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Fast Company

Why brand-led innovation is the key to defeating the 90% failure rate

Innovation is hailed as the engine of progress, yet despite billions invested each year, the vast majority of innovations never succeed. 'The commonly accepted figure is that 90% of innovations fail annually,' says Luc Speisser, Global Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Landor. 'Basically, before the age of one.' The real problem? The problem isn't a shortage of ideas or prototypes. It's a shortage of meaningfully different, brand-grounded innovations that can scale with confidence. WHY MOST INNOVATIONS FAIL According to Speisser, most innovation efforts are overly focused on relevance—meeting an unmet need—while ignoring the other essential ingredient: difference. 'Most of the innovation methodologies are only relevance-based,' he notes. 'If everybody innovates for relevance, it elevates the standards, but you're not standing out. And if you don't stand out, then price becomes the only way to differentiate. And then we've got a race to the bottom.' BRAND-LED INNOVATION: THE GAME CHANGER That's where brand-led innovation changes the game. It doesn't just chase trends or fill market gaps. It starts with a clear brand promise and builds from there. 'A brand is a promise, and a great brand is a promise kept,' said Walter Landor. At Landor, this mantra drives a holistic approach to innovation, constantly aligning what a brand stands for with what it says and does. This framework – define, make and keep the promise – ensures consistency across product, communication and experience. The result? Differentiation that resonates emotionally and endures commercially. 'Relevance gets you in the door,' Speisser explains. 'Difference fuels future growth. Combine them, and you command a premium.' HOW BRAND-LED INNOVATION BUILDS UNBREAKABLE BARRIERS Landor integrates this thinking into every stage of innovation: find, create, launch, and scale. Crucially, the brand is baked in from day one. 'We bring the brand in early,' says Speisser. 'If we create a new product, the brand is always front and center. People buy brands, not just products.' To de-risk and maximize impact, Landor uses modeling tools to rigorously test business viability. 'We can predict with high confidence the business opportunity and outcome, including margin and profitability.' This yields solutions that are not just new, but brand-defining and impossible to copy. 'We call these Ownable Firsts.' BRAND-LED INNOVATION IN ACTION: THE 'COOLEST IHRAM' OWNABLE FIRST A prime example of brand-led innovation is Saudia Airlines' 'Coolest Ihram' initiative. What generic innovation would you expect from an airline using standard customer-centric innovation methods? Personalized journey platforms, immersive in-flight entertainment, loyalty program revamps, typical local cuisine, and destination promotion… the list goes on. Replace Saudia with Air France, and you get the same expected ideas in a different wrapper. 'But when we explored innovation for Saudia Airlines, we started with their brand promise: Welcome to Our Future ', explains Speisser. ' Welcome is rooted in genuine Arabic hospitality. Our Future reflects Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 ambition to reinvent everything. Creating innovation that delivers on this promise is inherently ambitious and specific.' This led Landor to six brand-led, ownable innovation platforms that redefined welcoming and future. For example, it means welcoming the 20% of the world's population living with disabilities—a group airlines often overlook. It also means caring for passengers beyond the flight. 'This is how we arrived at the Coolest Ihram: caring for the millions of pilgrims who fly to Hajj each year and helping them combat their greatest enemy: heat', Speisser says. The Coolest Ihram is a high-tech cooling garment designed for pilgrims, addressing both climate and accessibility. It creates a personal cooling microclimate, lowering the temperature next to the skin by up to two degrees. 'Those two degrees make a big difference between having heat stroke or not,' explains Speisser. 'We immediately branded it 'The Coolest Ihram,' partnered with BRRR Technology and launched.' The Coolest Ihram embodies Saudia's Welcome to Our Future promise. It's a promise kept with millions of pilgrims annually. The brand itself blends tradition and modernity: the square shape echoes the Kaaba (tradition) while also evoking the pixel, the building block of modern tech. 'The Coolest Ihram Ownable First was presented to Saudia just six months ago. Our confident market opportunity assessment, combined with AI acceleration and strategic partnerships, enabled a record-breaking launch,' says Speisser. To unlock innovation's true potential, organizations must rethink their starting point. 'Relevance isn't enough. You need relevance and difference,' Speisser emphasizes. 'You need to execute, not just brainstorm; you need business confidence at every stage of the process, and you need to start with a brand.'