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How Verbal Brand Tactics Can Boost Business Resilience 

From AI to Gen Z, disruptive forces are challenging the delivery of your brand promise. Here’s how an innovative verbal strategy can protect it. 

Today, verbal branding has become a critical strategy that powers everything from the ethos and expression of a brand’s positioning to the defining characteristics of its personality and tone to its advertising, marketing, content, sales and experiences. 

But a confluence of fast-moving forces are disrupting how brands deliver on their promise. As behavioral and attitudinal trends evolve and accelerate, the role and impact of a brand’s verbal identity are evolving too.  

Growth-oriented brands looking to stay ahead will need to adapt their verbal strategies to navigate new — and sometimes seemingly competing — imperatives to maintain relevance, share of voice, ROI, growth and resilience.  

Tension #1: Showing Up Authentically in an Era of Skepticism 

Consumers increasingly want brands to be authentic, share their values, and communicate transparently. Indeed, 86% of consumers say authenticity is crucial when choosing brands to support. And 92% of marketers believe consumers perceive their content as authentic — yet 57% of consumers think less than half of brands actually are authentic. 

It may feel difficult to balance authenticity with credibility; you want to communicate expertise, leadership and your competitive differentiation, which might feel at odds with younger consumers’ preferences for less polished, imperfect and casual content, especially on platforms like TikTok and YouTube. 

At a time when 52% of consumers say they keep authentic brands in mind when considering future purchases, but 20% would unfollow a brand if it appeared inauthentic, getting the balance right is critical.  

Takeaway

It’s not always clear what being authentic means, looks like and requires across the organization at both the macro and the micro level. So, it’s important for stakeholders to work cross-functionally to unpack and define authenticity — is it being more transparent? More relatable? Is it a tonal shift? Operational? — for the brand and customers, along with how you might deliver. 

Macro authenticity might include instituting new ways to support transparency, like codifying a process to stay ahead of and communicate changes, such as price increases, to your audiences. It could mean taking a fresh look at your organization’s values and instituting new behaviors and metrics. Maybe it means operationalizing empathy, such as integrating new social listening and response tools. It could mean updating your marketing plan to include relevant niche micro-influencers instead of major influencers (or using influencers for the first time). 

On the micro level, authenticity might mean softening hard-sell language and hyperbole on your website, updating call center scripts, incorporating short-form video and behind-the-scenes moments, rewriting product descriptions so they read plainly, adding customer testimonials and using a more conversational, approachable or inclusive tone. This can build trust and a willingness to follow, driving engagement, affinity and loyalty.  

As brands strive to be more authentic and accessible through language and tone, it can be tempting to mirror popular slang. The problem is that language changes fluidly—and quickly, driven by social media and today’s digital instant feedback loop. That means it ages just as quickly; what worked two years ago can already feel incredibly out of date, or worse, out of touch. In fact, some reports show language changes happening within a year.  

The rate of linguistic change can make different cohorts feel like they’re speaking entirely different languages at times. For instance, in one report, 30% of Gen X workers said they struggle to understand millennial and Gen Z co-worker slang. Yet brands still need to connect in a way that’s modern and relatable.  

The answer isn’t to brush up on Gen Z or Gen Alpha slang. As Jessi Greiser, an assistant professor of English Linguistics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, said in an interview, “One of the death knells for slang is when it shows up in corporate social media. When [brands like Wendy’s are] saying, ‘Come vibe with our Baconator’ — that’s it. It’s over.” 

So, if the solution isn’t to add a bank of slang to your brand book, what should brands do to authentically connect? 

Takeaway 

First, know there’s a difference between how your audiences speak and how they want to be spoken to. In some of our work across media and entertainment, for instance, we found Gen Z content creators want brands to speak to them, not like them, preferring a tone that sits between professional, conversational and encouraging.  

Second, dive into your customer data, social listening tools and key metrics, and/or conduct new research to find the sentiments, attitudes and behaviors behind your audiences’ communication styles. Do the same to surface their communication needs and preferences, then update your tone of voice principles to play in this sweet spot.  

And third, don’t look at your verbal identity as something fixed and static, but rather dynamic, kind of like the “middleware” between the brand strategy and in-market activation. Just like software, it needs regular updates. Create intentional processes and cadences for teams to check in on the verbal brand regularly, say every six months, surfacing insights from digital marketing metrics, A/B copy tests, social listening, customer feedback, focus groups and the like. 

Tension #3: Balancing Performance Strategies with Brand Storytelling 

For the last 20 years, brands have increased their investment in demand or performance marketing and, along with it, focused on metrics like clicks and conversions. While these tactics drive short-term sales and gains, the over-reliance of performance marketing can negatively impact your brand equity, fragmenting the brand, creating an inconsistent experience for consumers and worse, one they don’t necessarily remember when it’s time to make a future purchasing decision. 

As we found in our new research report, “Brand and Demand: Marketing’s Great Love Story,” brand and demand don’t have to compete; instead, growth-oriented brands are doubling down on brand-first performance. That simply means bringing the brand story to performance touchpoints—indeed, delivering a consistent, cohesive story and experience can increase revenue by up to 20%. 

That’s challenged by the afore-mentioned instant digital feedback loop, especially on social and vocal consumers who have increasing ability (and willingness) to shift perception—and profitability—of a brand. It makes consistency an imperative because consistency builds trust, right along with your brand. And for 60% of people, a brand’s most important traits are trustworthiness and transparency. 

Takeaway 

Look to build consistency in brand storytelling across channels and platforms. One of the smartest ways to do this is by creating and codifying a brand voice and messaging strategy that’s modular yet cohesive. This gives both brand and demand teams the structure to stay on-brand, on-voice, on-message and on-strategy, but also the flexibility to adapt the message, story or tone to meet the needs of the specific moment, audience, channel or touchpoint.  

Tension #4: Balancing AI Speed to Market With Differentiation in Market 

Brands want to pump out content at scale, which is why companies of all sizes are experimenting with generative AI. And for good reason: it’s an incredible time-saving resource, especially if used to get ideas going, skim off surface fluff, brainstorm various angles and play with expression.  

The issue is trying to use AI to generate drafts and final content without assiduously evaluating and revising for brand voice, on-strategy messaging and copywriting best practices, such as understanding linguistic psychological triggers and optimizing for conversion.  

What we’re beginning to see as a result of the latter is that large language models (LLMs) are challenging differentiation with generic content that’s threatening to create homogeny at scale. LLMs aren’t thinking or reasoning; they’re guessing which word comes next in a sequence, based on what they’ve been trained on. (And increasingly LLMs are having to train on content they’ve churned out already, leading to worries that it will all devolve into nonsense in a phenomenon called model collapse. But that’s a conversation for another day.)  

Takeaway 

Brands can combat the slide into homogenization by prioritizing specificity and precision in language to differentiate amid the flood of AI content. That means being intentional about surfacing strong and credible proof points, being specific about offers and differentiators, being precise with language to credibly demonstrate value and continually training your LLM on your brand voice. 

It also means balancing productivity with best practice and brand governance, such as retaining a copy director, content manager, managing editor, editorial director or brand creative director of copywriting to manage and evaluate generative AI output. Roles like these can make a significant impact on the quality and effectiveness of content assisted by AI; LLMs can help generate ideas, angles and different modes of expression and your editorial director can then spend their time on more impactful work, such as punching up creativity, elevating tone of voice, devising A/B tests or sharpening copy best practices. 

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Words have never held so much power—and potential—as they do today. By intentionally focusing on unpacking and operationalizing authenticity, connecting a cohesive brand story across touchpoints, enabling modularity and flexibility, and staying close to customer data, brands can create a dynamic verbal identity that flexes with the market, shields against disruption, and fuels growth. Language drives belief, buy-in and behavior, after all; not just words for brands but for brand world-building. 

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Three Brand Building Imperatives in Leading Successful M&A Deals 

Learn the importance of a well-defined brand strategy with three M&A examples.

Many businesses in Asia have achieved exponential growth through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in recent years. However, success hinges not just on immediate financial gains, but also on how the new organization (“NewCo”) integrates both operational and brand equities.  

A well-defined and executed brand strategy can significantly impact the overall business success during and post M&A by fostering cohesion, clarity and confidence among all stakeholders. This is especially true for B2B companies, where M&A deals often involve the evolution of not only organizational structures, but also offerings, processes, people and cultures. 

At Prophet, we have partnered with a diverse array of businesses across Asia and around the world to safeguard complex M&A deals, from which we’ve identified several common success factors. In this article, we share our perspectives with three distinctive case studies. 

Seatrium: Creating an “Atrium of People of the Sea” 

Keppel O&M and Sembcorp Marine, two leading global marine companies merged in 2023. As the industry strives towards cleaner and renewable energy, the two organizations came together to forge a new path forward. We identified an opportunity for the NewCo to differentiate with a stronger brand purpose – “We exist to ensure customers can thrive today while creating a greener and brighter tomorrow.​” The new visual identity was carefully crafted to highlight new waves of innovation in the marine environment. The name “Seatrium” created by the client also centered around this purpose.  

Vistra: Building a “Category of One” From the Inside out

EQT Private Capital Asia (formerly BPEA EQT) made significant investments to merge Vistra and Tricor, forming a powerhouse brand in the corporate and fund solutions industry. With its diversified business portfolio, Vistra embarked on a bold transformation journey, reimagining itself as a purpose-led brand. From beginning to end, Prophet worked closely with employees and stakeholders in the extensive brand, visual and culture development process to make sure that it resonates with those who embody the brand and culture.   

G7 Connect: Connecting all with a Human-Centric Brand Story 

Another powerful example is G7 Connect, born from a merger of two leading IoT SaaS companies in China’s road freight sector, G7 and E6 Technology. After a successful merger, G7 Connect had two key challenges – to clearly define its renewed vision and engage all stakeholders, while streamlining the currently complex portfolios inherited from two industry giants. Prophet partnered with the  NewCo to create an impactful and human-centric brand tagline, “Beautiful change happens now” to encapsulate G7 Connect’s commitment to continuously creating positive changes for all industry participants through digital technology.  

Three Brand Building Imperatives  

Through these examples, we can clearly see the common threads that empowered their successful transformations – a steadfast and consistent purpose and the unification of diverse stakeholders. The role of a compelling brand strategy cannot be understated, which unveils three imperatives: 

1. Adopt a Brand-Led Mindset in the Early Stages of M&A Deals 

Transformation across the culture and organization, business model and objectives are an integral component of any merger and acquisition. This must be led by a strong brand purpose anchored in business objectives as a guiding star for the organization throughout the M&A process.  

As the strategic foundation translating business objectives into resonating go-to-market solutions, this brand-led vision must be a CEO agenda adopted from the early set of M&A deals to instil energy and confidence throughout the organizations. Lack of a brand-led vision may lead to risk of misalignment across functions and hindered collaboration, ultimately causing suboptimal and inconsistent executions.  

In the case of G7 Connect, the leadership team had carefully considered brand implications at every step of the M&A journey, so that cross-functional leads were united under a common goal. Strategic priorities were thus clearly defined when it comes to creating a new brand for the NewCo. At launch, various business units from operational to talent teams had already reached clear alignment with the marketing and strategy teams, gaining a thorough understanding of the new brand and its purpose, thus empowered to plan and execute innovative marketing activations in an effective way. 

2. Unite Diverse Audience Groups with a Human-Centered Brand Story 

M&A deals often bring together multifaceted stakeholder groups with diverse priorities, values, and interests, spanning from investors, employees, partners, to customers, government entities and the public. With a clarified purpose, the NewCo must articulate their objectives and vision through a compelling brand story to unite all stakeholders behind a common goal. Human-centered storytelling is instrumental in resonating with different audiences within the stakeholder ecosystem who have distinctive perspectives and expectations. 

For example, while Seatrium’s vision was to forge a new way forward for the O&M and energy industry, it also aimed to create meaningful impact for employees, Singapore, and shareholders. By immersing ourselves in the cultures and perspectives of different stakeholders, we combined the strengths from both organizations to retain their unique DNA. At the core, Seatrium’s new brand purpose is centered around people, customers and its culture, while striving for engineering and execution excellence. This human-centered approach is the key enabler for the organization’s success after the M&A. 

Beyond establishing a strong brand identity externally, an impactful brand story also helps to harmonize organizational structures and foster a unified organizational culture. As organizational changes bring about uncertainties, incorporating the brand story to develop a comprehensive EVP (Employee Value Proposition) and employee engagement strategy is critical.  

3. Optimize Brand Architecture to Demonstrate Amplified Value 

The brand portfolios of the individual entities must not exist in isolation post M&A, as this could lead to confusion of the customers and the dilution of each brand’s equity. Guided by its new brand purpose and positioning, NewCo must clarify its brand portfolio and architecture strategy in order to identify new or redefined offers.  

Additionally, this will demonstrate the change and evolution in the business model and ambition, as well as the amplified value delivered to various stakeholders. 

With Vistra’s expansion through M&A, it was crucial to harmonize the sub-brands within the portfolio. Through competitor and industry analysis, we adopted a strategic, data-driven approach, creating a decision tree that gives management flexibility to organize all sub-brands effectively. This will help build a relevant, credible and differentiated brand portfolio. 

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Embracing a brand-led mindset, uniting diverse audience groups with a human-centered brand story and optimizing brand architecture are indispensable imperatives for steering successful M&A deals. By creating a powerful and resonant brand for NewCo, organizations can achieve sustainable growth beyond short-term financial and operational returns.

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Transforming Healthcare: Advocate Health’s Shift to Platforms 

In Conversation: Exploring the Journey of Building Momentum and Implementing a Platform in a Health System

Jeff Gourdji, Senior Partner at Prophet, spoke with a number of healthcare leaders to learn more about the challenges and opportunities for platform thinking in healthcare. Here, he speaks with Jamey Shiels, SVP Consumer & Digital Experience at Advocate Health, on the process of driving momentum for and implementing a platform in a health system. 

Deploying a platform approach will be crucial for businesses to thrive going forward. As our colleagues Ted Moser, Charlotte Bloom, and Omar Akhtar observe in their book, “Winning Through Platforms: How to Succeed When Every Competitor Has One” platforms illuminate parts of the customer journey that have historically been dark by enabling companies to have a better, holistic understanding of how customers engage with the organization. In the last decade or so, health systems have begun to observe customers during the “choose” part of the journey, but platforms could enable health systems to understand the “use” part of the journey and how to personalize it to consumers.     

In this illuminating interview with Jamey Shiels of Advocate Health, he shares how he overcame the barriers to building a platform – from driving organizational buy-in to clearly defining a set of metrics to measure key experiences. He highlights how a clear connection between patient needs and business requirements was key to demonstrating potential impact and showcasing the value for a health system in adapting a platform approach. 

What enabled you to align the leadership that platforms were the right move for the business? 

First, our Chief Marketing Officer at the time, Kelly Jo Golson, made [the LiveWell platform] a priority for our brand marketing and experience teams. She determined we were going to be a consumer first organization and platforms were the way to get there. She was able to onboard senior leadership to that vision and align support across the enterprise. 

Second, we built a consumer-first executive committee that allowed us to bring [together] all the key stakeholders that knew we were going to need — Operations, Medical Group, Finance, HR were all in the room with us as we presented the strategy, got buy in and support, and achieved goal alignment.  

Third, we developed a set of metrics called ‘ease of use’ metrics that measure different encounters patients have on the platform and allow consumers to give feedback. We created a closed feedback loop [that allows us to] make improvements that both benefit the consumer as well as the operational people on the other side. We also built those metrics into our incentive plan, so anybody in the organization who was incentive eligible was very interested in embedding the platform into their day-to-day work.  

How did the business determine implementing a platform strategy was beneficial for the reputation of Advocate Health and its success? 

Our challenge was– especially in healthcare – ‘consume’ means ‘use’ and doesn’t mean ‘choose.’ The idea of a patient as a consumer was difficult for some to understand, so we had to go upstream and find a way to understand consumer choice.  

We first aligned consumer insights to our core business metrics of awareness and acquisition. We wanted to go into market with a brand and an experience that would encourage consumers to choose us before [they] use us. 

The second step was in the form of acquisition. Consumers are looking for their wants and needs [to be met when] finding a physician. Therefore, we looked into some of the metrics that the operations team was using in the onboarding experience and connected those to the clinical experience to demonstrate if we lift consumer metrics, we can lift business metrics. That connection between what matters most to consumers with what matters to the businesses was key.  

“I think that’s where platforms can really play a role, by making those connections and making them much easier than they historically have been.” 

Was there a specific leader whose support was crucial in getting marketing, compliance, and clinical leaders on board with this initiative? 

The key leader was our Chief Operating Officer, who had accountability for the medical group, operations, and P&L for the organization and knew the different parts of the business that we needed to align with.  

A big piece [of getting alignment] was saying: ‘We want to co-create this with your team.’ We emphasized how we’re solving consumer needs as well as the business problems.  

Can you talk about the capabilities you built in the platform as you started to build momentum? 

The core functionality that needs to be in a platform is your EHR and transactional HR data. We wrapped that EHR data with a fledgling platform. That gave us the infrastructure to start to add features that improved the patient and clinical experience – and extended into health and wellness.  

We’re also working on integrating third party products into the platform for care-at-home and digital therapeutics. We want to create a true multi-sided marketplace for healthcare that connects health and wellness creators to consumers.   

What was the role of the clinicians in all this? What role are they now playing in advocating for the platform? 

Whether it was governance or co-creation, [clinicians] needed to have a voice in the room. We designed a partnership with a clinical leadership team [to drive] co-creation across the board. We asked: ‘How does this improve your work and fit into your day?’ The benefit is that now, when you go into one of our physicians’ offices, you’ll hear them talk about LiveWell.  

“We’ve seen continued uptake with LiveWell; it is now fully embedded in the operations of our organization.” 

What operational challenges were you solving for with platforms? 

There are three problem areas that we’ve looked at over the last few years: 

  1. Online scheduling takes call volume out. When you can message your provider in a secure platform it reduces call volume at the front desk, but you have to ensure you can manage and service the messages on behalf of physicians. 
  2. We have a mail order pharmacy that in our Midwest region generates 7 million calls a year related to prescription refill. We think we can take half of that out through new systems automation feature functionality in the platform.  
  3. E-Check-In, self service capabilities built in the platform make the consumer’s life easier and helps the frontline staff.  

Where is the platform going in the future? 

“We think the idea of platforms as a business model [in healthcare] for the benefit of consumers and the business is where the future is.” 

The challenge we’re facing from a healthcare perspective is the battle for the soul of the platform. Is that going to be the EHR? Vendors? EPIC primarily? Or third parties? Or are the health systems going to try to step up? Do you want to differentiate within your market, and do you want to deliver an exceptional consumer experience?  

“We’re going to go big into the platform space because we think it is the right decision for our business, and the future of business.” 

About Jamey: As Senior Vice President, Consumer and Digital Experience at Advocate Health, Jamey Shiels leads enterprise activities focused on creating a personalized and seamless consumer experience that improves engagement and health outcomes as well as business value through growth and cost-savings.  

About Jeff: Jeff Gourdji is a Senior Partner at Prophet and is responsible for leading client engagements across the firm’s range of solutions. As a leader of Prophet’s healthcare industry practice, Jeff works with clients across the healthcare ecosystem, including provider systems, payers, healthcare technology and life sciences companies. 

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Transformation in healthcare is not a new topic but rethinking how a health system organizes itself to better observe, engage with, and deliver value to consumers is. Health systems that are infusing platform thinking into their organizations are starting to see the immediate return on those efforts – as well as the path ahead to greater impact across the communities they serve. Now is the time to activate and advance platforms in health systems, reimagine how an organization is set up to deliver a full continuum of engagement, differentiate against competitors and elevate the value delivered to consumers  

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Brand & Demand:
Marketing’s Great Love Story

As marketers, we know that integrating brand and demand tactics drives the greatest ROI. When done right, it leads to better outcomes for both marketing and the business, in the short and long term. Our report offers six ways to help marketers swipe right on stronger relationships—because great connections lead to growth.

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Report Highlights

Turn your marketing relationship from ‘it’s complicated’ to ‘happily ever after.’  

  • Insights on how to instill brand-demand synergy across marketing budget and investment, strategic planning, marketing operations, culture and internal and external partnerships. 
  • A relationship guide with six ways to generate more value from brand and demand. 
  • Actionable advice and real-world examples from leading marketers.

Unleashing the full power of brand and demand is about more than how you spend your marketing dollars.

Ensure that brand and demand have shared business goals and incentives.

Let the brand and demand teams’ shared passion for customers help guide decisions on what is important.

Integration is not about compromise, but about “bothism,” being great at brand and demand. Harness the power of logic and creativity in a culture of respect and trust.

The journey will not be easy. Expect to fail sometimes. Take action to not only survive constant change but thrive in it.

What gets measured, gets managed. Think about short and long-term at the same time. Confidently manage immediate and sustained metrics and prove this value to stakeholders.

Marketers live inside of and are core drivers of complex organizational ecosystems. Be a connector and orchestrator, working with multiple departments and stakeholders.

Get all the insights on how to integrate brand and demand marketing in our new research report.

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“Marketing should always be focused on both brand and demand. Brand is the #1 asset that we will sell every day. If it’s unhealthy… there will be no demand.”

Alicia Tillman | DELTA AIR LINES
Chief Marketing Officer

“It’s hard to orchestrate in a coordinated way – how do you bring brand and demand together in the higher parts of the funnel?”

Dipti Kachru | BROADRIDGE
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Today’s marketers are under increasing pressure to deliver measurable value from their investments. We empower CMOs to build marketing organizations that not only meet these demands but also drive uncommon growth.

Our approach focuses on the real challenges marketing leaders face, emphasizing the importance of strategic marketing planning, agility, experimentation, flexibility and a steadfast commitment to accelerating growth.

Prophet’s team of brand and marketing experts helps you develop holistic marketing strategies that integrate sustained brand and demand investment to create and deliver value. 

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The 5% Margin Growth You’re Missing by Overlooking Product Portfolio Strategy 

How to Maximize Profits and Reduce Costs by Prioritizing a Customer-Centric Product Portfolio Strategy.

In competitive business landscape, an inefficient product portfolio can significantly impact a company’s bottom line. Our experience shows that companies lacking a customer-centric product portfolio strategy and failing to manage their portfolios proactively can lose up to five percent in product margin. Moreover, these companies often incur 10-20% higher portfolio management costs than their peers who prioritize product portfolio management.  

The Foundation of an Efficient Product Portfolio: Understanding Your Customers 

A successful product portfolio strategy starts with a deep understanding of your customers. It’s crucial to know: 

  • What customer segments are there? What are their goals and needs? 
  • How do they choose products? What dimensions influence their decisions? 
  • What is important to them? Are we prioritizing features based on an “inside-out mindset” rather than actual customer preferences? 
  • What are the decision-making hierarchies? Which aspects come first, second, and third in their buying process? 

The answers to these questions should shape how you structure, build, and rationalize your product portfolio. They also guide how you allocate marketing budgets and internal resources, design packaging, organize store layouts, and structure your website. 

In this article, we share our thinking on how to create a customer-centric Portfolio strategy, using our Efficient Portfolio Model (Exhibit A.)   

Exhibit A

The Pitfalls of an “Inside-Out Mindset” 

Many companies falter by adopting an “inside-out mindset,” in which internal perceptions and engineering priorities drive product development. For instance, engineers might focus on technical features that seem crucial from a development standpoint but are not key factors in customer decisions. This approach often leads to overly complex portfolios that are hard for customers to navigate, potentially hampering sales and driving up management costs. And when the inevitable portfolio rationalization comes about, they rely on rough rules of thumb such as the 80/20 rule to remove the long-tail, rather than using customer-centric criteria.  

Aligning Product Development with Customer Needs 

Successful companies start with a thorough understanding of customer needs and behaviors, which inform the critical product dimensions. Customer research is essential to identify these “drivers of choice.” Effective methodologies we recommend include: Contextual Inquiry, in which participants are observed while they perform tasks and describe what they are doing; and Discrete Choice Modeling, in which the importance of different product dimensions, such as brand, price, size, and specific features, are quantified. 

By identifying choice dimensions and mapping them on a matrix, companies can analyze the market to identify key volume and value pockets, as well as growing or declining niches. Comparing the existing portfolio against these matrices allows companies to determine which products to keep and prioritize, which to potentially discontinue, and where new opportunities lie. This strategy provides long-term guidance and direction for R&D teams on where to focus future product development. 

Case Study: Streamlining for Success 

For one of our FMCG clients, a detailed analysis revealed that 80% of the sales volume and value in their category were concentrated in three product hotspots across most markets. Based on this insight, we developed a product portfolio strategy that emphasized a “core” portfolio focusing on these hotspots. Additionally, we suggested an “excite” range of propositions to complement the core products, driving customer engagement and creating a buzz (Exhibit B.)

Exhibit B

Portfolio deployment guidelines were then developed to help markets roll out the product portfolio in the most impactful and efficient ways, depending on their specific context (e.g. new vs established markets, competitive intensity, etc.) (Exhibit C.)

Exhibit C

Leveraging Multi-Brand Strategies for Efficiency 

For companies managing multiple brands, this analytical approach can also identify opportunities for efficiency. By defining clearer roles for each brand in terms of the product territories they cover, companies can streamline their portfolios, potentially migrating propositions to align better with brand strengths and market opportunities. 

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In conclusion, managing a product portfolio efficiently is not just about cutting costs or maximizing current product margins. It’s about understanding your customers deeply, aligning your offerings with their needs, and making strategic decisions that drive long-term success. Don’t leave money on the table—invest in a well-managed product portfolio strategy and unlock significant margin improvements. 

Talk to us about the new world of growth. 

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Why Your Marketing Organization Isn’t Built to Support Growth 

Discover why optimizing your team’s alignment is key to achieving meaningful ROI and driving sustained success. 

CMOs have long talked about collapsing organizational silos, creating a single view of the customer, and fostering a genuinely holistic business approach. Many even fancy themselves as working toward that. But in today’s economic climate, where contributing to measurable, meaningful growth and aligning their goals to the business’ has become part of every CMOs charter, it will likely come as a surprise that others see marketing not as part of the solution but part of the problem: Recent research from Gartner finds that 55% of business collaborators say marketing inhibits the success of cross-functional initiatives. 

Too many marketing organizations are not built to support the needs of the business. Often, marketing isn’t contributing to growth in the way that it theoretically should, because it can’t. Misalignment between functions – frequently sales, marketing and product – has created a series of disintermediated metrics and key performance indicators. The result is that there is too little (and sometimes zero) alignment on business-level goals.  

The C-suite, especially CEOs and CFOs are losing patience and becoming more vocal about what matters: Return on investment. Revenue attribution. Pipeline progression. Intersection with sales. What they’re sick of hearing? More about marketing creative, Net Promoter Scores or metrics that are disconnected from financial performance. CMOs need to think in terms of business performance. 

As organizations integrate more demand generation capabilities into their strategy– this puts increased requirements on relevant content, integrated sales and marketing data, and the need for holistic customer experience understanding in too many ways, they are still a throwback to the decades-old approach of spraying, praying and pushing people along in the funnel.  

The entire marketing process must be optimized to support in-market demand generation use cases.  

We know it isn’t as sexy as spending on award-winning advertising campaigns. To find meaningful growth, CMOs need to focus on operating processes and lay the organization-wide groundwork for integrated brand-to-demand strategies. They need to think about GAAP performance measures in addition to Cannes, partnering closely across the C-suite to focus on business metrics.  

Is Your Organization Built for Growth? Answer These Three Questions 

CMOs have been sprinkling the right buzzwords into their strategy plans for years, and many talk a good game around the integration of brand and demand. However, the urgency is increasing: Sharper tech and increased focus on ROI make it increasingly futile for CMOs to hide outdated marketing processes. Growth-oriented CMOs should consider these three immediate-term steps and ask themselves:  

Are your brand and demand marketing teams truly integrated?

Think hard about the demand marketing processes already in place. Are they written into and coded within marketing automation? Is everyone clear about the brand governance touchpoints throughout the performance marketing process?  

What are we learning and where can we experiment to optimize our efforts?

Solution-focused CMOs are always looking for growth, which means establishing and piloting next-gen demand marketing use cases. This often starts with an evaluation of historical in-market performance against benchmarks to review areas for improvement and experimentation. These experiments must be ongoing, defining and pressure-testing updates to process and operating models. Those insights will help inform end-to-end campaigns that bring teams together, documenting and codifying the process from the very beginning, making it easier to replicate them. 

Does your team have the right mix of skills to deliver across both brand and demand requirements?

Customer-centric and growth-minded CMOs need to balance the right capabilities to deliver against expanded requirements of end-to-end brand and demand campaigns. This means having the ability to scale creative and content across channels and touchpoints AND supporting performance optimization with analytical rigor. 

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Most marketers would agree that this kind of work – inspecting, strengthening and rebuilding the pipelines of connectivity within an organization to better reach customers – is challenging and requires different leadership skills and priorities. For CMOs who are more focused on customer acquisition and retention, building internal bridges isn’t always a top priority. But the right mechanics will eliminate harmful silos, moving the organization towards defining a single, unified view of the customer that works throughout the organization.

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Growth Leadership: How Effective Leaders Drive Unstoppable Business Success 

To tackle today’s challenges and drive long-term success, leadership teams must continually evolve. Here, we outline how to shape effective leadership teams that can sustain momentum and navigate growth. 

This year, we’ve been focusing on uncommon growth – how to unlock, create and execute it. Our latest insights confirmed something we’ve always known: leadership is fundamental to successful, sustainable growth. But the wrong kind of leadership can be disastrous.

Take WeWork, for example. Poor governance and erratic leadership resulted in poor decision-making, ultimately costing the company $1.9 billion in revenue. At the Royal Bank of Scotland, a lack of banking experience and attention to risk led to a balance sheet that ballooned to £2.2 trillion (larger than the GDP of the UK) before collapsing.  

On the flip side, Adobe’s leadership transformation sparked innovation, doubling its stock performance between 2018 and 2021. Shantanu Narayen’s vision and the capabilities of his team led to continuous improvement and growth. Similarly, LEGO’s focus on culture and capabilities turned an $800 million debt into $600 million in profits. Even in sports, the All Blacks’ leadership has driven them to win 75% of their games. 

The takeaway? Leadership impacts an organization’s performance more than anything else. However, most are “teams of leaders” rather than true “leadership teams.” Our research shows that to drive sustainable growth, organizations need cohesive leadership teams, not just individual leaders. After years of working with teams at all levels, we’ve distilled key insights on how to shape effective leadership teams that can sustain growth.

1. Leadership Teams Need Continuous Nurturing and Development 

Leadership teams, like people, are living systems that require constant care. Our annual Catalyst Change research found that successful transformations are built on true collaboration, where enterprise and individual interests are integrated. Effective teams shift from an individual focus to a shared team mindset. Figure 1 illustrates this shift from a “team of leaders” to a “leadership team,” with shared goals and genuine collaboration at its core. 

Figure 1: Moving from a team of leaders to a leadership team 

In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, leadership teams must understand their needs and ensure their mindset, purpose and goals remain aligned with organizational and stakeholder needs. Our research reveals that leadership teams failing to champion collaboration and shared goals risk fragmentation and siloed operations, leading to a 3.5-fold increase in the time it takes for strategic decision-making compared to teams with integrated structures. Gallup research also found that leaders who focus on development and use their strengths effectively are 6x more likely to be engaged, 7.8% more productive and 3x more likely to report a good quality of life. It was with this understanding that we helped the executive team of a 2,000-strong leading agricultural vehicle manufacturer optimize performance by shifting from an “I” mentality to a “we” mentality, driving success through effective teamwork that bridged functional divides and fostering both internal and external growth.  

2. Address All Dimensions of the Human-Centered Leadership Team Effectiveness Model 

Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model (HCTM) is a proven holistic and people-centered approach to driving growth across organizations. The model is built on the idea that organizations reflect the same makeup as a human including the DNA, mind, body and soul. Effective leadership teams need to follow a similar model that not only builds trust and effective ways of working but aligns individual members to a shared enterprise goal. The Human-Centered Leadership Team Effectiveness Model (Figure 2) shows that addressing all dimensions of the human system is essential for empowering effective outcomes.

Figure 2: Prophet’s Human-Centered Leadership Team Effectiveness Model 

Questions that should be asked include:

  • DNA: What is our focus and shared ambition that drives the work of our team?​
  • Mind: What new skills are required for the team to drive change?​
  • Body: What might need to change in our operating model to enable team performance?​  
  • Soul: How might we ignite belief in the change to foster trust and productive relationships?​  

As Figure 3 illustrates, if any of these elements from the model are missing, this has a knock-on effect on leadership teams, increasing the risk of falling short on goals due to a lack of commitment, poor focus and low-quality work. 

Figure 3: What happens when part of the leadership system is missing 

3. Sustain Leadership Team Effectiveness Through Actionable Development 

Continuing with the human system analogy, leadership team development requires establishing “healthy rhythms” of working and meeting. Figure 4 shows how these rhythms can propel an existing leadership team towards high performance and effectiveness. 

Figure 4: Actionable approach to leadership team development  

This approach combines both “art and science” to shape team dynamics, capabilities, identity and culture of the leadership team. It involves:  

  1. Conducting a leadership team diagnostic to help the team (and other stakeholders) identify opportunities for improvement based on how the team currently functions.   
  2. Early alignment of the team’s purpose, ambition and role within the wider organization, so it can provide both clear leadership and staff empowerment by knowing its distinct contribution to success.   
  3. Ensuring psychological safety through trust-building workshops. The team narrative and behavior workshops help teams build trust through sharing their whole selves, the meaning they derive from their work and committing to the behaviors to sustain trust.    
  4. Prioritizing trust, healthy conflict and accountability to align the team’s success over individual ego. To uncover this a team strengths and priorities workshop helps sets OKRs and leans into the strengths of the leadership team.   
  5. Systematically defining ways of working and decision-making processes. In a session around ways of working, the team can shape the purpose of leadership meetings, how decision-making works and define an effective cadence of meetings.   
  6. Focusing on both individual and team learning to sustain growth and development. This typically involves team check-ins (potentially with an observer to feedback on process), re-running of the team diagnostic, team and individual coaching and continuation of individual development.  

Leadership teams are the driving force behind an organization’s performance, especially in today’s rapidly changing world. The key challenge lies not just in the competence of individual leaders but in the collective effectiveness of the leadership team. Like individuals, leadership teams require nurturing and careful development. Breaking free from functional silos requires a rhythm that fuses a human-centered approach with both art and science, creating a sustainable and highly effective team.

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To start this journey in your organization, consider the following questions:   

  • Does your leadership team have a shared view of success?  
  • Does the team trust one another and actively collaborate to achieve this shared goal?  
  • What are the missing ingredients from the five components of Prophet’s Human-Centred Leadership Team Effectiveness Model?  

Reach out to our experts to explore our approach further and assess your leadership team’s effectiveness, starting with our team diagnostic. 

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Unlocking the Next Chapter of Growth in Southeast Asia’s Financial Services

The Asian financial services landscape is diverse and constantly evolving, but also ripe with opportunities. One must-win area is the MSMEs. 

Geopolitical tensions are causing uncertainty and driving a wedge between economies sending rippling effects across the region. Many companies across the United States and Europe have been reshoring, with manufacturing hubs and operations diversifying to the Southeast Asia (SEA) region. As a result, shifting trade flows in countries like Cambodia and Vietnam have helped to boost players who are entrenched in these emerging countries. 

These shifting dynamics bring about increased challenges but also competition from bank and non-bank players seeking a piece of the pie. One such area is Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) who are already experiencing exponential growth and play a vital role in the economy. Among ASEAN member states for example, 85% of the workforce is employed by MSMEs and account for 44.8% of GDP. It is a segment that is a must-win. Coupled with the fact that 60% of MSMEs are underbanked in Asia, this represents a huge untapped opportunity for banks and non-banks looking to grow in the region. Moreover, the ASEAN trading bloc is the third largest economy in Asia and the fifth largest in th

So, how can banks and non-banks win in this dynamic environment?  

We have identified three emerging trends across the experience frontend and the operational and foundational back end to give players in the region a competitive edge. 

1. BaaS and Open Banking: Unleashing Collaborative Innovation 

Embrace Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and open banking principles to fuel collaborative innovation, specifically targeting MSMEs. Banks can use BaaS to “rent” out their core banking infrastructure through APIs, providing MSMEs with services they might not be able to develop themselves. Open banking complements this by enabling secure data sharing, allowing MSMEs to connect their accounts with these new services and gain a richer financial experience. 

Imagine third-party providers leveraging core infrastructure to develop financial solutions specifically designed for MSMEs. This could include tools for cash flow management, inventory financing, simplified loan applications and e-commerce integration. Banks and FinTechs can charge fees for its APIs, subscriptions based on volumes and share revenue with partners in both Open Banking and BaaS models. Furthermore, data insights and platform usage from these partnerships can help banks and FinTechs better understand MSME needs and develop innovative products. Many banks have started leveraging these collaborative strategies to drive further growth. Examples where this is already happening include: 

  • Standard Chartered Singapore’s SC API platform opened its data to developers, enabling partnerships with FinTechs that specialize in personal financial management for MSMEs. Customers can connect their accounts to receive insights, budgeting and tracking goals, leading to a 15% improvement in customer well-being scores. This demonstrates the potential of BaaS in empowering MSMEs and improving their financial health. 
  • Axis Bank in India implements a BaaS model that offers over 250 APIs through their portal. This allows startups and MSMEs to integrate banking services into their applications for seamless payment management and reconciliation. Their partnership with OPEN, a neo-banking FinTech company, specifically targets the micro-segment by launching a digital current account for freelancers and small micro-enterprises. 

These examples showcase how BaaS and open banking can be leveraged to create a thriving ecosystem of financial solutions specifically designed to address the needs of MSMEs by fostering collaboration and innovation. 

2. Ecosystem Platforms: Bridging the Gap Between Finance and Everyday Life 

Unlike BaaS and open banking which provide the building blocks for other businesses to create solutions, ecosystem platforms (also known as Super Apps) go beyond providing access to core services. They actively curate and integrate non-financial offerings, creating a unique value proposition. This translates into significant benefits, including increased efficiency and reduced costs for businesses of all sizes, especially MSMEs. By eliminating the need for customized integrations, Super Apps can provide MSMEs with access to a wider range of financial and non-financial services in a convenient and cost-effective way. 

Southeast Asia’s unique landscape, with a high smartphone penetration rate and a large unbanked population, has fostered the emergence of Super Apps since 2010. These platforms cater to the specific needs of the region, including those of MSMEs. Some recent examples include: 

  • Grab, a Singaporean powerhouse, initially a taxi-hailing service, has transformed into a ubiquitous platform offering ride-hailing, food delivery and other services – all crucial functionalities for MSMEs in the region. GrabPay, its mobile wallet has over 80 million monthly active users (2023), facilitates cashless transactions, money transfers and bill payments, simplifying financial management for MSMEs. 
  • SeaMoney integrated within the Shopee e-commerce platform, it allows users to make payments and access financial services directly within the app. This fosters financial inclusion for individuals and benefits MSMEs by providing them with a wider customer base and easier payment solutions. SeaMoney leverages Shopee’s vast user base and merchant network, which facilitated their rapid growth, scaling their financial services across SEA. This is also particularly attractive for MSMEs seeking wider reach. 

These examples highlight how Super Apps in SEA are strategically targeting MSMEs by offering a comprehensive suite of financial and non-financial services within a single platform. This integrated approach can significantly improve efficiency and reduce costs.  

3. DeFi and Blockchain: Taking efficiency, transparency and security to a new level 

Despite being the least mature concept among the three, the global DeFi (decentralized finance) market has already exceeded $200 billion, and the surging interest in blockchain among Asian consumers present exciting opportunities for banks and FinTechs in the region. Tokenization of both data and assets (into unique digital tokens on the blockchain) has provided the industry with endless opportunities with heightened security, transparency and speed. 

Imagine streamlined cross-border payments for migrant workers through secure blockchain platforms, replacing slow and expensive traditional methods. Trade finance can also be revolutionized by blockchain’s transparency and efficiency, fostering trust and reducing red tape. Furthermore, fractionalized investments in real estate and other assets, enabled by blockchain, can democratize access and increase liquidity, catering to the growing demand (from $4.8 to $22 trillion AUM over the past 20 years) for alternative investments among Asian investors (CAIA, 2024). While the use of blockchain technology for MSMEs in SEA is still in its early stages, many institutions are starting to experiment in this lucrative segment. Some recent examples include: 

  • In Singapore, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched Project Ubin, a multi-year initiative in collaboration with leading banks like DBS Bank, UOB, OCBC Bank to explore the potential applications of blockchain technology within the financial sector, specifically focusing on its ability to improve efficiency, transparency and security. 
  • Bank of Ayudhya, a Thai bank, partnered with Contour, a prominent blockchain platform, to streamline trade finance for MSMEs. This collaboration leverages the power of blockchain technology to address specific pain points for MSMEs in trade finance. By creating a secure, shared ledger accessible to all parties involved, blockchain eliminates the need for paper-based trails and intermediaries, streamlines communication, reduces errors, and expedites the entire trade process. This translates to potentially lower costs and faster transaction times for MSMEs. 

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Without a doubt, SEA’s unique financial landscape presents exciting opportunities for business growth. SEA customers are mobile-first, tech-savvy, and hungry for innovative solutions, creating a perfect ecosystem for exploring cutting-edge technologies like BaaS, open banking, Super Apps and DeFi. To truly thrive in this dynamic market, SEA banks and FinTechs need to embrace a growth mindset and explore beyond traditional models.   

Prophet partners with leading financial services organizations across Southeast Asia to help navigate complexities and unlock uncommon growth. Connect with us. 

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How Companies in Asia Unlock Growth Through Platform Strategy 

We explore the unique ways successful businesses in Asia are leveraging the platform strategy, a strategic framework defined by Ted Moser in his latest book. 

Digital platforms such as Amazon, Uber and Netflix have reshaped industries, seamlessly connecting businesses and consumers, while leveraging data and technology to deliver personalized experiences that redefine modern commerce and entertainment. The success of platforms highlights the transformative power of digital ecosystems in fostering innovation while driving sustainable growth. 

“Winning Through Platforms: How to Succeed When Every Competitor Has One,” a best-selling book by Ted Moser, a senior partner at Prophet, highlights the essential role of digital platforms in achieving business success in the modern age across industries. The book serves as a playbook by diving into the different types of platforms as business models while decoding growth moves from a decade of platform competition. 

This framework guides companies to leverage platforms for brand relevance, customer value growth and efficient customer acquisition. 

Rapid Digitalization of Economies and Shift in Consumer Behavior 

Asia, especially Southeast Asia, is experiencing rapid digitalization and reliance on online platforms fuelled by a multitude of factors – the COVID-19 pandemic, internet penetration, a burgeoning middle class and supportive government policies. This shift prompted digital transformations across businesses, leading to a boom of digital marketplaces and services such as Shopify, Grab and Lazada.

Meanwhile, companies are heavily investing in strategies to create and meet demand across the entire customer journey. Companies focus on Demand Plays and Transformation Plays to meet evolving consumer needs and transition traditional businesses into digital domains. 

Temu: Aggressive User Acquisition Through Demand Plays 

Temu, a brand of China’s Pinduoduo, entered the global markets in 2022. It has quickly disrupted the status quo of the global e-commerce landscape, becoming the No. 1 shopping app on Apple’s App Store, surpassing Amazon, Target, Walmart and SHEIN. Temu’s success is made possible by its unparalleled demand-gen capabilities. Through the campaign “Shopping like a billionaire,” Temu offers a clear yet differentiating value proposition of providing cheap and accessible products for everyone. Beyond a clear brand message, Temu employs a comprehensive demand–gen strategy, from agile supply chain, data-driven user analytics, to aggressive marketing campaigns and pricing schemes, as well as savvy digital marketing and user acquisition tactics. 

Huawei: Leading at the Frontier Through Transformation Plays 

Huawei stands out as a prime example of strategic innovation in action. Initially recognized as a B2B telecom leader, the company seized the opportunity to diversify into B2C markets by introducing smartphones renowned for their cutting-edge camera technology. This transformation underscores Huawei’s unwavering commitment to innovation, as evidenced by the staggering investment of over 11 billion RMB in R&D over the past decade. Amid U.S. sanctions, Huawei demonstrated agility by strengthening its own HarmonyOS operating system. Recently, Huawei entered the electric vehicle (EV) sector by launching startup EV brands AITO and LUXEED in collaboration with automotive players Seres and Chery, respectively. These EV models integrate HarmonyOS for Automotive, seamlessly synchronizing with Huawei’s mobile operating system to deliver a cohesive user experience. This integration reflects Huawei’s vision of creating an ecosystem centred around HarmonyOS, extending its influence beyond telecom. By leveraging its technological prowess and strategic partnerships, Huawei has embarked on a transformation journey to shape the future of multiple industries, cementing its position as a global leader in the ever-evolving landscape of technology and innovation. 

Need for Innovative Solutions in Competitive Markets 

E-commerce, fintech, AI, and IoT have become some of the most disruptive technologies for traditional business models, where a holistic platform strategy plays a major role. In Asia, a fast-growing consumer market that’s largely digital – and mobile first – this is especially the case. Leveraging these technologies to develop their own platform through digital transformation while taking a customer-centric approach now becomes a key challenge for traditional companies. To adapt and futureproof, the most resilient companies are often agile in prioritizing innovation efforts. Prophet’s recent research on how innovation builds resilience revealed that 35% of the respondents in China and Singapore have formal innovation incubation programs, compared to only 15% of the respondents in the U.S. and the UK. 

Consequently, companies are channelling resources into the development of innovative platform features and services, leveraging Innovation Plays to continuously provide new and distinctive platform benefits for a competitive edge. Moreover, businesses strategically explore Portfolio Plays to diversify roles within the platform ecosystem, emphasizing continuous innovation across product development, market approach, and customer engagement strategies. 

Grab: Achieving Impactful Growth Through Innovation Plays 

Grab serves as a standout example of a platform business that maintains sustainable growth by bringing ongoing innovations to market. Originating as a ride-hailing service, Grab expanded into a super-app business, the “Everyday Everything App,” offering new products and benefits including food delivery, digital payments, and financial services. This strategic shift capitalized on Grab’s extensive user base and diversified revenue streams. Additionally, Grab deployed collaborative go-to-market strategies, by partnering with local governments and financial institutions, to extend its reach and tailor offerings to specific regional markets. To deepen its connection with a wide array of customers, partners and stakeholders, Grab has also further defined its company mission – to drive Southeast Asia forward by creating economic empowerment for everyone – while continuously implementing various ESG initiatives. 

Nike: Connecting with Evolving Customers Through Portfolio Plays 

Nike exemplifies effective portfolio diversification, transforming from product innovator to a digital marketplace leader. Nike integrates digital platforms with physical retail, offers market-specific mobile apps, and engages users through customized experiences and robust digital ecosystems. Through digital platforms like Nike Training Club and Nike Run Club as well as offline community activities, Nike engages with users beyond transactions. This platform-driven strategy not only solidifies Nike’s leadership in leveraging digital platforms for growth, but also resonates exceptionally well in the diverse and unique markets across Asia, where tailored experiences and integrated digital solutions are increasingly sought after.  

Regulatory and Cultural Diversity of the Region 

Asia’s diverse regulatory and cultural landscape poses unique challenges for platform businesses. With varying regulatory frameworks, cultures, languages and economies, consumer behaviors and preferences can differ vastly across different Asian countries. This complexity significantly impacts how companies approach market entry and expansion, where adapting their business models and marketing strategies to different regulatory and cultural contexts becomes pivotal. 

To effectively navigate these intricacies, companies employ Design Plays to develop differentiated value propositions that align with local preferences and cultural sensitivities. Meanwhile, companies should also tailor O+O customer experiences to different Asian customers through Interaction Plays, to enhance engagement and foster brand loyalty. 

IKEA: Mastering Localization Through Design Plays 

IKEA’s entry and expansion in China is a textbook example of a strategic design play, reflecting a deep understanding of local preferences and behaviors. Going beyond furniture sales, IKEA adapted its business model to overcome unique market challenges and fit the Chinese lifestyle. Product designs were adjusted for smaller living spaces, which was a shift from its offerings in European markets. As part of its location strategy and with the support from an extensive logistics network tailored to China’s infrastructure challenges, IKEA placed its stores nearer to city centers with easy public transport access, catering to most Chinese consumers who are less likely to own cars. Furthermore, by quickly embracing digital transformation, IKEA offered online shopping, home delivery services and popular payment options like Alipay and WeChat Pay, exceeding Chinese consumer expectations for retail convenience. 

Lululemon: Building a Loyal Community Through Interaction Plays 

Lululemon’s approach in Asia exemplifies a successful full-journey engagement, seamlessly integrating online and offline experiences, offering personalized assistance, and fostering community experiences. Through dynamic segmentation, Lululemon tailors offerings to diverse Asian audiences, driving conversions with personalized recommendations and localized content. Lululemon also adopts an agile content strategy, featuring regional influencers and traditional Asian wellness practices. It leverages user-generated content, including customer testimonials and photos, to foster authenticity and engagement. This customer-centric approach has strengthened brand loyalty and deepened the connection with customers in Asia. 

Reimagine Your Business Strategy with the Platform Mindset 

From Huawei’s transformative journey to Grab’s and Lululemon’s innovative strategies, these best practices exemplify how companies are leveraging platform plays to navigate Asia’s diverse market dynamics and evolving consumer needs. 

Whether your organization is already a platform business or not, adopting a strategic platform mindset is essential for companies to stay competitive today. From developing a comprehensive platform strategy to evolving existing capabilities, the six Platform Plays illustrated in “Winning Through Platforms” provide essential insights that inform actionable next steps for a futureproof growth strategy: 

  1. Assess your current capabilities and needs to determine the most suitable platform strategy.  Understand which role your platform can play within your business portfolio and select the one that aligns with your strategic goals.  
  2. Consider developing a comprehensive platform strategy that goes across all aspects of the organization. This involves clarifying how the optimal platform role aligns with the company’s strategic objectives to maximize differentiation and growth. Leaders must also identify the strategic implications of what must change in the business.
  3. Build an internal case for change and digital transformation while designing a transformation vision and roadmap. This includes the internal moves that need to be made from an organizational perspective, including structure, culture, processes, and capabilities.  
  4. For mature companies who have already found success in platforms, find opportunities to evolve your current platform strategy. Revisit customer experience strategies to deepen engagement and conversion; adopt more complex platform roles to drive deeper integration into the business; or harness the power of data and AI capabilities to refine and extend your ecosystems to new, differentiated offerings. 

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As Asian companies embrace innovation and customer-centric approaches, they are positioned to lead the way in shaping the future of digital commerce in the region. By harnessing the power of platforms, fostering strong customer relationships, and adapting to regulatory and cultural nuances, these companies are setting new standards for success in Asia’s rapidly evolving digital landscape. 

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Where is the Next Big Growth Opportunity for Streaming Services?  

Emerging markets represent a new growth space for global streaming services with Africa as the prime opportunity. Discover five essential strategies for launching and thriving in this fast-growing market.  

Global streaming services are facing a significant challenge: growth has stalled in many markets, forcing them to seek new avenues for expansion. Some, like Netflix and Disney, hope to boost revenues by cracking down on password-sharing. Other streamers are looking for growth by bundling. Warner Bros Discovery (owner of HBO Max) and Disney (owner of Hulu) recently announced a new package to capture subscribers in an increasingly competitive attention economy. And all this is happening in the context of a cost-of-living squeeze, impacting consumers’ willingness to pay for multiple subscriptions.   

Audience growth is available, but it lies in emerging markets like Africa, a region that many Western media executives have yet to consider. Africa is on the verge of a viewing avalanche, with the population expected to double by 2050, when the International Monetary Fund predicts it will account for over 25% of the global population. Importantly, these will be young consumers, with 60% under 25. They will be hungry for programming and new ways to watch it, in sharp contrast to the West, where aging populations may lead to stagnant technology adoption rates. Africa’s youth bulge presents a dynamic market eager for digital entertainment solutions. These are mobile-loving audiences, with some 613 million in sub-Saharan Africa – about half the region’s population – subscribing to mobile services.  

However, for streamers, growth in Africa is about more than demographics or devices. African content is a booming industry, making it a fertile land for streaming services. Nollywood – Nigeria’s film industry – is the second largest in the world by output, with over 2,500 movies annually. (It trails India’s Bollywood, but out-produces Hollywood.) And while early Nollywood content had a DIY video production quality, these shows and films have become increasingly sophisticated. Fuelled by new efficiency-saving technologies such as AI, the Nigerian film industry is honing its technique, expanding out of comedies and dramas and into horror, historical dramas, musicals and animation.  

Prophet has been working with Showmax, a joint venture between South African broadcaster MultiChoice Group, American media conglomerate Comcast, and Peacock, the streaming platform from Comcast’s NBCUniversal subsidiary – to expand service across Africa. Combining reality, drama and sport with local output in multiple markets, Showmax is expected to reach almost four million subscribers by 2029. From this work, we’ve developed five critical lessons for successfully launching streaming services that will captivate and delight African audiences:  

1. Local Content Is King  

American hits may create evergreen content libraries across the pond, but African audiences are most interested in local content produced in local languages for local audiences. (Sorry, “Sopranos,” “Game of Thrones,” and “Stranger Things.”)  Africa is rich in cultural diversity, with thousands of ethnic groups having unique traditions, languages and stories. Local content that taps into this diversity can resonate deeply with viewers by reflecting on their lived experiences, cultural nuances and societal values. Whether it is the “The Real Housewives of Nairobi” or “Cheta M,” a Nigerian Showmax original exploring young lovers who battle spiritual and political forces in their way, original African stories by local talent are the overwhelming favourites. And just as K-pop, Nordic noir and Brazilian telenovelas find fans well beyond national borders, these regional African narratives resonate with larger audiences, offering the entire continent a wider representation of people, places and perspectives.   

2. Mobile-First Optimization  

Optimizing streaming services for mobile viewing is crucial in all markets, but it is especially important in Africa, given the continent’s unique technological and market characteristics. Because of its limited fixed broadband infrastructure and the relative affordability of mobile technology, mobile devices are most Africans’ primary internet access point. A mobile-optimized service enhances engagement by improving usability on smaller screens and adapting to variable mobile data conditions. This approach aligns with the lifestyle of Africa’s young, tech-savvy population, who often consume content on the go. And it provides a competitive edge in a market where mobile connectivity is a norm.  

Streaming brands need to act now to capture these audiences, diving into local market needs to develop a deep understanding. Customer centricity is essential: Only companies that immerse themselves in Africa’s varied and nuanced markets will be able to develop the strategies, offers, pricing and content required to win with increasingly sophisticated African audiences.

Tosson El-Noshokaty, Partner at Prophet 

3. Cheap, Creative Access  

Effectively launching in multiple African markets requires a telecom partner that can provide cheap data, attractive bundles – or both. This makes it easier for a broader audience to access streaming services, increasing adoption. The economic landscape in many African countries is characterized by lower average incomes than in Western nations. Budget-friendly data options make streaming services more attractive and feasible for regular use. Going to market with a strategic partner also creates a competitive advantage. Offering these services through fractional pricing is another tool adopted by African streamers. Rather than monthly subscriptions, providing weekly or fortnightly tiered packages with different bundle offers can make a difference, maximizing accessibility and adoption.   

4. Direct Sales Impact  

Direct Sales Forces (DSFs) drive sales across Africa, capitalizing on over 90% of transactions conducted in cash. Unlike markets dominated by digital marketing and online sales, the African landscape often requires a tangible, on-the-ground presence to effectively reach and engage consumers. DSFs are crucial for navigating these unique market dynamics, including limited internet penetration and the preference for face-to-face interactions. DSF teams provide personalized customer service, handle cash transactions safely and build trust within communities, essential for converting potential customers into subscribers. Additionally, DSFs help educate customers about product offerings and troubleshooting, which is vital in regions where digital literacy is still developing.  

5. M-Pesa mobile money   

Cash is king in Africa, with sub-Saharan African credit and debit card penetration rates low at 3% and 18%, respectively. However, M-Pesa – an innovative mobile phone-based money transfer service – allows users to deposit, withdraw, transfer money, pay for goods and services, and access credit and savings, all with a mobile device. With over 50 million monthly active users, M-Pesa’s widespread adoption highlights the need for streaming services in Africa to integrate mobile payment options and a complex suite of payment providers, including card, PayPal and other mobile money solutions. These various payment integrations ensure seamless accessibility and convenience for users.  

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The rapid evolution of global streaming services demands innovative strategies for growth, especially as traditional markets become saturated. Prophet’s collaboration with Showmax underscores the transformative potential of targeting emerging markets like Africa. To thrive in such a competitive landscape, it’s crucial to adapt and continuously evolve. We can help your organization unlock new growth opportunities and connect with diverse, untapped markets worldwide. 

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Four Trends to Feed 2025 Marketing Planning  

Discover four key trends to guide your 2025 marketing strategy, focusing on integrating brand and demand, leveraging AI, embracing data-driven marketing and adapting to an evolving media landscape. 

We regularly have the great fortune to spend time with clients at their marketing leadership offsites. As they assess how effectively they have delivered against their current year plans, it is equally critical that they begin to look towards emerging trends that impact next year’s marketing plans.  

Marketers today are wrestling with seismic change in understanding rapidly changing customer experience needs, marketplace disruption, competitive landscape and organizational challenges. At least 40% of U.S. CEOs expect CMOs to focus on five key growth challenges: revenue, market share, competition, reputation and company narrative.  

The expectations for return on investment have never been higher. Navigating the noise and delivering business outcomes is the CMO’s new mission. It requires new skills, insights, measurement and tremendous focus on execution. In our recent analysis of key trends facing marketing leaders, we found four emerging trends for 2025 planning to build your strategy for staying ahead.

1. Integrate Brand and Demand  

More and more clients are evolving their annual marketing plan to integrate brand and demand into a single growth plan. Some are even substituting the customer journey for the funnel as the backdrop to uncover gaps or identify more opportunities at every touchpoint. Our ongoing research, ”Brand and Demand Marketing: A Love Story” backs up this approach to break down silos and plan brand and performance plans together. Winning organizations are 3X more likely to take a fully integrated approach to connect brand and demand. Whether you’re preparing a brand or product launch or need to find other routes to growth, this could be the year you take integrated planning to a new level, building stronger relationships across the organization and a foundation for bigger impact. You’ll hear much more from us both on launching brands and how to integrate brand and demand as our latest research report launches.  

2. Provide Marketing’s POV on AI 

AI in marketing being top of mind won’t be a surprise to any marketer reading this post. It is estimated that AI will drive $100 billion in revenue by 2027. With more money than ever being funneled into new AI technology, it should be apparent that the impact on customer experience, insights and new ways of working will reshape how marketing is delivered. With a perpetual need to drive more personalized communication in the market and meet the insatiable need for content that resonates with buyers, AI holds great promise to deliver more with less resources. The C-Suite is grappling with broad-ranging opportunities to leverage AI technology, and the marketing leader is uniquely positioned to think through the firm’s position on AI, how it can be used to enhance customer touch points and how AI can drive more scale in marketing efforts. AI can be integrated into nearly every section of your 2025 plan. See how we started to organize use cases here to maximize AI’s value.  

3. Embrace the Next Wave of Data-Driven Marketing 

Delivering data-driven marketing and advancing customer insight remain a key domain of the modern marketing leader. Understanding the customer has been a staple of marketing’s role within the organization and there are more ways than ever to get more data on customer wants and needs. However, efforts to capture customer data and find prospective customers in the wild are growing more complex and challenging. More companies than ever before are embarking on building sophisticated first-party data understanding and reach. In addition, marketers are developing new lead generation and management capabilities that deliver more contextually relevant and personalized experiences. All of this is happening with a relentless focus on attribution, measurement, and the ability to prove business impact. More than half of brands (60%) quantify the value of engagement on social in terms of revenue impact, 57% use it to track conversions and sales directly resulting from social efforts and 51% use it to optimize their product development or marketing strategy. Data enrichment, identity management and the ability to leverage new technology are the newest set of differentiating skills that marketing leaders are addressing. 

4. Rethink Effectiveness in an Ever-Evolving Media Landscape 

Worldwide ad spending will grow nearly 10% in 2024, for a total of $992 billion. Almost 70% of that will be spent on digital advertising, which will see a spending increase of more than 13%—well above its 2022 and 2023 growth rates. As ever, diverse forms of media play a key role in the toolkit for marketers, with continued growth in out-of-home (OOH), fueled by digital OOH and eyes on emerging retail media. An evolving landscape in how media is delivered and regulated is creating significant disruption and opportunity. Global advertising spend continues to increase, as cookie-based advertising is being turned off, FAST TV is emerging, the influencer market is maturing, and there are a swath of regulatory and legal decisions pending. Each of these changes brings opportunity, a need for new capability building, impacts on budgets and an increase in marketing leadership needs.  

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Now is the time to start planning for what is ahead. New capabilities, technology and ways of working will need to be planned for. At Prophet, we regularly meet with marketing leaders across all industries to discuss these trends, offer our insight, and facilitate team working sessions for annual strategy, agile planning and always-on improvements.  

Ready to build your plan to win? Schedule a workshop with us.

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Transforming Healthcare: The Power of Platform Thinking

Platform thinking is the path to consumer-centricity in healthcare – and the key to its transformation.  

Platforms are the key to illuminating the consumer journey. They allow companies to light the “dark” side of a consumer’s journey, the post-purchase “use” side, when previously, only the “choose” side was visible. As our colleagues Ted Moser, Charlotte Bloom and Omar Akhtar observe in their book, “Winning Through Platforms: How to Succeed When Every Competitor Has One,” platforms are the way to enable companies to observe, interact with and provide value to consumers as they engage with the organization. Many industries are already immersed in the platform race – from Amazon Prime’s offering (i.e., ecommerce, Whole Foods, streaming content) to Uber and Uber One (linking rides and eats). Even financial services companies are in the game with strategies from Chase, Bank of America, and more. So, how will healthcare players engage in this new value exchange? 

The beauty of healthcare is we know more about our customers than pretty much any other industry. It’s about how we use that knowledge to personalize, drive conversion, and close gaps in care.

Jeremy Rogers, Executive Director, Digital Marketing & Experience, Indiana University Health

Broadcast connection reflects the one-way communication that marked most of the 20th century. With the launch of the internet, websites and digital analytics, businesses were able to shine a light on the “choose” side of consumers’ engagement. While it’s often the darker side of the consumer journey, the “use” side that reflects the greatest value – both for business and for consumers.  

(Lighting the choose and use journeys graphic Int. 1.2) 

In the era of platform connection, health systems have an opportunity to capture and deliver greater value to their consumers. And the stakes couldn’t be higher. In healthcare, the data and knowledge gained by this level of consumer engagement could have profound effects not only on that patient and their care delivery, but a systemic impact on how to manage disease states, reduction of challenging SDOHs and improved health equity. Currently most health systems are focused on patient portals and transactional engagement, making this transformation feel daunting, elusive, or even operationally impossible. 

Healthcare is behind, and we all acknowledge this. Think about the hospitality industry and how their rewards programs generate loyalty and word of mouth – the best experience you have anywhere is the experience you want everywhere – and that includes in healthcare.

Ken Chaplin, Chief Marketing Officer, City of Hope 

There’s no doubt this is hard work. There are several reasons why healthcare leaders say it’s been an uphill battle – from a lack of integrated technology systems to concerns around patient data privacy – these are valid reasons to be concerned. However, other highly regulated industries have shown how to connect and protect consumers data. We spoke with several leading healthcare innovators to understand why this work is daunting and what they are doing to overcome the challenges:

1. Non-Proprietary Platforms Are Not Designed for Optimal User Experience 

Health systems often started with their EMR as the main platform, and what was the EMR developed to do? Billing, coding or quality documentation. They certainly weren’t designed for the user experience of a clinical physician or clinical nurse user – let alone a patient.

Jodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope 

2. Barriers to Risk-Taking 

We can have zero failure when lives are at stake, zero failure. That doesn’t apply to the business-oriented things we can do. We need to ask to experiment and fail and then fail forward, to learn and get better. But it’s just culturally very tough for people nowadays.

Jeremy Rogers, Executive Director, Digital Marketing & Experience, Indiana University Health 

3. Internal Resistance to Change

How do you have large scale change when you are changing the way people work? Number one, we cannot innovate and bring customer centricity to life without the operators – we can’t move forward until everyone comes to the table.

Sara Saldoff, Head of Product Management & User Experience, OhioHealth 

4. Overcoming Data Concerns With the Right Data Value-Exchange  

I don’t think it’s truly a challenge to get consumers to believe their data is safe. I think it’s about translating, what’s the benefit to them? We must help patients and health consumers understand the value of sharing their data. How do we tell the story in the right way to facilitate their willingness to share private health information or behaviors?

Jodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope 

5. Competing Priorities, Competing Investments, and Tremendous Pressure 

You have to invest in building an appropriate infrastructure. You need talent that doesn’t necessarily exist in the system already. You’ve got to build a lot of capabilities. But these strategies, in the long term, will alleviate some of the pressures we’re all facing.

Nick Stefanizzi, Chief Executive Officer, Northwell Direct 

Challenges aside, shifting to a platform-based model is the solution to achieving the transformation C-suite executives have been collectively working towards to achieve better business and health outcomes for patients. 

There’s a massive amount of data that health systems today have access to. If we can get this right and gain more consumer trust, we can harness that data in a way that can help with precision medicine, drug discovery, disease prevention – it’s so incredibly powerful.

Jodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope 

Inherent in this shift to platform thinking is a value proposition for consumers: I share information about myself so that a company can provide me with more value via content, loyalty programs and tools. Equally as important is the value generated for the organization. Today, many consumer engagements with health systems are transactional, leading to drop off, and overall brand neutrality. This is exacerbated by behaviors of younger generations (Gen Z and Millennials) who often don’t have a PCP. For health systems, the opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with consumers, whether they need care today or in the future, is essential for driving loyalty and patient volume in any market. 

Beyond the acquisition and retention of patients, there is a halo of benefits for building strong consumer relationships including increased adherence, proactive preventative care, lower costs for the system (both administrative, e.g., faster bill pay, and clinical, e.g., getting preventative screening) and better negotiating power with payers. Properly collected, synthesized and actionable data could ultimately shape future innovations in disease prevention or treatments. Platforms help C-suite leaders optimize and personalize the patient experience with critical knowledge and data-driven insights.  

Platforms are the way to: 

1. Make Holistic Care Real 

This has been an ongoing topic in healthcare. Health systems struggle to deliver holistic care, particularly for marginalized groups. Collecting data and applying insights to deliver better care, based on what patients really need, would drastically upend engagement and loyalty in healthcare. Consider how Amazon uses its data – from grocery shopping to prescription drugs to baby care essentials, to deliver better experiences.  

 Patients are doing all these things in the wellness space that are tangentially attached to their health, but that health systems don’t know about. We don’t know where it’s happening, and we don’t necessarily provide all the tangential services that customers want or need. The question is how much of that experience can we stitch together in partnership with the customer so we can treat the whole person?

Sara Saldoff, Head of Product Management & User Experience, OhioHealth 

We’re creating communities that connect cancer fighters with prospective patients – it’s incredibly powerful and allows us to drive deeper, meaningful relationships with patients.

Ken Chaplin, Chief Marketing Officer, City of Hope 

2. Empower Ongoing Engagement With Health 

It’s no surprise that consumers are willing to pay to engage with their health (i.e., Fitbit; Apple Watch; fitness, sleep, wellness tracking apps, etc.) Connecting the healthcare experience to meet consumer needs and their desire to be “always on” has the power to turn engagements from transitional to longitudinal. Facebook enjoys regular engagement from users drawn in by sharing features, community connections, and a focus on life’s moments (“on this day,” birthdays, etc.). 

So much of the journey happens outside of the clinical experience. What are we doing to engage patients in between those appointments, those procedures? Modern consumers demand autonomy- agency in their healthcare journey. If we can give them agency, they’ll take advantage of it.

Jeremy Rogers, Executive Director, Digital Marketing & Experience, Indiana University Health 

We envision a world where care support is everywhere – a doctor prescribes a curriculum where the patient can access tools and educational content about their prescription regimen, diet, broader wellness – and not have to go digging and find it on their own.

Ken Chaplin, Chief Marketing Officer, City of Hope 

3. Create and Drive New Revenue Streams 

Platforms have the power to optimize white space opportunities to create new revenue streams. They also have the potential to shift health systems’ focus from “sick care” to “well care”. Northwell Direct saw an opportunity to disrupt the traditional payer model and better serve employers by strengthening the connection between health coverage and care. They implemented a plan to reduce the hurdles for providers and patients, to drive to more comprehensive wellness for the employees they serve.  

We have an opportunity to serve our communities through a different pathway. We took this idea and said, how do we create a business around this? Yes, to meet employer needs through services…but also to disrupt the payer space because it’s our belief that a more direct relationship between those who provide the care and those who pay for the care is beneficial to delivering higher quality care and to better managing and improving outcomes.

Nick Stefanizzi, Chief Executive Officer, Northwell Direct 

4. Make Personalized Care Scalable 

The balance between the hyper personal and the need to scale across a health system is daunting. There are myriad nuances that impact or shift an individual’s health journey. Value-generating data collection through platforms can help to bridge this gap. Consider Nike’s app family – from workout classes and SNKRS drops to monitoring runs and alerts when footwear needs replacing based on the integrated mileage tracking, they can serve consumers what they need before they know they need it. 

The dream of our Smart Rooms is to give us real time feedback so we can solve problems with a patient in moment – but down the road, we could use the increased data use and AI to help us anticipate when something could go wrong and recommend solutions so we can get ahead of an individual’s care needs.

Sara Saldoff, Head of Product Management & User Experience, OhioHealth 

If we can hyper personalize, for example, for a person whose family was touched by asthma or coronary heart disease or cancer or diabetes, and determine how to engage that individual over a lifetime with preventative behaviors and interactions, it can cut across things like health, education, literacy, economic status and be inclusive of race, religion, gender, etc. It’s going to be hard – but it’s also going to be a big game changer.

Jodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope 

We see exciting signs of progress. It is still early days for health systems, though clear signs of progress are emerging. From OhioHealth’s “smart rooms” to City of Hope’s connected patient communities, there are signs on where health systems are heading. Others, like Advocate Health, are already leading with their LiveWell Platform, which helps consumers manage both their health and their wellness. Jamey Shiels, SVP Consumer & Digital Experience at Advocate Health emphasized that driving organizational alignment required connecting the vision with pre-determined patient needs with business requirements.  For example, easier check-in process means less stress on front-line staff, on-line scheduling means reduced volume in the call centers and more  

We are constantly improving LiveWell, listening to what our consumers are telling us about the experience to create a feedback loop we can engineer back into the experience. We mapped the consumer needs to the business metrics and showed how lifting those needs could improve the business metrics; connecting what matters most to the consumer to what matters most to the business is our biggest challenge but where I think platforms play a large role. We believe platforms are the business model of the future. Healthcare is behind, but we want to get into the game and lead the way.

Jamey Shiels, Senior Vice President Consumer & Digital Experience, Advocate Health 

If platforms are the answer, how do we get started? To begin building a Platform Connection, start by thinking about how to align your platform’s needs with your organizational ambition. Winning Through Platforms lays out a path to success, and it starts with cultural shifts to gain three key advantages: Strategic, In-Market, and Alignment. 

Strategic Advantage: Bring Something Structural to the Market That the Competition Doesn’t Have  

  • How might the organization’s portfolio of solutions (i.e. care, coverage, ancillary services) better connect to demonstrate the value of the care network it offers? 
  • How can teams better share assets to reduce efforts and increase flexibility? 
  • How can the organization align on the customer personas (patients? payers? referring physicians?) and journeys to align strategic intention? 

In-Market Advantage: Grow at Higher-Than-Market Rates Through Better-Than-Competitor Practices, Spanning Go-to-Market and Innovation 

  • What technology is required to capture patient information and organize it for action that results in customer and system benefit? 
  • How can content across the journey be personalized by life stage, condition type, and relevant social determinants?  
  • What role might community and patient-generated content play in enriching the overall engagement experience – and keeping patients engaged beyond the transactional? 

Alignment Advantage: Translate Better Internal Alignment and Teaming Into Stronger Customer Engagement and Superior Organizational Performance 

  • How might the traditional functional silos be restructured into a full journey, collaborative, go-to-market model? 
  • How will internal teams align on and ensure a consistent set of customer interaction standards? 
  • What will define best practices when it comes to an elevated patient experience? 

There’s too much at stake to not figure out the right way to partner for better outcomes for patients.

Jodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope 

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Transformation in healthcare is not a new topic but rethinking how a health system organizes itself to better observe, engage with and deliver value to consumers is. Health systems that are infusing platform thinking into their organizations are starting to see the immediate return on those efforts – as well as the path ahead to greater impact across the communities they serve. Now is the time to activate and advance platforms in health systems, reimagine how an organization is set up to deliver a full continuum of engagement, differentiate against competitors and elevate the value delivered to consumers.

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