Five lessons non-consumer brands can learn from the consumer brand playbook

That mindset is spreading well beyond consumer goods. In nearly every sector we work with – energy, transportation, life sciences, even heavy infrastructure – companies are realizing the end consumer is central to their value equation, whether they sell to them directly or not.

A decade ago, few utilities imagined they’d need a mobile app. Now, customers track home energy use and compare providers on their phones. Life sciences firms once focused entirely on physicians; now, patients arrive informed about every therapy on the market. Airports once measured success by throughput. Today, they’re judged by experience.

Every company has, in some sense, become a consumer company. Here are five things I suggest non-consumer brands should take from the consumer brand playbook to accelerate growth.

1. Start with the end consumer

Most companies start with what they can build, not what people need. Engineering and R&D have historically driven decision-making in utilities, energy and life sciences. But when you start from the consumer, everything changes.

If you’re designing an airport terminal, don’t just think about passenger volume and cost per enplanement. Think about what frustrates travelers, such as traffic bottlenecks, confusing signage, a lack of places to work or rest and design to eliminate those frictions. Portland International Airport, for example, turned its renovation into a celebration of local culture with reclaimed materials and its now-iconic carpet. The result: a civic landmark that people photograph, not just pass through.

Design thinking begins with empathy. Walk in the footsteps of the people you serve and make their experience the organizing principle for everything you build.

2. Define what your brand stands for

For decades, only consumer companies invested heavily in brand storytelling. They recognized that strong brands build trust and simplify consumer choices. But today, every company is a brand – it’s just a question of whether you manage it intentionally.

Take tech. ChatGPT and DuckDuckGo both offer ways to search and gather information but differentiate on values. One defined a new approach to search anchored in conversational tone; the other built a platform entirely focused on privacy. Each has a loyal audience. As consumers gain visibility into what companies stand for, those values become a source of trust or tension.

PA Consulting’s Brand Impact Index 2025 shows customers are far more loyal to companies that align with their values and demonstrate a positive impact in the world. That expectation now cuts across every sector, from energy and insurance to logistics and healthcare.

If your brand doesn’t clearly stand for something, consumers will find one that does.

3. Devour data to make better decisions

Consumer brands are always gathering data to understand customer needs. It isn’t just about taking the odd survey. It’s about understanding what people are doing and saying and seeing across your ecosystem.

A medtech company might sell through physicians, but patients are now walking into offices with research, comparisons and preferences in hand. The most successful companies listen to those end consumers even when the transaction flows through an intermediary.

The same applies to public infrastructure. When you build a toll road, rail station or smart city project, you’re shaping human experiences. Ethnographic research and social listening can reveal frustrations or delights that other data doesn’t capture.

Even if you don’t think of your business as a brand, there are conversations about your brand happening somewhere. The question is whether you’re listening.

4. Don’t sleep on packaging

Consumer brand companies know packaging and promotion help sell a great product. These companies are masterful at simplifying complex benefits into simple communications and creating a beautiful first impression.

For non-consumer companies, the “packaging” might be the tech platform or app that connects you to your customers. Paying an energy bill, managing a prescription, or booking airport parking all happen through an app or portal, which is often one of the most direct ways that a consumer experiences your brand. Or it can be the physical packaging and instructions a medical device arrives in. Clear messaging and seamless aesthetics can make a world of difference in these interactions.

Every company should think about how they dress the product or service they sell. Sweat the details and communicate your proposition clearly at every customer touchpoint. Whether your packaging comes in the form of an app or a box, it may well be the most visible expression of your brand.

5. Use AI to enhance experiences

Many companies view AI through an operational lens – automation, cost-cutting, faster analysis. But there’s a transformational opportunity in using AI to digest end user data to make experiences more personal and intuitive.

AI can help synthesize large and small data, from millions of behavioral signals to hours of customer interviews, revealing unmet needs faster and guiding better design. Consumer companies are building powerful engines to integrate social signals with first party data and primary research to make insight a competitive advantage.

AI is also transforming how people discover and compare products. We’ve entered the age of agentic commerce, where consumers ask digital assistants for recommendations. Understanding how your brand shows up in that AI-mediated world is fast becoming the currency of connected commerce.

Efficiency matters, but harnessing data signals to meet people where they are and enhance their daily experiences builds lasting loyalty.

From supply-side to demand-led design

Consumer brand companies that thrive start with demand. They understand the smallest unit of customer need and build backward from there. The same paradigm shift is now empowering non-consumer brands to differentiate in other markets.

GLP-1s are a case in point. This class of drugs, once limited to endocrinology practices, has transformed the wellness space and accelerated the consumerization of drug sales. This shift has forced pharmaceutical companies to begin thinking like brands, from demand generation and lifestyle positioning to direct-to-consumer storytelling that meets patients where they already are.

When you start with the end consumer, you don’t just make better products – you make better decisions. This mindset keeps your organization grounded in what people actually value and forces every team, from R&D to marketing to finance, to stay connected to the world outside their walls.

Whether you’re in the business of consumer goods, transportation hubs or life-saving therapies, in a world where every product is an experience and every experience travels fast, the “brands” that stay closest to demand will be the ones people remember.

This article was first published in Forbes.