Our earth is 4.5 billion years old is filled with an abundance of experiences. These experiences have in-store in them useful learnings for all of us.
Are you starting a new business? Or are you already part of a business journey? Or are you interested in learning about entrepreneurship and branding? Mother Nature has take-aways for all of you to perceive your business in a way that provides you the best possible growth.
The invention of submarines was inspired by whales, airplanes were inspired by birds, while termites provided inspiration for creating a ventilation system.
When you look at the nature around you, you will observe a myriad of beautiful shapes, colors, and patterns. Their aesthetics is such that it makes us feel good when we are surrounded by them. Further, if we dig deeper to understand how they work, we learn a plethora of things about how they interact with their surroundings. These learnings from their beauty and function have served as an inspiration to many architects, designers, and engineers around the world to create buildings, products, processes, and much more. But can nature inspire entrepreneurs too? How could a squirrel making its house inspire a business plan?
In nature, animals often camouflage in their surroundings to protect themselves from their predators. There is a huge diversity that shows this trait, like turtles, chameleons, snakes, moths, owls, and much more. When an animal is camouflaged, its color and texture merge with its surroundings such that it is difficult to spot it out.
Unlike these animals, we want our business idea to be spotted out easily. If we keep repeating what others are doing, or have a new idea but are not able to put it across distinctively, our business will camouflage in the market and won’t be able to grow. To get spotted and valued in the market by our potential customers, we need to develop an idea that either solves a new need or an existing need of our customers differently and efficiently.
Proper market research helps you understand customer behavior and needs in a particular market. It will help you learn what is existing in the market and what can be added. By the end of the research, you will be able to measure the potential and scope of your business idea.
Quick Tip – You can design a survey form for your market research. Design questions that would lead you to gain insights into how your customers will interact with your business idea.
SWOT Analysis can serve as a useful tool when performing market research. It helps you analyze and develop a clear understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business.
To read further about how to conduct a SWOT Analysis you can read this article.
There exist beautiful mutual relationships in nature where two organisms depend on each other for their needs. These associations are peaceful and exist for a long time. There is a diversity of mutual relationships found in nature. One such example is that of Oxpeckers and grazing animals. Oxpeckers feed on ticks, flies, and other insects present on the body of these animals while the animal allows it to interact with its body and live on it. The bird gets food while the animal gets rid of ticks or insects.
Adopting mutualism in your business strategy is equivalent to investing at a potential point that gives benefits for the long term. When you form products or services that offer real value to your customers, they in return form a relationship with your business where they can make a consistent worthwhile investment. This win-win situation for your business and your clients is the beauty of a mutual relationship.
Quick Tip – Seek genuine reviews from your customers to improve your business and sync it with their needs from time to time. You can design your own process of taking customer reviews.
Koalas live only on Eucalyptus trees as they feed on their leaves. These marsupials are only found in areas that have these trees in good numbers and density. Eucalyptus provides Koalas with the perfect environment for their growth which they cannot find elsewhere. There are many organisms in nature that are like Koalas and which grow to their full potential only in certain habitats. The right habitat provides the right environment and food for their growth.
This phenomenon of growth applies to business as well. Each and every business idea is meant for a particular audience segment in the market. Understanding and defining the target audience clearly and figuring out ways to reach them is the pathway to grow your business effectively.
Once you define your target audience, you can develop their persona map which will help you define their demographics, needs, interests, motivations, and pain points. Persona mapping can help you design suitable marketing strategies to apply to your business.
Further, analyzing your audience engagement helps you understand who is viewing your website and how they navigate it. You can know about their interaction with your social media content through different parameters.
Quick Tip – You can use tools like Hubspot, Hotjar, Google Analytics, and Facebook Insights to get extensive information about your user responses.
Mother Nature provides beautiful colour pallets, patterns, and designs that are visually appealing and attractive. You would see nature’s creations with vibrant colours juxtaposed with subtle ones that make them look alluring. It offers a wide range of earthy colours too which feel soothing to the eyes. It has gradients and different colour combinations that are visually harmonious and soothing to the eyes.
There is ample inspiration that we can get from nature’s colour palette. We can use these colour combinations in our website design. There are many elements that we may wish to highlight on our website where we can use vibrant colours. Depending upon our brand language and style, we can pick up colour and design elements from nature.
You can know more about how to choose your brand colours by reading this article.
Quick Tip – Define your brand core values and vision before choosing aesthetic inspiration from nature as it will help you know your needs which would further guide you in selecting appropriate visual elements.
From the birth of a baby to the growth of a tree, nature has its own pace. The life cycles in nature are inherently consistent and patient. Undoubtedly, nature accomplishes an efficient functional and aesthetic formation as a result of its consistency and pace.
In a similar manner, accomplishing a business target in a stepwise process holds certain significance. Following a process-oriented approach might require a lot of patience and effort but it is rewarding in the long term. Just like nature, the business also requires small consistent steps and long-term planning in order to accomplish a strong presence in the market. A well-established business leads to earning greater profits.
The environment in nature keeps on changing, the situations around life are never constant. Sometimes, when these situations become unfavorable for the survival of a living being, it needs to adapt according to the circumstances in order to continue its life. This gives rise to the need for evolution. In nature, a plethora of organisms evolve in different ways to suit the needs of the environment. One such example is that of a group of lizards that lived in the base of a tree trunk. Gradually as their native place was invaded by brown lizards, they started shifting to the treetop. In order to survive on the treetop, they grew extra sticky feet over the years.
These lizards just like other organisms in Nature set examples for us that there is always a way out to evolve and survive. Just like these lizards, your business also needs to evolve according to the changing scenarios of the market in order to survive and grow better. We need to keep a check on each and every aspect of our business and make sure it is doing better in regard to the current market scenario.
Our target market comprises our potential customers who live in a world that is constantly changing. Understanding this change and how it is affecting our customers from time to time helps us modify our business strategies accordingly. Staying updated with the digital trends help in drawing out the best ways of marketing your offerings which leads to effective customer engagement.
Opening a new brand or running an existing business is a complex process that requires thought processes and decision-making at different levels. In such a case, nature is present to provide a framework of perceptions that can ease out the complexity by showing clear ways of going about building a strong brand.
By understanding how nature works and aligning our business strategies with its learnings, we can make a difference.
At ANS Commerce, we take care of everything e-commerce for your brand while you focus on your brand core values and product. We offer brand store tech, performance marketing, marketplace management, and e-commerce warehousing & fulfillment.
To connect with our team of professionals, you can request your free DEMO today.
