The Barbell Advantage

Why premium and value win while the middle erodes

Introduction: Why the Middle Is Thinning

Across FMCG and consumer electronics, the middle of the market is quietly collapsing. Consumers are not abandoning brands; they are polarising. They trade down when value feels invisible and trade up when meaning feels justified. What disappears is the mid-priced, middle-purpose offer: products without a story strong enough to earn a premium, and without a price sharp enough to defend penetration.

This is the environment where barbell strategies thrive. A barbell strategy builds strength at both ends of the portfolio: premium propositions that carry emotion, aspiration, and margin; and value propositions that deliver access, penetration, and resilience. The strategic shift is away from the middle, the crowded space where most competitors still fight for share.

Economic pressure, changing retail channels, and a more informed consumer base have made this duality not a choice but a necessity. The premium story sustains equity and aspiration; the value story sustains reach and relevance. The brands that succeed today are those that manage both with precision.

What a Barbell Strategy Is and Isn’t.

Barbell strategy is often mistaken for a form of premiumisation. It is not. Premiumisation assumes that consumers will always stretch up if the story is good enough. A barbell approach accepts that it will also stretch down, and plans accordingly. It recognises that value-seeking behaviour is not a failure of branding but a structural feature of mature markets.

A proper barbell strategy is not about managing two price points; it is about managing two value systems. The premium side builds brand desire, emotional differentiation, and margin leverage. The value side protects frequency, market coverage, and entry routes for new buyers. Both require distinct innovation pipelines, pack architectures, and channel strategies, yet both must reinforce the same brand truth.

The middle, by contrast, is strategically unstable. It absorbs cost increases without margin headroom and faces substitution pressure from both directions. The best companies now treat the middle not as a growth zone but as a transition space: a testing ground for ideas that will either scale up to premium or simplify down to value.

In essence, the barbell is not about polarisation for its own sake. It is about resilience through specialisation.