Retailers told to challenge market norms with ‘intelligent naivety’

Flying Fish Lab’s Mario Braz de Matos urges firms to play to their strengths

Retailers must challenge long-held industry assumptions and rethink how they compete, rather than relying on traditional tools such as pricing and promotions, according to Mario Braz de Matos, co-founder and managing partner of Flying Fish Lab.

Speaking at the Retail Asia Summit 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Braz de Matos said companies should adopt “intelligent naivety” — a mindset that questions default ways of operating and opens up new strategic options.

“Don’t just accept—interrogate. Keep pressing on: why does it have to be this way, even when it feels obvious?” he said, comparing competition to sumo, where smaller players are structurally disadvantaged.

“Look at the problem and choose to play the game in a way that suits your strengths, not the strengths of how the market thinks you should operate,” he added.

Braz de Matos highlighted how Walmart applied this approach through its Bettergoods private label range. “They were a chef-inspired, trend-led platform around culinary exploration, plant-based, and more. All the while, most of it was under $5.”

The line launched with around 300 products and expanded to roughly 400 within a year, generating nearly $500m in sales and achieving a 40% repeat purchase rate.

Meanwhile, he pointed to the rise of “industrialised innovation,” where companies build systems to continuously develop and refine products at scale, rather than relying on one-off launches.

Spanish retailer Mercadona was cited as an example, operating 23 co-innovation centres, conducting 11,000 tests annually, and developing over 300 new products whilst relaunching 500 improved products each year.

Retailers are increasingly using cultural trends to shape products and engage consumers. Braz de Matos said successful private labels are becoming more trend-led and culturally relevant, pointing to Korean-inspired ranges influenced by K-pop and K-dramas.

However, he cautioned that these strategies depend on retailers’ ability to extract meaningful insights from data — an area where many still fall short despite having vast information at their disposal.

“You’re sitting on about 30 billion customer records globally. As we do this, 2.5 billion gigabytes are generated annually,” he said.

He added that whilst artificial intelligence can help process and connect data, it cannot replace human judgement in uncovering the motivations behind consumer behaviour.