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How AI Synthetic Personas Create a Whole New Level of Customer Centricity

Deeper, faster, more intelligent insights at your fingertips. 

For companies, achieving uncommon growth is a challenging goal. One important element is having a fact-based and data-backed strategy about who your customers are and how to target them. In reality, many blue-chip and large organizations are still not investing sufficient time and resources into addressing these questions. This is where smart segmentation can make a tangible difference. 

In marketing, customer segmentation has long been a tried-and-tested strategy to help leaders define what we call the “where-to-play”: Which customer segments to focus on as design target (a core set of consumers whose needs perfectly match their brand promise, products, services, and offerings etc. ) and as commercial targets (a broader group of potential customers with similar needs and therefore addressable). 

Once companies define “where-to-play”, the “how-to-win” question arises: How to best address the target segments in terms of product offering, marketing and sales? 

And this is exactly the spot where AI is now taking customer centricity to the next level by offering a deeper, faster, more intelligent analysis, interpretation and understanding of customer habits and preferences. This gives companies greater visibility and confidence about how they design their go-to-market approach.   

In recent work with a number of organizations, we have been pioneering a more innovative “how-to-win” approach to segmentation, by developing and testing so-called synthetic AI personas. We believe these AI-based personas have the potential, if properly managed, to give organizations next-level customer insights at their fingertips.

Transforming Audience Insights

Simply put, an AI is trained on all the qualitative and quantitative audience data from a segmentation project. The result is a digital twin that functions like a GPT, responding to text or voice input. You can “talk” to your target audience, a persona generated by AI, and ask it questions. It answers, depending on the model setup, in real time or after a short delay.   

The outcome? Clear, nuanced answers to questions about product and service offerings, price sensitivity, communication preferences, or decision-making behavior. Even more impressive, we’re seeing results that go beyond the typical scope of market research and the data set that was originally fed into the system.  

Of course, having clear guardrails and rules are critical to success. For example:  

  • Instructions on expected response quality (e.g., “Include data points with every recommendation, always reference motivation drivers of the target group”)
  • No-go zones (e.g., “Avoid any kind of generic recommendations or mass-market tactics in marketing efforts”)
  • Quality checks (e.g., “Formulate all recommendations in a customer-ready format so they can be implemented immediately”)

Another essential factor is training the AI. In one of our recent projects, it was necessary to put in place a three-step human-machine process: first, removing obvious errors and so-called hallucinations. Then, a twofold review phase where an initial set of recommendations was deliberately compared with the deep industry expertise of our consultants.  

The results have  superseded our expectations.  Nothing less than “audience insights at the push of a button.” In effect, marketers can now have access to a 24/7 customer persona they can consult on brand, product, pricing, sales or marketing communication topics.  

Below are three recent examples that show how this works in real-world settings. 

Example One: Travel company 

For a leading European travel group, we defined target customer segments for its hotel brands using a unique segmentation approach that combines lifestyle and travel behavior and needs. This resulted in the creation of Travel Lifestyle Clusters.  

For these segments, we developed AI personas and used them to help the client design targeted product strategies and communications across the entire experience journey—from brand to marketing and sales. The twist: once trained (which requires deep technical and industry know-how), these personas can draw implications beyond the  initial data input.  

For example: When asked, “What would an ideal welcome sequence at a luxury boutique hotel look like for you?” the persona provides detailed product, service and communication suggestions. Or, if market research reveals that a target group enjoys “beach and garden games” during hotel stays, we could ask it to specify which games fit their lifestyle. The AI persona would deliver tailored suggestions in seconds, including full staging, materials, music, etc.  

Example Two: Education foundation 

For a large foundation active in education, we developed AI personas for teachers as part of a school development project. Unlike the travel case, there was no primary market research available. Instead, personas were conceptually defined and built as “AI avatars.” Psychological models on motivation, change readiness, and change capabilities were used as input, along with a wide range of secondary statistical data. The final boost came from interviews with real teachers, conducted to reflect different pedagogical archetypes and integrated into the AI model.  

To deepen the impact, we gave the AI avatars names and faces, making them feel very real. As with the travel example, the results marked a milestone in working with audience insights. “Which of the following slogans would you prefer for a marketing campaign surrounding new tools and offerings to aid school development?” —the AI provides clear, precise, and logical answers that hold up in A/B testing with real interviews.

Example Three: Fast Food Brand 

For a fast food brand, we helped teams translate segmentation insights into decisions aligned with brand principles and growth goals. The breakthrough? We transformed the target segment into an AI-powered assistant—one that behaves like the segment and speaks the brand’s language. It was trained on human insights (attitudes, behaviors, cultural signals), brand DNA knowledge (positioning, tone, promise), and market context (category dynamics, local norms).    

This assistant is a flexible and replicable system that can generate and filter ideas, such as menu concepts, partnerships, channel formats and more, so they’re shaped by what will truly resonate with the audience while staying on-brand.  

Crucially, this should be regarded as an inspiration tool, not a decision-maker: human judgment still assesses feasibility, risk appetite and commercial readiness. That balance between speed from AI and judgment from experts can lead to faster alignment, clearer briefs and a stronger pipeline of testable ideas. 

We would like to thank Erik Muenster, Zadkiel Yeo and Prophet’s AI team for their contributions.

Marketing Excellence

FINAL THOUGHTS

Within just the last 12 months, AI has elevated decades of marketing practice by building upon a strong foundation of customer data and insights.  

Knowledge is becoming more immediate, direct, and usable in real time. If properly set up and trained, data and insights form a nucleus from which AI can generate recommendations and actions that go beyond what the original data might suggest. Creativity may not be AI’s strength, but logical, linear extrapolation certainly is — and that leads to a significant boost in speed and quality. This can enable firms to derive even more value from their proprietary data, providing an important competitive advantage.

The power of AI in creating more flexible and intelligent customer personas is undeniable. Against this backdrop, marketing leaders must act decisively to put themselves ahead of competitors who are not yet using AI to their benefit.  

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Brand and Culture: At the Intersection of Uncommon Growth

When brand and culture align, organizations gain credibility, differentiation, and sustainable growth.

Innovation may spark growth, but credibility sustains it—and that credibility comes when brand and culture are working as one. Once treated as separate, brand—the external articulation of promise—and culture—the internal reality of behavior—are now inseparable. Their integration is essential for authenticity, differentiation, and long-term resilience. At their intersection lies the potential for uncommon growth—growth that is faster, more sustainable, and deeply human. Organizations that recognize this interdependence are better positioned to deliver consistent experiences, inspire trust, and achieve sustainable success. 

Defining the Relationship

A brand is more than a logo or tagline; it is the collective perception people hold of an organization, shaped by every interaction and experience. Culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that guide how employees work and interact. Brand answers, ‘Who are we to the world?’ while culture answers, ‘Who are we to each other?’ When they reinforce one another, employees live the values and customers experience them authentically. This alignment strengthens trust, attracts talent, and enhances reputation.

Example: Salesforce promises to be a trusted digital transformation partner. Its *Ohana* culture emphasizes trust, customer success, innovation, and equality—making the brand’s promise credible in every client interaction. This alignment not only fuels customer loyalty but also attracts talent seeking purpose-driven work.

Executing the Promise

Brand shows up in expression—design, messaging, voice. Culture shows up in behaviors—leadership choices, systems, daily interactions. When they diverge, credibility is lost, and the promise risks becoming superficial. Employees are often the first to sense these gaps; if they do not feel empowered to deliver, customers inevitably see through the disconnect. When alignment is achieved, however, it becomes a multiplier of uncommon growth, ensuring that ambition translates into performance and perception into loyalty.

Example: Siemens’ brand, *Ingenuity for life*, is supported by cultural initiatives that encourage collaboration, agility, and digital skills. This ensures employees can deliver credibly on its transformation narrative and maintain trust with both industrial clients and public stakeholders.

Culture as Competitive Advantage

Organizations today are not only evaluated on what they sell, but on how they operate and what they stand for. As markets shift toward values, experiences, and purpose, culture becomes a decisive differentiator. A hospitality brand, for example, can only deliver on its promise of warmth and empathy if those values are embedded in the internal environment. Employees who experience alignment between external promise and internal culture are better positioned to embody and extend those qualities to customers, strengthening both reputation and performance.

Example: Patagonia empowers employees to live its sustainability values through activism and company-supported programs. This alignment strengthens its purpose-led brand and builds loyalty among customers. Employees are not just ambassadors of the brand—they are co-creators of its meaning.

Evolving Together

Brand without culture is superficial. Culture without brand risks insularity. The strongest organizations treat the two as a feedback loop: culture informs the brand promise, and the brand promise reinforces cultural behaviors. This dynamic relationship must evolve as markets, technologies, and stakeholder expectations shift. Leaders who intentionally nurture this cycle ensure their organizations remain relevant and credible over time, even as conditions change. 

Example: American Express promises premium service and trust. Its culture empowers employees to solve problems with a customer-first mindset. This loop sustains both loyalty and pride, allowing the company to consistently deliver on its positioning as a relationship-driven brand. 

The Leadership Imperative

Alignment is not accidental—it requires leadership. Executives must act as the bridge between brand and culture, embedding values into governance, incentives, communications, and daily practice. Leaders are uniquely positioned to signal priorities and reinforce behaviors that make the brand real. When leadership embodies the connection, alignment cascades across teams and functions, creating momentum that drives both internal engagement and external performance. In many organizations, this leadership accountability has become the single most important factor in sustaining relevance and unlocking value. 

Example: At Target, CEO Brian Cornell linked the brand promise of affordability with style to cultural renewal. He raised wages, invested in engagement, and embedded inclusivity—ensuring the external promise of helping families discover everyday joy was fully supported internally. 

Organization & Culture

FINAL THOUGHTS

The organizations that win tomorrow will treat brand and culture not as parallel efforts but as one unified system. This alignment provides clarity of purpose, cohesion of action, and consistency of experience. At its best, it is the catalyst for uncommon growth—growth that is resilient, differentiated, and deeply trusted by all stakeholders. Together, brand and culture create the foundation for trust, differentiation, and enduring success—an essential advantage in a world where credibility is the ultimate currency.

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Peter Dixon Joins Prophet Asia: A Conversation on Creativity, Culture and the Future of Brand Experience 

From North America to Asia, Peter Dixon brings rich experience and a unique perspective on shaping the future of brand experiences—here’s what he’s learned. 

Peter Dixon, Senior Partner and Executive Creative Director, recently joined Prophet’s Hong Kong team after relocating from Austin, Texas in the U.S. With a background that spans architecture, design and brand consulting, Peter brings a rare blend of perspectives to his work. His award-winning programs have shaped every dimension of brand experience—from strategy development to prototype design, customer experience concepts and merchandising innovation. 

Peter is no stranger to Asia, having partnered with leading companies including Emart, Samsung, Nissan, Walmart and more. In this conversation with Alan Casey, Senior Partner and Asia Regional Lead, Peter reflects on his journey as a consultant, creative and explorer—and shares what excites him most about working in Asia. 

As you relocate to Hong Kong, what excites you about helping businesses in today’s Asian markets versus other regions? How has your past work in Asia shaped your perspective on branding and experience innovation? 

Peter Dixon: When I began my career in offshore construction, I spent significant time in Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East. That experience, though technical in nature, sparked my curiosity about art, culture and design—and gave me an early appreciation for how different cultural contexts shape how people experience the world. 

At Prophet, I helped establish our Hong Kong studio years ago and I’ve seen firsthand how Asian businesses are both deeply rooted in tradition and incredibly fast to adopt new models of growth.  

Just look at our work with Emart, South Korea’s leading retail group. To meet the region’s fast-growing retail market, we partnered with them to bring a new retail format from the chairman’s whiteboard sketch to opening the first store in just 100 days. The concept, named Traders by Prophet, launched to great success and grew to 10 locations in its first three years—creating a US$1 billion brand. 

Prophet helped Emart to launch a winning retail concept in just 100 days. 

There are many examples across Asia where ambitious brands turn bold ideas into success stories, even in the face of immense complexity. What excites me now is the chance to work at this intersection: bringing Prophet’s global approach to uncommon growth while tailoring it to the unique pace, creativity and ambition of Asia’s markets. 

Reflecting on your proudest projects, what made them impactful? Can you give one or two examples, and how do those principles apply to Asian businesses today? 

Peter Dixon: The project that unlocked everything for me was the rebrand of the Nissan dealership network in 2000. It taught me you didn’t need to have the biggest portfolio or the most experience in a category to earn trust. What mattered was coming to the room with a thoughtful approach, good stories and strong chemistry. 

That lesson carried into other transformative projects I later led—from McDonald’s to AB InBev—where we combined rigorous strategy with bold creativity to deliver impact at scale.  

Prophet helped AB InBev capture and amplify its bold mission to “Dream Big for a Future with More Cheers.”  

For Asian businesses today, I think the same principles apply: lead with insight, build trust through storytelling and design experiences that resonate both locally and globally. 

In the age of social commerce and AI, why do you believe physical experiences and emotional branding are more critical now? How should brands balance digital efficiency with human-centric design in Asia’s hybrid retail landscape? 

Peter Dixon: Contrary to prevailing sentiment, I believe we’re on the cusp of a golden age of retail. With the ease and convenience of digital channels, what becomes obsolete is not physical retail, but bad or unthoughtful retail. 

In Asia especially, where digital transformation is lightning fast, the role of physical experiences is to be more immersive, contextual, rewarding and personalized—places where customers feel recognized and respected, even when interacting with machines. At the same time, artificial intelligence has the most potential in shaping the future of branding and customer experiences both in how brands and experiences are created and how it affects interactions with customers. I believe AI will make things easier—faster and more convenient—and better—more personalized, enriched with content and memorable. The opportunity lies in designing experiences that integrate both: the efficiency of digital and the humanity of physical. 

Hong Kong sits at the crossroads of East/West business cultures. How will you adapt Prophet’s global approach to uncommon growth to serve clients navigating diverse APAC markets? 

Peter Dixon: I’ve always believed in breaking down silos between strategy and creativity. At Prophet we’ve built teams that are more fluid, interdisciplinary and global, recruiting what I call “creative strategists” and “strategic creatives.” That model has allowed us to work seamlessly across New York, London, Hong Kong and beyond, to deliver “from insight to impact, faster.” 

Hong Kong, sitting at the crossroads of East and West, is the perfect vantage point for this approach. Many clients here are navigating diverse markets—each with its own cultural nuances—while also needing to tell a cohesive global story. Our job is to bring the rigor of strategy, the power of creativity and the agility of cross-cultural thinking to help them achieve uncommon growth. 

Brand Building

FINAL THOUGHTS

The addition of Peter strengthens Prophet’s mission to help our clients drive uncommon growth—combining creativity, culture, and strategic rigor to craft transformative, human-centric brand experiences. 

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Uncommon Growth: A CEO-CMO Dialogue on Brand, Integration and the Future of Marketing

Uncommon Growth Leaders is an article series featuring bold leaders driving faster, smarter, more sustainable, more human and more actionable growth—what we call uncommon growth. 

Under the banner of “Uncommon Growth,” we’re exploring what happens when CEOs and CMOs truly see eye to eye—not only in vision but in execution. In this conversation, we speak with with Chris Michalek, CEO and Erica Sniad Morgenstern, CMO of Personify Health, who share their unique experience in merging two distinct organizations, launching a new brand and leading with aligned purpose in an evolving marketplace. 

Personify Health is the first and only personalized health platform, created through the merger of Virgin Pulse and HealthComp. Bringing together health navigation, holistic wellbeing and benefits administration in one place, Personify empowers employers to deliver a better health experience for their people—through customized coaching, simplified benefits, and engaging programs. By optimizing investments in people and improving health outcomes, Personify is redefining what it means to build healthy businesses. 

To start, when you launched Personify, what were the core goals you set out to achieve?

Chris: Whenever you bring two companies together, especially ones from different sectors, you hope one plus one equals three. We wanted the combined capabilities to accelerate growth that neither could have reached independently. We see that today – clients are buying capabilities across both legacy companies, and that cross-pollination is creating real value. 

For example, we’re now selling our well-being solution into the TPA market in a way we wouldn’t have otherwise. And vice versa, well-being relationships are opening TPA opportunities. All of this should drive a growth rate one to three percent better than what others are seeing in the market. 

Erica: And we knew early on we needed a net-new brand to signal to the market that this wasn’t a legacy offering. This is a new category, created to solve a massive market need. The brand had to reflect that ambition from the outset. 

What has been the biggest challenge in trying to create a new category in the market? 

Chris: Teaching buyers to buy differently. They’re used to segmented purchasing, often through brokers. We’re telling them: “You can buy a holistic solution now, not siloed pieces.” That’s a mindset shift—and your value proposition must be airtight to succeed. 

Erica: Time is also a challenge, specifically, buyers’ time and attention. You must break through quickly. These were two very different buyer groups and we’re asking people to reframe how they think. That takes effort, so we needed a brand and a go-to-market strategy that hit hard and fast to earn that extra moment of consideration. 

Let’s talk about change management. You had to launch and integrate during buying season. What did that effort look like internally and externally? 

Chris: We prioritized integration—but recognized over time that both businesses needed to thrive independently too. We pushed hard to unite, and now we’ve stepped back slightly to ensure both legacy businesses are strong independently. That’s part of managing change—knowing when to push and when to pull back. 

Erica: We also had to pace the change for our clients. Internally, we moved fast. Externally, we were thoughtful—still using legacy app names where needed—so we didn’t disrupt their experience. There were moments when Personify was public-facing, but the Virgin Pulse app was still in use. That was intentional. We needed to manage the “pain of change” for our clients respectfully. That dual-speed transition was key to protecting our relationships. 

How would you describe the growth goals for Personify? Was it about exponential growth or steady progress? 

Chris: I call it smart growth. That means targeting the right customers and leveraging synergies to tell the story of how our capabilities make us better across the board.  For example, positioning ourselves as the most technology-forward TPA by leaning into well-being engineering capabilities. Or using our TPA data depth to position our well-being offerings as more informed and effective. That synergy makes each side stronger. 

We also doubled down on customers. Growth starts with retention. So first: retain and grow existing customers. Second: innovate. Third: enable a world-class commercial function. That’s how I think about growth. 

What’s the role of AI in that growth strategy? 

Chris: AI is central to our product innovation. It’s embedded into everything. From what customers see to how our engineering teams work. We’re using it to accelerate development and maintain competitive speed. If we don’t, we’ll fall behind—quickly. 

Erica: From a commercial standpoint, AI was a huge accelerator. One of the first things we did was train an AI tool to match our tone of voice. That helped us scale brand execution. AI also became a key part of our innovation story—used as a brand differentiator in how we talk about our solutions. 

You both clearly work in sync. What makes the CEO-CMO relationship work here—and why does that alignment matter? 

Chris: It’s a continuum—we balance each other. Sometimes she brings the big idea, and I take a more practical approach. Other times it’s the reverse. We have a good mix of purpose and innovation. It’s not always easy, but we have mutual respect, and we trust each other. And we’re both willing to take risks or bring the team back to execution when needed. 

Erica: Trust was there early on. We both came in aligned on what’s best for the company – not personal agendas. And I always back things up with data. That matters to Chris. He’s extremely metrics-driven. 

Chris: And I’ll add—I’ve worked with marketing for 20 years, but today’s marketing is more complex than ever. I’ve had to admit that I don’t know as much as I used to. Erica’s helped bring me along. Things like lead generation are now multimodal, AI-driven, and operationally intense. I respect her ability to communicate complexity. 

Erica, what advice do you have for other CMOs who want a real seat at the table? 

Erica: Seek to understand friction, not fight it. I had to step back and realize there was an education gap—not just on their end, but mine too. I needed to explain our world better and understand his more deeply. My advice is: embrace mutual curiosity over adversarial dynamics. 

Chris, what’s your advice for marketers trying to earn that CEO partnership? 

Chris: Relationships matter more than reporting lines. Erica never demanded to report to me; she focused on building trust and driving impact. Second—results over activity. CEOs are always asked what’s driving growth. I need marketers who can give me those answers. Bring data. Bring outcomes. That’s what earns trust. 

How did you define the role of brand in launching Personify—and what does it mean to employees? 

Erica: Brand is demand. It’s the currency of trust and the start of every commercial conversation. So, we built a brand that could sell—but also one with emotional resonance and mission clarity. From day one, our core was putting people at the center. The brand had to reflect that. 

Chris: Brand became our internal compass and external promise. It gave us a shared identity, and it helped our people rally around a unified mission. It helped us articulate values and culture. Even today, I keep the brand visible in my workspace because it’s meaningful. It was the right move, both short- and long-term. 

Chris Michalak is a purpose-driven leader with three decades of experience in the health and human capital industry. Most recently, he served as CEO of Personify Health. Previously, he held leadership roles as CEO of Alight Solutions, global chief commercial officer at Aon Hewitt, and CEO of Buck Consultants. Now Executive Chairman at Personify Health, Chris leads growth initiatives, strengthens client relationships, and guides the Board of Directors. He has also served on several boards and is graduate of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Michigan State University.  

Erica Sniad Morgenstern is Chief Marketing Officer of Personify Health, where she leads marketing strategy, demand generation, product and client marketing, and corporate communications. She spearheaded the company’s successful rebrand to Personify Health, bringing creativity and impact to every initiative. Previously, she held senior marketing and communications roles at Welltok (acquired by Virgin Pulse) and Epocrates, the app of choice for half of all U.S. physicians. A graduate of the University of Florida, Erica is also an active member of Chief, Csweetener, The CMO Club, and Gator to Gator. 

Business Strategy

FINAL THOUGHTS

This conversation is part of our ongoing Uncommon Growth series, where we explore what’s possible when senior leadership aligns not just on strategy, but on how to achieve uncommon growth. Personify Health’s journey – powered by a strong CEO-CMO partnership, a new brand, and bold thinking—offers a blueprint for driving performance through clarity, trust and creative disruption. 

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Lower-case ‘c’ creators are Quietly Taking Over Brand Marketing

The smartest brands are leveraging the collective power of digital communities to grow.

For the last decade, the capital-C Creator economy has boomed to over $250 billion, and we have watched as Creators parlay their success online into tangible political, cultural and financial influence. Being a capital-C, professional Creator has become the new American Dream.  

Brands have noticed how valuable Creators are, too. Insurgent brands like Glossier, Hello Fresh and Dunkin’ spend millions to secure top-shelf Creator partnerships, hoping to capitalize on the star power of Creators to drive even more demand for their products. The problem is: the space is overcrowded, working with top-tier Creators is increasingly expensive—and given how fragmented the ecosystem has become—it’s harder to guarantee a return on the investment.   

In the background, there’s another group of content creators quietly taking hold of the brand narrative.  We call them “lower-case c creators”. This growing group of digital natives, work across a repertoire of platforms in an unpaid capacity. They’re also largely untapped by brands.  

Tapping the Infinite Scalability of Everyday Creators 

While marketers often chase the same pool of top-tier influencers, millions of users are quietly influencing brand perception—without media kits, professional distribution deals or even commercial intent. They’re Airbnb hosts writing thoughtful listings, Strava athletes logging runs and Reddit users giving niche advice. Last year, YouTube released a study that showed over 65% of Gen Z already see themselves as some form of creators. Lower-case ‘c.’ 

These lower-case ‘c’ creators are leaving a digital paper-trail that contributes dramatically to brand narratives—all through their authentic experience with it.  

The beauty of digital creation among everyday creators? It scales the brand. As AI becomes more integral to product discovery, these digital signals—comments, reviews, playlists—become key inputs into how consumers choose brands: 

  • Content is more discoverable—casual Reddit posts are feeding ChatGPT responses. 
  • Organic behaviors are training the models—every user action informs the next. 
  • Authenticity is outperforming polish—genuine beats glossy. 

We’ve moved from brand-to-audience to a creator-to-creator model. Brand content is created, consumed and annotated by all lower-case c creators. But this creates new questions: How do you enable and guide these everyday creators? How do you help these creators – who are your customers and employees – reflect your brand values? 

What We’ve Learned (and How to Apply It) 

Our research with pro Creators shows two big motivators: authenticity and rewards. Their top challenges? Time, burnout, feeling isolated and not knowing how to succeed.  

These insights apply to everyday creators, too. Here’s how smart brands are responding: 

  • Redefine creation as contribution: Creating isn’t random, it’s a meaningful act. Logging a route, sharing a playlist, writing a review—demonstrate its impact on the community. 
  • Recognize and reward effort: Recognition matters—as does having something to aspire to. Highlight top contributors, feature them and give creators increasing access to the brand. The more they contribute, the more they matter. 
  • Foster community: People are looking for genuine online communities. Connect creators directly and show how their input helps others. 
  • Encourage remixing and brand co-ownership: Make it easy for users to echo and build on each other’s content—and show how their content is a critical part of the brand narrative. 
  • Center users in their stories: Creators don’t just talk about brands—smart brands, talk about creators and make them the center of their own stories. 

Organization & Culture

FINAL THOUGHTS

Consumers are no longer just passive audiences—they’re active collaborators. Brands that design for co-authorship, not just consumption, will win. 

In an AI-driven world, authenticity becomes currency. Brands’ most powerful marketers aren’t the Creators paid to endorse a product; they’re the users who create because they genuinely care and want to be a part of something big.   

Want to explore how to turn your customers and employees into everyday creators? Let’s talk. 

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A Guide for New CMOs

For a crash course in what to do first, plan your listening tour and ask the right questions.

Are you in a new role as chief marketer, or perhaps new to your category? This simple guide offers straightforward ideas and insights that can help you succeed.

To start, think about what you need to do in your first 100 days. It is important to consider:

  • Do I need to develop a transformation agenda?
  • Can I create a more compelling go-to-market strategy?
  • How can I make our brand more relevant to customers?
  • Are there foundational tools to put in place, such as a documented customer journey or a marketing plan?
  • How does marketing support the organization’s business strategy?

Given the rapid change in marketing and the greater need to prove immediate impact, we help new CMOs flex the most impactful levers including content, data and digital marketing, as well as reimagine their marketing organization for the modern era of growth engine marketing.

Here’s a quick guide of what to ask, what to do and where to look in the first 100 days.

What to Ask

Asking the right questions up front can help craft the right agenda, identify potential initiatives and create an actionable roadmap. Below are six questions you should explore with your team, colleagues, and agency partners.

  1. How relevant is/are your brand(s) to your most important customers and stakeholders? How relentlessly focused on the customer are insights, strategies and tactics?
  2. Is the marketing strategy aligned to the business strategy? What is marketing’s contribution to the enterprise? How do the rest of the C-suite and the board see marketing’s role?
  3. Are brand and demand priorities clear and integrated—or in competition and at odds? Is there a portfolio marketing strategy in place or is the strategy purely product-focused?
  4. How are you going to engage and empower the sales, communications and product teams? Is there a shared end-to-end customer journey? What culture of collaboration exists or doesn’t exist?
  5. What is the maturity level within the marketing organization for key digital capabilities such as customer data, content, personalization and attribution?
  6. Is your marketing team organized in the most efficient way possible and around your business priorities? How might you set up your operating model? How can AI tools and agents help?

What to Do

Here are some recommended actions passed on from other leaders, proven to get you on solid footing and off to a smart start.

1. Schedule your listening tour

Meet with your direct reports and colleagues across the organization, and ask these questions: What do you want me to create? What do you need me to protect? What do you need me to prioritize? Be sure to share back the results and your plan.

2. Create these CMO assets

  • Introduce Yourself Presentation: Prepare a “top 10 list” presentation that addresses these questions: Who are you? Why are you here? What kind of change initiative are you leading? What do you believe about marketing? What do you value? How do you like to work with others? What are your top priorities? What are key milestones for your first six months? What do you expect from your team? What can they expect from you?
  • Vision, Agenda and Roadmap: These are often created in a workshop over a few weeks with a suite of collaborations They should include a description in which the brand can fulfill the business potential, and the springboards, or starting places, that exist now. One key artifact to create is a dashboard to help track progress.
  • Growth Era Marketing Plan: This plan is a modern replacement for the integrated marketing plan and has many of the conventional elements updated for marketing’s new role as a growth engine for the enterprise. Topics include business vision, opportunities, strategies and tactics, customer data strategy, calendar, investment, and key enablers (e.g. content, technology, people, partners).

3. Work in outcomes

Translate your priority initiatives from marketing objectives to business impact. For example:

  • Reducing cost: Investing in a content strategy that leads to search engine optimization will, for the business, reduce the cost of digital marketing that may need to be done.
  • Increasing revenue: Engaging in brand and marketing campaigns that increase customer loyalty can, for the business, increase the share of wallet and customer lifetime value.
  • Improving efficiency: Improving digital experiences can be a reason for a prospective client to work with you, therefore improving the volume of incoming leads, lead quality, conversion rates and retention.
  • Product innovation: Customer insights gleaned from marketing activities and shared with product management can optimize product performance and uncover new opportunities.

Ask your teams to quantify and report their work against broader business impact, not only marketing KPIs. A dashboard that integrates marketing KPIs and business performance can help sustain that conversation and connection.

“When asked business questions (e.g. what have you delivered for the business?), don’t give marketing answers (e.g. NPS).”

Raja Rajamannar, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Mastercard

Where to Look

Prophet helps new and tenured CMOs set an agenda and transform their marketing inside and out. Talk to Scott Davis, Mat Zucker, Marisa Mulvihill, Kate Price, Alex Whittaker and our brand and marketing strategy teams. Here are some additional resources which might be helpful:

Books

  • Diary of a First-Time CMO, Alice de Courcy (2023)
  • The Next CMO: A Guide to Marketing Operational Excellence, Peter Mahoney, Scott Todaro and Dan Faulkner (2020)
  • Lies, Damned Lies and Marketing: Separating Fact from Fiction and Drive Growth, Atul Minocha (2021)
  • Chief Marketing Officers at Work, Josh Steimle (2016)
  • CMO Manifesto, John Ellett (2012)
  • Owning Game-Changing Sub-Categories, David Aaker (2020)
  • Creating Signature Stories, David Aaker (2018)

Articles & Speeches

Podcasts

Communities 

Marketing Excellence

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Chief Marketing Officer is a C-suite role that can lead, shape, and help deliver uncommon growth for the organization. Marketing is evolving fast, and every leader—new or tenured—needs the mindset and toolset to stay in front.

Reach out to our brand and marketing experts for advice and support on getting started with your agenda. Have a resource we should mention?

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Culture: A CEO’s Catalyst for Uncommon Growth

Five culture moves that help CEOs unlock growth in uncertain times.

CEOs Are on the Hook for Growth—So We Studied What Makes It Happen 

CEOs are under immense pressure to deliver sustainable, industry-beating growth. At Prophet, we’ve studied what drives this kind of Uncommon Growth in these uncommon times—the kind that’s smarter, faster, and more resilient. While several elements contribute, one fundamental stood out in service of the others—culture.  

Culture Isn’t the Only Ingredient in the Growth Formula—but it’s the Bedrock  

Culture underpins all other factors. It’s the connective tissue between your organization’s purpose, people and performance. Without the right cultural conditions, customer obsession and innovation—the other pillars of uncommon growth—don’t stick. It is not a myth that culture eats strategy for breakfast. Take the AI revolution. It is Human-centered AI—the combination of tech with the human and cultural elements—that will drive competitive advantage. Not AI on its own. 

Culture Drives Business Impact—But it Requires Systemic Work 

Creating a culture that catalyses your growth isn’t accidental. It stems from your organizational system—how decisions are made, how people collaborate and what gets rewarded. Leaders who intentionally align culture with their brand and strategy accelerate execution and achieve faster impact. Those who neglect it, fall behind. Culture is dynamic. It needs nurturing and shaping over time to provide the stability, energy and speed required to fuel growth. 

The Good News: Unlocking Growth Doesn’t Mean Wholesale Change 

You don’t need to overhaul your organization. Typically, it’s a matter of identifying and shifting a few critical behaviours that are holding your strategy back—then aligning leadership and systems to reinforce them. Here are a few steps to make that happen. 

Five CEO-Level Culture Moves That Drive Growth 

To unleash your culture’s potential, focus on five pivotal actions: 

1. Set your organizational ambition 

Define a compelling, shared ambition for the organization, aligning purpose, strategy and culture—enabled by the right behaviors. Co-create this with your executive team to build a powerful, unified force that’s laser-focused on enabling growth together. 

2. Activate your leadership 

Culture change starts at the top. Leaders must model and promote the behaviors you need to win. Clarify what is expected of leaders, provide them with the skills and tools to drive adoption with their teams. Incentivise them and make them accountable for change. 

3. Inspire your employees 

Create an environment where people feel safe, empowered, and excited to contribute. Spark employee interest, passion and accountability by showing them what great looks like and celebrating their attempts to progress towards it.  

4. Align your organization system 

From incentives to structures, ensure every mechanism supports your desired culture. Unlock people and work through systematic change in service of delivery against set objectives. Alignment can take time but insist on a roadmap for change. 

5. Measure and celebrate progress 

Resource culture as a permanent strategic imperative, aligned to strategy and performance. Track what matters. Adapt to business priorities as you go. Celebrate progress and examples of change that support your direction.  

Start by Identifying the one Cultural Shift That Will Unlock Growth 

Iconic CEOs have driven phenomenal growth through cultural focus. Satya Nadella transformed Microsoft by shifting from a “know-it-all” to a “learn-it-all” culture. Alan Mulally turned Ford around by eliminating internal competition and rallying the organization around transparency and a relentless focus on the plan. Ynon Kreiz led Mattel’s transformation to an entertainment company by focusing heavily on shifting internal behaviors from product-centric execution to brand-building, creative risk taking and storytelling-led innovation. Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgiç drove the company’s dramatic profit turnaround with a shift from complacency and bureaucracy to customer focus and having employees act as business owners.  

While they required specific business changes, each change was underpinned with a systemic culture focus, making a few critical behavioral shifts to support their growth strategy.  

They didn’t attempt to fix everything—they focused on shifting the right thing. 

Organization & Culture

FINAL THOUGHTS

At Prophet, we help CEOs define the cultural shifts that will unlock growth. Our Discovery Workshops surface misalignments, identify high-impact behaviours to change, how to equip leaders, excite employees and design the organizational systems to make them stick. 

Your brand is only as strong as your culture. As CEO, it’s not just your job to grow the business—it’s your job to cultivate the culture that makes growth possible. Let’s find your culture catalyst for Uncommon Growth. 

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The New Rules of Search: Why AEO Is the Next Frontier in the Age of AI 

SEO isn’t dead—It’s evolving but now is the time for companies to build a new AEO strategy. 

Search is no longer just about clicks—it’s about conversations. With the rise of AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Bing Copilot, users are discovering information in radically new ways. These platforms summarize, synthesize and recommend content—often without users ever clicking a link. 

AI overviews are fundamentally changing user behavior, fragmenting discovery and forcing brands to rethink their web strategy. AI-generated summaries are increasingly occupying prime real estate on search engine results pages (SERPs), leaving fewer opportunities for traditional click-throughs. In fact, 74% of users now turn to AI tools instead of Google for information and 70% of B2B buyers say they’re less likely to trust a vendor if its AI-generated answers are inaccurate. 

Despite bold claims that “SEO is dead,” the truth is more nuanced. SEO is evolving. It remains foundational to how AI models understand and surface content. But to stay visible in this new landscape, brands must go beyond traditional tactics. Enter Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).  

AEO is a future-ready strategy that blends structured content, knowledge graph alignment and AI discoverability tactics to help brands appear in AI-generated responses. It’s not just about ranking anymore—it’s about being recognized, cited and trusted by AI. 

Why SEO Isn’t Dead—It’s Evolving 

Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on the open web. That means your SEO-optimized content—structured, authoritative and well-linked—is still the raw material for AI-generated answers. 

Over the years, SEO has evolved from keyword stuffing to structured data, schema.org markup and semantic search. Now, AI is accelerating that evolution. Brands must ensure their content is not only crawlable but also interpretable by AI systems. 

In short: SEO is no longer just about ranking. It’s about being recognized and recommended by AI. 

The watch-out for brands today isn’t that SEO is dead—it’s that outdated or inaccurate content will quietly kill your credibility in AI-driven search.

From Search to Summarization: The Rise of AEO 

AEO is the next evolution of digital visibility. It’s a strategic approach to ensure your brand shows up accurately and prominently in AI-generated answers across platforms like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity. 

A strong AEO solution requires: 

  • Brand Embedding: Measuring how close your content is to high-value topics in AI models. 
  • Entity Mapping & Schema Optimization: Ensuring your website’s content has structured data and brand’s information is correct in sources like Wikidata. 
  • Content Optimization: Creating AI-friendly content that’s concise, structured and semantically rich. 
  • Monitoring & Feedback: Tracking your brand’s presence in AI responses and correcting misinformation. Keeping that data at your fingertips through custom dashboards to showcase your brand’s visibility within LLMs and SOV against competitors.  

In a world where decisions are made without a click, AEO helps your brand stay visible, credible and competitive. 

The Rise of Multimodal Discovery 

Discovery isn’t just text-based anymore. Users now rely on: 

  • Voice search (“What’s the best HR software for small teams?”) 
  • Visual search (Google Lens, Pinterest) 
  • Conversational interfaces (AI chatbots and assistants) 

This shift means brands must optimize across formats—text, images, video and structured data. Multimodal discoverability is the new baseline. 

What Brands Need to Do Now 

Audit Your Digital Footprint

LLMs are trained on what’s already online. Outdated, inaccurate, or off-brand content can hurt your discoverability and credibility. 

Action: Audit old blogs, press releases, backlinks and landing pages. Identify and fix content that no longer reflects your brand or is factually incorrect. 

Refresh and Structure Content

Use structured data (like schema.org) and emerging formats (like LLM.txt) to help AI understand your content. 

Action: Refactor key pages with clear headings, concise answers and semantic markup. Write for both humans and machines.  

Strengthen Domain Authority

AI models prioritize content from trusted sources. Being quoted, linked, or cited by high-authority domains boosts your visibility. 

Action: Revisit your PR, editorial and influencer strategies. Build authority signals across the web. 

Understand Your Brand’s Embedding

AI models organize knowledge in vector space. Understanding your brand’s “semantic distance” from key topics reveals content gaps and opportunities. 

Action: Use tools to visualize your brand’s position in AI models and identify where to create or consolidate content. 

SEO vs. AEO: A Strategic Comparison 

AEO doesn’t replace SEO—it builds on it. But it requires a shift in mindset: from optimizing for clicks to optimizing for answers. 

Marketing Excellence

FINAL THOUGHTS

We’re entering a new “wild west” of digital discovery—similar to the early 2010s of SEO, but moving even faster. AI is reshaping how people find, trust and act on information. 

Brands that modernize now—by embracing AEO and rethinking their content strategies—will have a significant competitive edge. Get in touch with our team to learn more about how we’re helping companies navigate the new AI-driven environment. 

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Rethinking Marketing Maturity in the Age of GenAI

How CMOs can leap forward—not just level up.

Every CMO we talk to these days knows two things:  

  1. Generative AI will change how marketing works  
  2. They don’t have time to wait and see how  

What they’re asking now isn’t why, but how.  

  • How do we start—without getting stuck?  
  • How do we scale—without fragmenting the customer experience?  
  • How do we prove ROI—without drowning in pilots?  

To answer these questions, Prophet has reimagined what a marketing maturity model should look like in the GenAI era.  

 Let’s Start With a Step Back   

In 2018, Prophet debuted our Marketing Maturity Model to help our clients understand where their companies have the opportunity to transform their approach to marketing and unlock growth. It evaluated marketing capability across key dimensions: content, customer data, channels, operating model, measurement and technology.  

Our 2018 Marketing Maturity Model  

For the most part, with some iterative updates, it has stood the test of time, and we still use it to help guide our clients.   

However, the pressure on CMOs has never been higher. Expectations around marketing-led growth continue to rise, while teams wrestle with talent gaps, disconnected data and flat or shrinking budgets. At the same time, customer expectations demand personalized, real-time experiences and traditional marketing processes can’t keep pace.   

The Opportunity for GenAI in Marketing  

GenAI—and increasingly, agentic AI systems—are reshaping how marketing operates. It’s not just about faster content or smarter segmentation. It’s about fundamentally changing how marketing teams plan, execute and optimize across the entire value chain:  

  • From content creation to campaign orchestration
  • From persona-based targeting to predictive segmentation  
  • From manual reporting to real-time optimization  

And GenAI can supercharge marketing performance:  

  • IDC Estimates that GenAI will increase Marketing productivity more than 40% by 2029.
  • The Financial Times, reporting against an analysis of 167 companies deploying level-3 LLM based agents saw revenue increases of 9-21% for sales and marketing functions.

Early adopters are rapidly out-pacing competitors by embedding GenAI. They are meeting customers’ demands for hyper-personalization and Autonomous AI agents are giving teams more agility than traditional marketing processes allow. And companies that have already started are seeing the benefits of exponentiality whereby the agents learn and become more effective and efficient with time.   

Content Creation and Creative Augmentation  

Generative AI tools act as creative partners, drastically cutting down the time to produce marketing materials and opening possibilities for mass customization. A human-in-the-loop approach ensures brand voice and factual accuracy remain on point. Generative AI supports the creative process so marketing teams can focus on high-level messaging and strategy, confident that the AI can supply a steady stream of drafts or designs to choose from.  

  • Expanded Creative Capacity: GenAI rapidly generates copy, imagery and video—multiplying creative output with fewer resources.  
  • Personalized Creative at Scale: AI enables customization of content variants tailored to segments or individuals without extra lift from teams.  
  • Faster Iteration & Testing: Content variations (headlines, formats, CTAs) are automatically generated, A/B tested and optimized in real time.  
  • Brand Governance Built-In: AI systems can be trained or prompted to comply with brand tone, voice and regulatory requirements.  
  • Creative Co-Pilot to Creator: As capabilities evolve, GenAI will shift from augmenting human creatives to autonomously producing and deploying asset-ready materials across channels.  

Dynamic Segmentation: A New Era of Customer Understanding  

Understanding your customers at a granular level is foundational to effective marketing. GenAI supercharges customer segmentation by analyzing data at a depth and scale that humans  cannot match. Marketers move from static segmentation to a responsive, intelligent system that adapts in real time to market and customer changes.  

  • Granular Precision: GenAI analyzes behavioral, transactional and engagement data at scale to uncover micro-segments and hidden patterns traditional methods miss.  
  • Real-Time Adaptability: AI-driven segmentation evolves continuously based on live data across channels—adjusting targeting as preferences, signals, or behaviors shift, allowing marketing to shift on the fly.
  • AI-Generated Personas: Models can synthesize lookalike audiences and new personas, improving targeting precision and reducing waste in campaigns.  
  • Predictive Insight: GenAI strengthens segmentation with forward-looking intelligence—anticipating churn, lifetime value and conversion probability. It can predict which customers are most likely to make repeat purchases, which are at risk of churn, or which prospects are likely to convert, often with greater accuracy than traditional models, thanks to the AI’s ability to detect subtle patterns.  

Hyper-Personalization of Customer Experiences  

The holy grail of marketing is “the right offer, at the right time, via the right channel, to the right person.” Generative AI is bringing this ideal of hyper-personalization at scale closer to reality. By combining granular customer data with creative generation capabilities, GenAI can help craft experiences and messages tailored to segments of one.  

  • Dynamic Personalization: Combines real-time data and AI-generated content to create truly individualized experiences.  
  • Beyond Messaging: AI personalizes offers, journeys, pricing and digital environments—not just copy.  
  • B2C & B2B Impact: Tailors experiences across the customer lifecycle, from retail to complex B2B buying groups.  
  • Efficiency Gains: Automates content, outreach and optimization—freeing teams for strategic creative work.  
  • Business Outcomes: Increases conversion, customer satisfaction and loyalty by making customers feel understood.  

Autonomous Campaigns and Marketing Operations  

Perhaps the most transformative impact of GenAI will come from automation of marketing operations and the emergence of autonomous marketing agents. In today’s marketing, executing a campaign involves many manual and repetitive tasks. Agentic AI has the potential to choreograph many of these tasks automatically, effectively acting as an extra pair of (digital) hands – or an entire “digital marketing team” – that works 24/7 with perfect consistency  

  • From Tasks to Autonomy: Agentic AI automates campaign execution and internal workflows—acting as a 24/7 digital marketing team.  
  • Faster, Smarter Execution: AI agents optimize performance in real time—audience targeting, budget shifts, creative testing, etc.  
  • Seamless Funnel Engagement: Agents handle early-stage lead qualification, handoffs and conversational marketing.  
  • Cross-Functional Automation: Supports operations like content planning, compliance review and data integration.  
  • The Future of “Marketing Autopilot”: Phased evolution from AI-assisted tools → autonomous agents → fully automated marketing teams.  

Introducing the Prophet GenAI Marketing Maturity Model  

Many marketing leaders  are concerned – are we too far behind already? Noting “Our current marketing wasn’t up to a sophisticated level of maturity before GenAI started to take over, so how can we possibly catch up?”  

Traditional maturity models describe a journey from “ad hoc” to “optimized,” implying you must climb rung by rung. But GenAI has changed the rules. You no longer have to move in sequence—you can jump.  

  • Go from inconsistent content to scalable, brand-safe personalization in a quarter.  
  • Skip the years-long Martech roadmap and deploy agentic systems that act as 24/7marketing teams.  

The trick is not just adopting GenAI tools—it’s embedding them into the operating model.  

Our updated model maps GenAI capabilities across eight marketing functions—from customer segmentation to campaign orchestration—across three stages of maturity:  

Where are you Today—and What can you do Tomorrow?  

Whether you’re piloting your first GenAI tool or scaling autonomous agents, your path forward depends more on organizational readiness than AI capability. Here’s how to move:  

Start Small, Scale Fast  

  • Pilot in areas with low risk and high visibility (content ops, lead scoring, message testing).  
  • Use these early wins to build internal confidence and proof points.  

Design for Integration  

  • Establish a GenAI Center of Excellence or a cross-functional squad. 
  • Align with IT, legal and data to ensure brand governance, ethics and compliance.  

Map to Growth Metrics  

  • Don’t just track clicks—link GenAI to business outcomes: ROMI, CLTV, speed to value.  
  • Create a dashboard that shows GenAI’s contribution to revenue and retention.  

Shift Mindsets & Roles  

  • Upskill marketers to become orchestrators, not just executors.  
  • Redesign workflows to let AI handle the repeatable—and people handle the exceptional.  

Marketing Excellence

FINAL THOUGHTS

Talk to Prophet about how you can embed AI in your marketing and in your marketing operating model for the uncommon growth that great strategy, creativity, innovation and culture can together provide.  

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Uncommon Creativity for Uncommon Growth 

A taste of Prophet global creative work.   

2 min

Summary

Prophet’s creative work is grounded in the belief that uncommon growth demands uncommon creativity. 

Our team has grown—bigger than ever across our four global studios—to reflect the new challenges brands face, bringing in new talent and expanding our capabilities to meet a broader range of client needs.  

From AI-driven identity systems to immersive campaigns and experiences, we aim to inspire and transform. Every project begins with brand strategy and purpose, helping us tell authentic stories that go beyond what a brand sells to show who they are. As demand grows for creative that bridges strategy and execution, we deliver bold, results-driven work that builds equity, drives growth and elevates brands and businesses in a fast-moving world. 

Work Featured in Prophet’s Design Reel

00:13
JetBlue: Redefining Airline Expectations 

JetBlue has always done things differently—its brand needed to reflect that. Prophet helped evolve JetBlue’s identity to challenge how airlines are “supposed” to act, look and speak. The result? A bold, unmistakable brand that defies convention and elevates the customer experience.

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00:21
UBS: Energizing 60,000+ Employees Through Brand

After UBS acquired Credit Suisse in 2023, we helped management reaffirm UBS’s status as a foremost global financial institution. We created the central idea of “Craft,” and executed it through a new brand expression, customer experience initiatives and a global creative campaign.

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00:31
Abu Dhabi: A Destination Brand That Moves at Your Pace 

To position Abu Dhabi as a world-class cultural and leisure destination, Prophet developed a new brand and campaign: “Experience Abu Dhabi. Find Your Pace.” With a bespoke logotype, dynamic visuals and a human-centric image library, the brand invites the world to explore the emirate’s rich offerings.

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00:44
AEG: Challenging the Expected in Home Appliances

To help AEG stand out in a functional category, Prophet refreshed the brand with a bold new strategy: “Challenge the Expected.” We expanded its iconic red palette, introduced expressive characters and launched a 360° brand experience at IFA 2024.  

1:13
Invesco: Editorial Thinking for a Client-Centric Brand

Prophet helped Invesco evolve its brand with an editorial mindset by introducing expressive typography, CGI-enhanced visuals and a distinctive tone of voice: “The Intelligent Conversationalist.” A global employee campaign and new EVP brought the transformation to life.

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1:18
MB Bank: A Bold Identity for a Digital-First Future

To mark its 25th anniversary and transformation into a digital-first bank, MB partnered with Prophet to launch a new brand: “Intelligent Banking. Enriching Your Future.” The refreshed identity fueled growth, earned industry accolades and attracted over 8 million new customers.

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Is Your Company Undervalued? It’s Time to Rethink Your Story of Value 

As global markets stabilize, a new challenge emerges for resilient companies: the strategic opportunity hidden in widespread undervaluation. 

In today’s world of relentless volatility, geopolitical tension and economic uncertainty, many companies have spent the last few years focused on survival—restructuring operations, building resilience and navigating crisis after crisis. But now, a new challenge is emerging: undervaluation. 

Across global markets, undervaluation is a striking trend. In the U.S., small-value stocks are trading nearly 25% below their fair value, signalling untapped potential. In Europe, countries like the Netherlands and Denmark show discounts of 10–14%, while even large-cap firms in Germany, France and the UK remain undervalued—particularly in sectors like industrial tech, digital trust, and cybersecurity. Meanwhile, in Asia, many companies—especially in technology, logistics, and industrials—are trading at 40–50% below estimated fair value, despite strong fundamentals and growth prospects.

Why? Because the market doesn’t always see what you see. And that’s not just a financial issue—it’s a strategic one. 

Three Gaps That are Holding you Back 

At the heart of this undervaluation lie three critical gaps: 

The Valuation Gap 

Short-term decisions, reactive strategies, or misunderstood pivots can obscure long-term potential. When the market doesn’t grasp your trajectory, your valuation suffers. 

The Differentiation Gap 

Your value proposition may no longer be clear or compelling. Assets are in place, but the dots aren’t connected. Your competitive edge isn’t obvious—internally or externally. 

The Narrative Gap 

Somewhere along the way, the story of what makes your company exciting, unique, and future-ready has faded. Teams lose clarity. Investors lose confidence. Momentum stalls. 

If any of this sounds familiar, it’s time to take a step back—not to rebrand, but to rethink your Story of Value. 
 

What is a Story of Value? 

This isn’t about marketing claims or slick campaigns. A Story of Value is a strategic narrative that articulates the true, enduring value your company creates—today and tomorrow. It’s a unifying force that aligns leadership, energizes teams and restores market confidence. 

A well-crafted Story of Value: 

  • Clarifies what your company is capable of 
  • Defines where you can play and how you can win 
  • Inspires belief across stakeholders—from boardrooms to frontlines 
  • Becomes a catalyst for growth, innovation and cultural transformation 

Why it Matters Now 

Without a sharp, distinctive, and inspiring Story of Value, growth becomes harder. Teams hesitate. Investors question. Opportunities slip away. 

But with it? You unlock a new wave of momentum. You simplify complexity into a compelling, credible, and actionable narrative. You speak a common language that wins in the market. 

What you Gain 

Rewriting your Story of Value often leads to: 

  • New growth opportunities you haven’t seen before
  • Cultural shifts that align with your future ambitions 
  • Brand strategy alignment that supports your next chapter 

How it Works 

The process is both rigorous and inspiring. It includes: 

  1. Asset Inventory: A deep dive into your tangible and intangible assets—client-facing capabilities, operational strengths, cultural mindsets and more.
  2. Strategic & Messaging Frameworks: A structured methodology to crystallize your Story of Value, grounded in data, co-created with stakeholders, and validated through market testing. 

Depending on your organization’s size and complexity, this journey takes four–12 weeks. We combine classical analysis, stakeholder interviews, co-creation workshops, and proprietary AI tools to ensure a 360° view—inside-out and outside-in. 

The Outcome 

You walk away with more than a story or strategic framework. Working with us will provide you with: 

  • A practical, execution-ready strategy 
  • A unifying, high-touch leadership experience 
  • A renewed sense of purpose and direction 

Business Strategy

FINAL THOUGHTS

Let’s rethink your Story of Value and reignite your path to growth. When your Story of Value is told right, it doesn’t just describe your business—it defines your future. 

Because clarity inspires confidence, and confidence fuels growth.

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How Shiseido Drives Uncommon Growth by Breaking Boundaries Through Customer-Centric Innovations

Uncommon Growth Leaders is an article series featuring bold leaders driving faster, smarter, more sustainable, more human and more actionable growth—what we call uncommon growth. 

Carol Zhou is the Senior Vice President of Shiseido Group’s China Business Innovation & Investment and the GM of Ziyue Fund, Shiseido’s beauty-focused investment fund. She unlocks growth drivers  across the globe by leading incubation efforts of internal new ventures, while identifying and investing in external emerging startups. 

In our discussion, Ms. Zhou shared her in-depth perspective on the evolving consumer landscape and Shiseido’s global strategy for innovation and growth. Through continuous innovations rooted in relentless customer-centricity, including ventures into ingestible beauty and medical beauty categories, Shiseido focuses on creating compelling value propositions to continuously win consumer trust, and drive high-quality, sustainable growth.   

How is Shiseido driving growth within your organization?  

Carol Zhou: As an industry leader and the ‘Asian Skincare Expert,’ Shiseido is committed not only to shaping the future of beauty but also to deeply understanding and anticipating consumer needs—transforming insights into strategic brand excellence and sustainable growth drivers. 

Growth is a long-term process, and the key lies in building an enduring brand through vision and consistency. Beyond packaging or storytelling, it’s about stewarding our core values at every touchpoint. Our goal extends beyond reaching a wider audience; we strive to cultivate meaningful consumer connections that inspire loyalty and mutual value creation. 

Shiseido has been increasingly investing in the ingestible beauty (inner beauty) and medical beauty categories. In pursuing high-quality growth, what motivated the decision to redefine the traditional boundaries of the beauty industry?

CZ: From my earliest days at Shiseido, our global CEO recognized China as both our most strategic future market and the ultimate proving ground for global innovation. This innovation extends far beyond product development—it’s about defining ecosystems, reimagining business models, creating unique consumer value and establishing enduring brand equity. 

Our approach to innovation outlines two essential principles. First, comes our commitment to anticipating future trends and staying acutely attuned to market evolutions. Equally important is our dedication to protecting the brand’s core value, ensuring every innovation strengthens rather than compromises Shiseido’s long-term values and heritage. 

The ingestible beauty category (beauty-from-within) came naturally to us. It represents the perfect synergy between Japan’s centuries-old philosophy of holistic beauty and China’s tradition of wellness harmony. 

Shiseido launched its tech-driven ingestible beauty brand INRYU in 2021. 

Medical beauty, in comparison, was a more challenging venture. Initially, there were internal concerns: Is this too radical? But after observing global beauty trends and consumer habits, we recognized that medical beauty is becoming an essential component of people’s daily skincare regimens, potentially displacing traditional premium skincare. As an industry leader, Shiseido must embrace change rather than cling to convention. So, we’re cautiously yet decisively exploring how to empower the medical beauty sector—seizing new opportunities while preserving Shiseido’s core DNA: “people-first” innovations blending “art & science.”  

Shiseido introduced its first medical beauty brand RQ PYOLOGY in China.   

Empowering the medical beauty industry is now a key pillar of Shiseido’s global strategy. We’re leveraging China—the world’s most dynamic and competitive market—as fertile ground for innovation, then scaling successful practices globally.   

With shifting consumer habits, what challenges do you face in brand marketing?

CZ: We don’t react passively. Instead, we proactively build systematic consumer insights and development capabilities, laying the foundation for sustainable, long-term growth. 

With unprecedented information transparency, consumers’ decision-making processes have radically evolved. They no longer passively accept brand narratives—instead they proactively investigate and demand substance. For example, proof points such as ingredients, clinical data and scientific validation are scrutinized, revealing a new generation of discerning consumers. Thanks to platforms like TikTok (Douyin) and RedNote, consumers are often better informed about industry trends than marketers. This shift is rewriting the rules of brand marketing.   

In the past, branding was a “one-way broadcast.” Corporations had control over channels with carefully crafted brand stories. Today, the narrative belongs to consumers—they share, educate and influence. Brands must evolve into enablers. This shift in power dynamics presents new challenges. With people’s attention spans shorter than ever, the pressure is on; brands must deliver value, instantly. 

But the real test isn’t to grab attention—any brand can do that with flashy campaigns. The true measure of success is converting buzz into lasting brand equity: loyalty, advocacy and repeat purchases. Shiseido focuses not just on communicating our core values, but on fostering continuous dialogue with consumers, reinforcing trust through delivering product quality and customer experiences.  

Shiseido launched “ULTIMUNE FOUNTAIN,” a sustainable refill service for the iconic Ultimune Power Infusing Concentrate, promoting sustainability while boosting loyalty. 

Amid market uncertainties, how does Shiseido reconcile bold innovation with risk mitigation when entering new sectors and ecosystem partnerships?

CZ: We take a test-and-learn approach—validating concepts through controlled pilots before scaling, ensuring systems and strategies mature in lockstep. At our core, we prioritize high-quality growth, rejecting short-term tactics like price wars or short-term traffic grabs and instead delivering authentic value that earns long-term loyalty. 

For instance, in medical beauty, we noticed gaps in the consumer journey—the experience from pre-treatment to post-care isn’t seamless. So, we’re exploring how Shiseido can enhance this holistic experience by integrating into the customer journey beyond providing specialized products. By partnering with clinics, we hope to help elevate their services and experiences, therefore increasing retention and customer lifetime value.   

Agility is also critical amid the fast-changing landscape. Internally, we strive to streamline cross-functional collaboration and accelerate decision-making. Externally, we cultivate strategic partnerships that complement our capabilities across the customer journey, allowing us to rapidly innovate in high-potential areas while maintaining our commitment to excellence. 

Finally, what metrics do you prioritize when measuring marketing success?

CZ: When assessing brand performance, I prioritize customer retention—particularly the repurchase rate—as one of the most critical metrics. More importantly, beyond broad brand awareness (which often correlates with marketing spend), I place greater emphasis on meaningful brand recognition among precisely defined consumer segments. 

This requires a sophisticated approach across different stages of the marketing funnel. At the upper funnel level, we focus not just on impression volume, but on expanding reach through precision targeting. We develop specific consumer personas based on our brand strategy, extending beyond basic demographics to incorporate lifestyle patterns and purchase drivers. For instance, ingestible beauty consumers may be primarily motivated by wellness consciousness or fitness routines. 

At the lower funnel, our emphasis shifts from short-term conversion (which can be artificially inflated through promotions) to driving repeat purchases and long-term value.  

Carol Zhou
SVP, China Business Innovations & Investments; GM of Inner Beauty & Wellness Division 
Shiseido

As the SVP of Shiseido Group’s China Business Innovation & Investment, Ms. Carol Zhou helps unlock the next growth drivers for the Group across the globe by leading incubation efforts of internal new ventures, while identifying and investing in external emerging startups. 

Ms. Zhou successfully led the launch of Shiseido’s first ingestible beauty brand, INRYU, in China. As the head of Shiseido’s ingestible beauty division, she will further expand the brand portfolio in this category to deliver greater value to increasingly sophisticated beauty consumers. Additionally, as the General Manager of Ziyue Fund, Shiseido’s beauty-focused investment fund, she continues to concentrate on high-growth sectors in the Chinese market, exploring new brands to enrich the Group’s business portfolio while creating synergies with existing brands. 

In April of this year, Ms. Zhou introduced the Group’s first high-end biotech skincare brand, RQ PYOLOGY, in Shanghai, offering a full-cycle medical beauty and skincare solution, fusing medical-grade efficacy and cosmetic elegance. The brand will partner with premium specialized beauty clinics to provide safer, more effective, and precise full-cycle skincare solutions for Asian skin through high-performance medical beauty products and outstanding customer experiences. 

Ms. Zhou has held senior management positions at several multinational corporations, including Unilever, L’Oréal Group, Burberry, and Marriott International, where she led brands in cross-regional and cross-sector global strategic innovation. She graduated from New York University’s Stern School of Business and holds an MBA from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. 

Ms. Zhou successfully led the launch of Shiseido’s first ingestible beauty brand, INRYU, in China. As the head of Shiseido’s ingestible beauty division, she will further expand the brand portfolio in this category to deliver greater value to increasingly sophisticated beauty consumers. Additionally, as the General Manager of Ziyue Fund, Shiseido’s beauty-focused investment fund, she continues to concentrate on high-growth sectors in the Chinese market, exploring new brands to enrich the Group’s business portfolio while creating synergies with existing brands. 

In April of this year, Ms. Zhou introduced the Group’s first high-end biotech skincare brand, RQ PYOLOGY, in Shanghai, offering a full-cycle medical beauty and skincare solution, fusing medical-grade efficacy and cosmetic elegance. The brand will partner with premium specialized beauty clinics to provide safer, more effective, and precise full-cycle skincare solutions for Asian skin through high-performance medical beauty products and outstanding customer experiences. 

Ms. Zhou has held senior management positions at several multinational corporations, including Unilever, L’Oréal Group, Burberry, and Marriott International, where she led brands in cross-regional and cross-sector global strategic innovation. She graduated from New York University’s Stern School of Business and holds an MBA from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Business Strategy

FINAL THOUGHTS

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Rooted in consumer insights and business outcomes, we create strategy that’s sharp, focused and pragmatic. Explore how we can partner with your organization to drive real growth. 

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