When growth is scarce and costs are stubbornly high, the role of marketing becomes both more difficult and more important.

In the latest edition of Marketing Week’s webinar series The Lowdown (28 January), editor-in-chief Russell Parsons was joined by Ian Whittaker, managing director and financial analyst at Liberty Sky Advisors; Helen Edwards, marketing columnist and director at Passionbrand; and Jennifer Bender columnist and associate partner at Ipsos Strategy 3, to discuss how marketers can navigate the year ahead.

Summing up the economic backdrop, Whittaker offered a characteristically blunt assessment: “The economy generally is okay, but it’s not great.” Growth is modest, inflation remains a concern and consumer confidence is fragile.

“Nobody is thinking that it’s going to be a year of celebration,” he added. “Consumer confidence is relatively low, but consumers still continue to spend, and we still have the issue of inflation to deal with.”

2026 marks 10 years since consumer confidence was last in positive territory

Pricing power is built, not assumed

One of the strongest themes to emerge from the discussion was the renewed importance of brand strength in protecting price. Reflecting on the inflationary shock of recent years, Whittaker described it as “a vast, unplanned experiment during 2022 and 2023 of just how powerful brand strength can be for protecting prices”.

“What actually happened was that companies pushed through those price increases and more. And when you listened to what CEOs and CFOs were saying, a very common theme was the strength of the brand that had enabled them to do it,” he said.

He believes that experience has changed boardroom thinking. “There is always a temptation in this sort of environment to go into cost-cutting mode,” Whittaker warned. “But if firms are looking to push through price increases, a very strong indicator of success will be the strength of the brand. Many CEOs have now realised that.”

The cost of shrinkflation

If raising headline prices is difficult, many brands have turned to shrinkflation. But the panel was clear that this is not a neutral tactic.

“It’s a judgement call,” said Edwards. “You have to know your brand equity and how far consumers will go with you. Trust is hard won over years and years. Strong brands will forgive a few failures, but they won’t keep forgiving you.”

Edwards was particularly sceptical about the idea that marketing communications can compensate for value erosion. “I’m not sure that ‘we’ll indulge in a bit of shrinkflation, but we’ll give them some great ads’ is a trade-off you can make,” she said. “Shrinkflation has the potential to undermine brand trust, and once that goes, you’ve got a much bigger problem.”

Revenue growth is increasingly being driven by pricing rather than volume.

Ian Whittaker

Rather than relying on covert price tactics, the panel argued that innovation offers a more sustainable route to value creation. But this requires marketers to take ownership of innovation, not treat it as a periodic project.

“When you’re facing economic stasis, marketers are the ones who have to provide imaginative solutions,” Edwards said. “Finance is paid to be cautious. Ops are restrictive. HR is looking for talent at the lowest possible price. If marketers aren’t bringing creative solutions to the table, who is?”

Innovation, she argued, must operate on multiple levels at once. “You need incremental innovation, bold innovation and disruptive innovation. It’s not something you do at the end of the year when you ask, ‘what’s our innovation plan?’”

Values, trust, anticipation: What next for price innovation in 2026?

Rethinking portfolios, not diluting brands

Bender highlighted the opportunity for brands to rethink their portfolios rather than weaken their core propositions.

“If you’ve built up trust as a premium brand, how do you avoid the pitfall of shrinkflation?” she asked. “It may be time for a completely new product at a different price point, or a spin-off within your brand architecture, rather than changing the core offer in a way that damages trust.”

For Bender, the bigger issue is how innovation is framed. “Where brands tend to innovate is starting with current capabilities and current products,” she said. “But that limits growth. We need to broaden the aperture and really think about where growth is going to come from in the future.”

Strong brands will forgive a few failures, but they won’t keep forgiving you.

Helen Edward, Passionbrand

That future-focused mindset matters because innovation is not just about solving today’s problems. “It’s about anticipating emerging needs,” she added, “so you’re not just reacting, but building meaningful, sustainable growth.”

Across pricing and innovation, trust emerged as a common theme. “Brands are a mark of trust,” Edwards underlined. “In times of uncertainty, when budgets are tough, you are more reliant on that trust than ever. Consumers are buying trust and we’d better deliver it.”

That places marketers in a uniquely strategic role. While cost pressures may dominate short-term discussions, the long-term ability to price, innovate and grow depends on decisions being made now.

As Whittaker concluded: “Revenue growth is increasingly being driven by pricing rather than volume. If that’s the case, it shouldn’t be too hard to tie the need for pricing power back to what marketing brings to the table.”