New Detail for Retail: Five Ways Creative Leadership Helps Value Co-Creation

The retail brand proposition has been thoroughly disrupted with response times reduced from weeks to seconds for a customer that expects immediacy, immersive experiences, and empathy – irrespective of platform.

But the retail sector is grappling with supply chain volatility, shrinking margins, and a digitally savvy consumer, making traditional leadership models reminiscent of the landline era for communication. To meet the new challenges, the retail industry doesn’t just need transformation — it needs reinvention, driven by creative leadership that is adaptive, imaginative, and capable of absorbing complexity and delivering value. Leaders need to be able to see the counterintuitive aspects of competitive advantage, such as Service-Dominant Logic.

Service-Dominant Logic (S-DL) is anything but logical. The core idea is that value is not delivered but co-created with the customer. For example, if a customer purchases a microwave, the value is only fully realised over time as the item is repeatedly used. The customer gets additional benefits from convenience every time they need a meal: for example, how time will be saved whenever they use the product. The selling price of the product may have been at a substantial discount, but value is built up over time as the product ‘serves’ the consumer’s needs. S-DL is a world that goes beyond gross margin value, where the goods themselves are merely distribution channels for value.

With the converse goods-dominant perspective, the product is ‘used up’ during consumption. A new car is more expensive than a second-hand one, but not so for the customer who has made the purchase: value is created over the years of hassle-free motoring. The bottom line is this: the customer is the ultimate creator of value – not the producer. A movie that one person enjoys, may be hated by another. It’s still the same movie, but different value is created. The same applies for all retail categories, from fashion to furniture to fuel. So, a new imperative for retail is value co-creation.

Here are 5 ways to support customers in value co-creation

1. Give the customer a great experience. Why the layout of the appliance manual is in 5-point font remains a modern mystery? Although the time has passed when you weren’t sure if the toaster came with its own plug, progress remains slow – the model number for the appliance is often at the back.
2. Inspire the customer. Show them what other customers are doing with the product. For example, recipes (and celebrities) help us co-create value with our air fryers.
3. Motivate the customer. This can be push (when your smart watch tells you to move) or pull (it tells you your steps for the day).
4. Educate. Show consumers how to realise value. Many people don’t know that the best way to clean a (severely) burnt pot is to use the pellet from the automatic dishwasher.
5. Introduce value. For example, car recalls do unfortunately happen – ut would be great to get your vehicle back with a nice box of chocolates. 

Creative Leadership is required to allow retail to be competitive beyond the table stakes of product and price. It needs deep human-centred reinvention that starts with developing and empowering its leaders. Orthodoxy must be challenged; results must be delivered, and fresh perspectives embraced.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Creative Leadership at Red & Yellow is built for this very purpose. It equips future leaders with the tools, mindsets, and frameworks to drive innovation in a complex world – where ideas must be bold, but also bankable. Commercial logic must mesh with creative magic, which is what we do at Red & Yellow.