Video
Cost Signals: Diagnosing Brand Clarity Through Price Pressure
Use cost patterns under price pressure to spot brand clarity gaps and align teams, improving conversion, margins and confidence in decisions.
Summary
At pivotal moments of change, it’s tempting to chase discounts and features. But that blurs the signal and lets disconnection creep in. Real progress comes when leaders design a unified narrative, behaviours and experiences that make connection felt. That’s how organisations cut acquisition costs, speed decisions and protect price.
Watch The Video
In this video, Preetum Mistry, CEO and Managing Partner, explores how authentic connection drives higher sales and enduring loyalty.Our Perspective
What this means for leaders navigating growth, change or transformation in their organisation.
Connection As Cost Control
Most leaders treat connection as a brand nicety. It’s actually an operating lever. When customers can’t feel who you are or what you stand for, costs climb: you spend more to be noticed, deals take longer, and price integrity slips. PwC’s Consumer Intelligence Series finds that more than eight in ten consumers are likelier to buy from brands that build authentic connection — a reminder that failing to invest here carries a direct commercial penalty.
Think of it as connection debt. Left to compound, it shows up as higher acquisition costs, slower pipelines, and fragile loyalty. Reverse it early and the sales machinery runs with less friction and more confidence.
Find The Friction
Disconnection rarely announces itself. It lurks in small moments — how you answer a question, hand off a ticket, explain your value on a call. Patterns follow.
Look for these practical signals:
- Rising cost per opportunity despite similar media spend
- Longer time to first decision and more “maybe later”
- Growing reliance on discounts to close near quarter-end
- Inconsistent tone between sales, service, and product updates
Build Signal Consistency
The remedy isn’t a new campaign. It’s a clear promise, backed by proof, expressed the same way across every interaction. That means one narrative the whole organisation can use, behaviours that demonstrate it, and experiences that make it felt. In our experience with growth-stage organisations, the shift happens when leadership treats “connection” as a system to design, not a feeling to hope for.
Make the system tangible:
- One narrative: problem, promise, proof — taught and rehearsed
- A proof library: cases, numbers, and demonstrations teams can pull fast
- Decision principles: how you trade speed versus certainty, value versus volume
- Journey choreography: fix the handoffs where trust most often drops
Measure Real Impact
Connection earns you time and optionality. You see it in shorter consideration windows, steadier full‑price realisation, higher average order value, and more repeat purchase. Track these alongside qualitative signals — clarity in discovery calls, fewer objections, richer referrals. If they improve together, you’re not just liked; you’re trusted.
The deeper play is resilience. Markets will always move. Organisations that operationalise genuine connection reduce drag on every commercial motion and build room to manoeuvre when conditions shift, compounding advantage precisely when others slow.
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