovomaltine Meets DAR-VIDA

An interesting example from Switzerland shows that it is not always necessary to invent something completely new to achieve this.

In 2025, two well-known brands were combined: Ovomaltine and DAR-VIDA. The result was DAR-VIDA Ovomaltine—whole-grain crackers combined with Ovomaltine chocolate. Not a new product category. Not a technological revolution. But a combination that had never existed before.

According to HUG, the co-branding campaign marked DAR-VIDA's most successful market launch to date and attracted numerous new customers. It is not clear from this information what role the product itself, the brand awareness of the two brands, or the marketing played in this success.

For our purposes, something else is key: There really was something new to share. The communication didn't have to invent the difference—the product brought it with it.

And perhaps this example illustrates something else as well: Innovation doesn't always have to mean inventing something completely new. Sometimes it's enough to combine familiar elements in a new way to create something that captures people's interest.

First the difference, then communication

Perhaps this sequence will become more important in the future. We’re taking a close look at how messages are formulated, personalized, tested, and optimized. That’s all well and good. But perhaps marketing and communications need to start one step earlier more often:

What exactly is the difference we want to convey?

A new achievement. A better experience. A surprising combination. A meaningful improvement. Something that truly matters to people. Because communication can highlight an existing difference, explain it, and make it interesting. But it cannot permanently replace it.

Therefore, there must be a difference before communication can make a difference.

Perhaps that is why one of the most important tasks of good communication in the future will not lie in communication itself, but rather in determining whether there is anything worth talking about in the first place.

By the way: Perhaps in the future, communication will fail less because it’s poorly executed and more because it’s supposed to convey a difference that doesn’t exist (anymore).

Laura Colledani and Klaus Ammon have more than 40 years of combined experience in consumer research and marketing research. Over the years, they have developed a keen sense of what moves people - even beyond the numbers. Both authors advocate a communication culture that listens before it broadcasts. With the new approach of consumer listening management tools, they want to support marketing managers in not only questioning consumers in the traditional way, but also entering into a genuine relationship with them.