Four timeless growth journeys to learn from

Rather than trying to out-German the German brands, Volvo built growth around a more human version of premium: everyday usefulness, putting the driver in full control - safe and cared for, and Scandinavian design with confidence. It identified a valuable audience that wanted premium quality, but not necessarily the same codes of power, speed and prestige.

That customer focus helped Volvo sharpen both its business and brand. It was not simply selling a premium car. It was selling a different idea of what a premium car could mean.

Understanding what customers value before the market has fully named it, is an extremely powerful growth lever. 

Swedish Neobank Nordnet found a way to strengthen its competitive portfolio by building beyond the core product. With the Shareville online forum and investment tracker, it added a social layer to investing: a place where savers could follow other investors, see portfolios, exchange ideas and learn from each other – even from Nordnet’s own CEO.

Nordnet became more than a platform for transactions. It became a place for community.

The strategic move was not only digital innovation. It was portfolio innovation. Shareville gave Nordnet a community-based advantage that made the overall offer harder to copy and more useful over time.

The timeless growth lesson: Do not only compete inside the product. Dare to build around it.

In search for growth, rather than asking more people to adopt Coke Light, Coca-Cola created a clearer proposition: the taste and feeling of Coca-Cola, but with zero sugar. Coke Zero was born. It reached people who were interested in a zero calorie option, but did not identify with the existing diet/light offer.

This strategic move was not only product innovation. It was brand architecture. Coke Zero created a new role in the portfolio, expanded the no-sugar business, and helped Coca-Cola recruit audiences the existing portfolio had not until then attracted.

The timeless growth lesson: A new brand role can unlock demand the core product and current portfolio cannot reach alone.

Spotify’s features have always been powered by user data and machine learning, making them one of the earliest examples of AI-driven customer experience for growth. Discover Weekly alone has generated more than 100 billion tracks streamed and creates more than 56 million new artist discoveries every week, according to Spotify.

The lesson is not simply “personalization works.” This is customer experience that drives growth because it is useful and highly appreciated by customers in addition to the core offering, music.

The timeless growth lesson: Customers don’t always know what they want, but they will always appreciate being offered something useful. 

Fast growth rarely comes from doing everything; it comes from doing the right thing. In times when business leaders need to be disciplined in how they drive growth, it’s smart to go for proven and reliable ways to create fast commercial impact.

1. Find the customer others are not fully serving, then build the business around their definition of value.
2. Do not only compete inside the product. Dare to build around it.
3. A new brand role can unlock demand the core product and current portfolio cannot reach alone.
4. Customers don’t always know what they want, but they will always appreciate being offered something useful.