‘Failure is information’: Helen Edwards urges marketers to embrace ‘cautious bravery’

By embracing the right level of risk marketers can find a way to prioritise the innovation that counts, according to Marketing Week columnist and London Business School professor, Helen Edwards.

Speaking yesterday (2 October) at Marketing Week’s 2025 Festival of Marketing, Edwards set out her manifesto for innovation aimed at the “cautiously brave”. Her five-step plan urges marketers to remove the barriers for customers, “shoot for the mass” and embrace new frugal innovation.

Acknowledging trepidation is a “very rational emotion in marketing”, particularly with regard to innovation, Edwards pointed to the sheer number of ideas that never make it out the door. There’s a personal risk to marketers in doing nothing, she argued.

“At least the fails have made it out of the office. There are loads that don’t go anywhere and you’ve got a personal risk right there. It’s the black hole in your CV when you said: ‘Oh, I was working on Project Summit, but it never went anywhere. It got deprioritised’,” said Edwards.

“So, the risk is very real and it’s very personal. We need to innovate, but can we do it in a way that is both brave and cautious? I think we can. I think it’s not an oxymoron. In fact, it makes complete sense.”

Failure is information. You can do something with it.

Helen Edwards

The idea is to innovate while also giving risk the healthy respect it deserves. Firstly, it is important to realise the consumer is taking a risk buying into any new product, meaning if marketers reduce consumer risk, they reduce their own as well.

Edwards cited the example of former Oatly North America president Mike Messersmith, who launched the brand into the US in 2017. A market far more accustomed to almond milk, customers generally found the concept of oat milk weird. Buoyed by some customer curiosity, Messersmith believed these early adopters could act as a bridge to the masses.

Understanding that pack size and price were major barriers for individual consumers, the brand spent the first six months incentivising baristas in upmarket cafes to get coffee drinkers to try oat milk.

“Oatly quickly took off in the US, because he [Messersmith] was able to get the curious over the line and they were indeed a bridgehead to the mass,” said Edwards.

“This is the first move. The consumer is taking a risk. Reduce theirs and you can reduce yours. It’s brave because we’re talking about something here that is totally new to market. It’s cautious because you’re finding ways to lower the stakes for consumers.”

Her next piece of advice for marketers was to look at how to reach the masses, understanding you don’t need to win them all over – an approach which goes against the “natural tendency” to segment.

Marketers can’t ignore the opportunity of ‘new frugal innovation’

To help differentiate while still appealing to the mainstream, Edwards pointed to the value curve principle developed by INSEAD professors W Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.

Running along the X-axis are the features and benefits every brand in a category competes around, while the Y-axis represents the different levels of offer from a business and its competitors. The data can be used to plot the standard industry value curve, which tends to coalesce around points of parity.

Brands need to identify the features the masses care about “hugely” and “massively” increase performance against those benefits.

“In order to afford to do it, because this stuff doesn’t come for free, you have to eliminate completely or reduce how you’re performing against some of the features that you know matter, they just don’t matter as much,” Edwards explained.

She gave the example of gyms, which for years were polarised between premium chains with a variety of amenities and budget brands offering some frills at a lower service level. What PureGym did was focus on what mattered, she argued, offering lots of good quality equipment, great exercise classes and 24/7 opening hours at a low price, but with no reception or amenities.

“It’s brave because it’s a mass target. That’s punchy. But it’s cautious, because if you use this value curve methodology – thank you INSEAD – what you’re doing is you’re manipulating known elements. That’s all you’re doing,” Edwards pointed out.

“You’re working from knowledge. So it brings a caution to it. You don’t have to guess.”

‘The right kind of risk’

Thinking about the idea generation stage, marketers were urged to “ride the wave” of a marginal behaviour bubbling into the mainstream – but ensure they do the groundwork first.

Edwards pointed to veganism, which was started in the post-war years by founder Donald Watson and a small group of followers, 70 years before the movement ever entered the mainstream. The adoption of veganism, or any emerging behaviour, requires an understanding of two opposing forces, Edwards explained.

“Intensity is vital. So that’s the intense commitment of the Watsons and his committee, who were really passionate about what they’re doing. If you haven’t got that, it will never go anywhere. It just fritters away. You need those intense people who are prepared to be social pariahs, who are prepared to pay more and it’s really inconvenient. Without them, you’ve got no traction,” she noted.

“Coming the other way, you’ve got resistance from the mainstream; otherwise it would be mainstream already. The pushback that says: ‘Fine for you, not for me.’”

We need to innovate, but can we do it in a way that is both brave and cautious? I think we can.

Helen Edwards

Rather than simply accepting resistance, Edwards encouraged marketers to explore it and appreciate people resist for a variety of reasons.

Microdosing of magic mushrooms is another behaviour people are curious about, she suggested, something Marks & Spencer tapped into with the release of a functional drinks range incorporating Lion’s Mane mushroom.

“Good on M&S – a more mainstream brand you could not find – who are picking up on the ripple and finding ways to give people a little bit of it. They’re making some sales, they’re creating some relevance,” she noted.

“Most importantly, they’re ready for when microdosing becomes legalised, which I think it probably will.”

This type of work is brave because it’s speculative and future-focused, Edwards acknowledged, but by making small bets, brands can ensure they move with the market.

Her next piece of advice was to “start from failure” – your brand’s or the category’s – because then you know where the boobytraps are.

“Whatever we say about failure – fail forward, fail fast, celebrate failure – I don’t think anyone likes it. It’s just not nice, is it? It’s not nice to fail. It’s not a nice feeling. And when it happens, everyone sort of slips away. They don’t celebrate it at all, they just move away quietly,” Edwards noted.

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However, once the emotion has gone, getting into the details of why an innovation didn’t work is crucial, she argued, the point being that while the execution may have been flawed, there could still be a consumer need to address.

Citing the example of Spotify, Edwards explained how the streaming firm gained traction with consumers after fixing issues around slow audio playback. CEO Daniel Ek asked the R&D team to rejig playback to run in half the time it takes to blink an eye. Despite some initial push back, within four months a working prototype had been produced.

“Failure is information. You can do something with it,” she said.

Finally, Edwards outlined the concept of frugal innovation, which she described as the “right kind of risk” for marketers. The idea involves innovating for your entry-level consumers, which is fuelled by supply side efficiencies.

She pointed to Emirates president Tim Clark, who earlier this year challenged suppliers to improve the airline’s economy seat without increasing the price. For decades, Clark has claimed airlines don’t do enough for economy passengers, because all the profit comes from business and first class. In the early days of Emirates, he worked with the team to reduce seat weight by 18 kilograms to help elevate the economy experience.

“What Tim Clark recognises is that actually this is an important thing to do commercially, because your entry-level economy flyer today is probably going to be your premium economy flyer tomorrow,” she explained.

Edwards argued new frugal innovation is brave, because brands can’t fund innovation via price hikes. However, she believes this is the “right kind of risk” because it improves customers’ lives and puts marketing at the heart of the organisation.