Prophet

CASE STUDY

Hapag-Lloyd Cruises

Refreshing a brand experience to be more relevant for the next generation

Challenge

Hapag-Lloyd Cruises (HLC) is a leading luxury cruise company, renowned for its fleet of five cruise ships, including the 23-year-old EUROPA. According to the Berlitz Cruise Guide, EUROPA has been the best cruise ship in the world since its launch, embodying the classic luxury favored by the traditional social elite. This includes festive etiquette, evening wear, fellowship among peers at fixed group tables and impressive furnishings. 

However, HLC recognized that the luxury market and the preferences of guests and potential new customers are evolving. To maintain the high standards of EUROPA and modernize its appeal, HLC partnered with Prophet for a comprehensive development of its brand, experience and marketing. The goal was to preserve the ship’s soul, hospitality and personalized service while adapting to contemporary luxury trends. 

Solutions

The project began with 360-degree market research, including surveying employees and existing and prospective customers. The team identified tourism and lifestyle trends and analyzed the competition. 

Based on the research findings, a current understanding of the target group and strategic growth options were defined, developed, evaluated and prioritized. This data-driven approach led to a clear reorientation, with the management and team defining “Cool Conservatism” as the new guiding principle for EUROPA. 

Next, the product and marketing strategy was developed. The EUROPA REFRESH program was introduced to address the needs and desires of modern cruise passengers, focusing on fitness, health and relaxation. The emphasis was on promoting a mindful lifestyle and holistic well-being. 

Marketing efforts were also revamped. The new imagery and tone communicated EUROPA’s “Cool Conservatism” concept across all relevant touchpoints to both existing and new customers. 

Finally, the new product concept was implemented throughout the organization via a comprehensive change management process. 

Results

The comprehensive realignment allowed EUROPA to stay competitive in the luxury segment. The ship now presents itself in a more modern and casual manner, consistently embodying the new target image. The organization can rely on the in-depth target group knowledge developed during the project, ensuring a customer and needs-oriented approach. 

CASE STUDY

Internet of Production Alliance

Branding a nonprofit revolutionizing mass production for all

Challenge

In a rapidly globalizing, tech-driven world, traditional mass production systems are falling short: they’re too complex, slow, inflexible and damaging to the environment. The Internet of Production Alliance, a nonprofit organization, aims to revolutionize this space by transitioning to a decentralized production model — one that empowers individuals to produce goods locally and sustainably. By bringing together innovators, entrepreneurs, engineers, academics, makers, manufacturers, designers and NGOs, the Alliance envisions a transition from mass production to production by the masses. These open, accessible, and decentralized systems will allow people to produce whatever they want, wherever they want. 

It’s a complex mission. The organization required a compelling brand strategy to rally members internally and create cohesion. And it needed to effectively communicate this extraordinary vision to external audiences, attracting partners and donors. 

Solutions

Prophet moved fast. In just 12 weeks, we consulted with their key stakeholders and developed a brand positioning strategy that rallied members around a shared vision: a future where everyone can contribute to the production of physical goods. We highlighted how the Internet of Production uniquely delivers its brand promise by harnessing the transformative potential of decentralized production, benefiting businesses, individuals and the planet. The positioning was brought to life through tone and messaging recommendations, enabling alliance members to communicate effectively, show up as a united front and build equity in the new brand.  

We then designed a compelling visual identity inspired by the technical blueprints that are so familiar to stakeholders, blending manufacturing precision with a human touch. 

Results

The organization strategically sought to engage new donors and partners, focusing on corporations and high-net-worth individuals. The brand’s rejuvenation empowered the Internet of Production Alliance to captivate these audiences, significantly enhancing the organization’s stature and trustworthiness. As a result, the Internet of Production Alliance has attracted talented new staff and seen its fundraising pipeline increase by over 300%, showcasing the remarkable impact of the rebrand.

“Previously, we hesitated to present our cause or direct people to our website due to its appearance. Our messages were getting lost. Now, we feel excited and eager to showcase our brand to the world; we’re proud of our brand – it is attractive and it reflects the scope of our ambition. What Prophet did, and even the wonderful way they did it, changed the game.”  

Andrew Lamb
Chair & Co-Founder of the Internet of Production Alliance

CASE STUDY

Dentsply Sirona

Intelligent by Design: Shaping the Future of Digital Dentistry with AI

Challenge

Dentsply Sirona, the global leader in dental equipment manufacturing, knew it needed to tackle the challenge of digital and AI transformation head-on and evolve from an original equipment manufacturer into a software-centric organization. In an industry typically slow to change, Dentsply Sirona aimed to reimagine digital dentistry from the ground up and asked Prophet to help design a best-in-class inter-operable user experience, scalable across its comprehensive ecosystem of platforms and devices.  

The goal was to revolutionize experiences for both dentists and patients, integrate artificial intelligence and transition to cloud computing. Such an extensive overhaul would be essential to maintain its industry position at the forefront of innovation.  

Solutions

Partnering with Prophet, Dentsply Sirona embarked on extensive user research to understand the specific needs of three key audiences: laboratories, dentists and patients. Our teams then developed a shared design language system to govern digital interactions for all its products and services, helping the organization take that first step toward a unified user experience and enabling the strategic deployment of AI across multiple touchpoints.

This intuitive design system emphasizes ease of use and robust, medical-grade functionality, which is crucial for enhancing adoption and integrating seamlessly into diverse dental workflows. Our design system acts as a foundational toolkit that streamlines the development of digital dentistry products throughout the organization and enables rapid feature updates and deployments.   This design system became the backbone for delivering intelligent experiences, with embedded AI copilots that support real-time decision-making, enhance productivity, and personalize the journey for both patients and practitioners. 

Key AI-driven features included: 

  • Proactive appointment management through predictive AI tools that optimize scheduling and reduce no-shows 
  • Outcome visualization tools that use AI to simulate dental procedure results, helping patients better understand and engage with treatment plans 
  • Voice-enabled clinical notetaking, leveraging natural language processing (NLP) to streamline documentation and free up practitioner time 

The recent unveiling of DS Core, Dentsply Sirona’s central cloud-based solution developed in collaboration with Google Cloud, has significantly enhanced its digital offerings. DS Core integrates digital workflows, connects Dentsply Sirona equipment to multiple devices and ensures high security, automatic updates and easy access. 

“With an intuitive and scalable design system, Dentsply Sirona can ship user-friendly applications on multiple hardware for various users faster and realize its vision of a seamlessly integrated digital ecosystem for next-generation dentistry.”

Layla Keramat, Partner, Prophet

Results

This shift positions Dentsply Sirona as a pioneer in shaping the future of dental care delivery. The new design system has accelerated time to market, enabling Dentsply Sirona to streamline the development process for the DS Core platform and its suite of products and services. This efficiency is proving vital for maintaining a competitive edge in this rapidly evolving field.  

Additionally, the unified, intuitive, AI-powered user experience across devices has created a seamless interaction model that enhances usability and strengthens brand coherence. By integrating cutting-edge technology into patient care and practice management, Dentsply Sirona is primed to set new benchmarks position itself as a leader in intelligent dental innovation, and drive innovation in this new era of dental care excellence. 

Client Testimonial

“I was impressed with the velocity and cross-collaboration of the team. We never could have moved this quickly without the support from Prophet.”

Manfred Müller
Vice President, Software Engineering & UX

CASE STUDY

CUNA Mutual Group Becomes TruStage 

Introducing a single powerful brand, from strategy to execution 

Challenge

CUNA Mutual Group, a storied financial institution rooted in the credit union movement, has grown and diversified over its 80-year history. By 2021, it had become a $5 billion mutual insurance company providing services to credit unions, their members and other financial institutions. But while it delivered many products and services, it did so by using many different brands. CUNA Mutual Group wanted a unified strategy that matched its ambition, enabling it to continue its growth trajectory.

Solutions

To develop their vision for the future, CUNA Mutual Group partnered with Prophet, leveraging our interdisciplinary approach to craft a single-brand strategy, marrying the enterprise’s strong history with its growth ambitions. 

This cross-functional team started with a clarified purpose for the enterprise, including the brand’s promise and principles. Using this distilled North Star, the organization now had somewhere to turn to ensure product-level value propositions align with core values and its plans for the future. 

TruStage, CUNA Mutual Group’s successful insurance brand, emerged as the answer. TruStage illustrates how the company builds on trust, helping customers and the people they serve confidently navigate every stage of their financial journey.  

Prophet worked closely with the company as it activated the new TruStage brand, finding ways to elevate and expand this brand for all stakeholders. 

A core component of this approach involved equipping teams with the tools to pursue continued growth. That entailed bringing the new brand to life with comprehensive training to support employees. We created inspiring activations, designing immersive digital and physical employee experiences deployed during launch week, and giving them everything they need to carry the momentum forward. We also produced a comprehensive external brand campaign, including creative assets and tactical media plan, for the launch.  
 
All told, Prophet delivered:   

  • Brand architecture and nomenclature strategy that supports a single brand strategy 
  • Visual and verbal identity and core messaging for key audiences 
  • A unified web experience that streamlined multiple unique web properties under one digital front door 
  • A purposeful and holistic enterprise content strategy 
  • Social channel architecture and taxonomy that clarifies and reinforces the single brand strategy  
  • A first ever corporate brand campaign, including comprehensive creative development and media plan 
  • An ongoing brand health tracking system 

Results

The TruStage enterprise brand launched in May of 2023, generating exceptional internal and external engagement. Employees – many working remotely – returned to the office for various events during launch week, with an impressive 83% participation rate. The brand awareness campaign reached nearly 42 million targeted users, with ad engagement rates five times stronger than projected. 

“Prophet was an instrumental partner in launching our TruStage brand, working closely with our teams as collaborative partners, to help define our brand strategy and architecture, and develop an integrated internal and external launch plan that brought our brand to life for our employees and our current and prospective customers. Prophet’s expertise enabled us to achieve strong impact at launch, providing over 5x more engagement than anticipated and more efficiently than we were expecting.”

Eric Hansing
Chief Marketing Officer

CASE STUDY

JetBlue

Elevating JetBlue’s iconic challenger brand for the future

Challenge

JetBlue, a prominent U.S. airline, was founded with the grand ambition of challenging other established carriers. Based on the promise of excellent, affordable service, JetBlue consistently offers customers a better way to travel. 

Despite being known for its distinctive wit and irreverent spirit, the company’s visual identity had grown tired, having travelled a few too many miles without a meaningful rebrand since its initial launch. JetBlue no longer reflected how its employees and travellers saw the carrier, nor did it capture what made the brand special. To address this, JetBlue engaged Prophet to refresh its brand and better reflect its competitive edge in the airline industry.   

Solutions

We evaluated each touchpoint in the JetBlue experience, assessing the airline’s existing identity and market positioning. Initially, our focus was on re-energizing JetBlue’s day-to-day marketing communications. However, through close collaboration with the JetBlue team, it became clear that a more comprehensive approach was needed.

Our scope expanded, and we embarked on crafting a holistic vision for the brand’s future. Together, we developed and launched a completely revitalized JetBlue brand identity. 

Our scope expanded, and we embarked on crafting a holistic vision for the brand’s future. Together, we developed and launched a completely revitalized JetBlue brand identity. 

Results

The ambitious rebranding initiative has positioned JetBlue for its next stage of growth and demonstrates its ongoing dedication to innovation. Entering a transitional year with an invigorated visual identity, this strategic shift has already led to increased customer interest and conversion. JetBlue continues to challenge industry norms, redefining what customers can expect from a cost-conscious airline. And this differentiating spirit is now beautifully reflected in the new brand identity and the plane liveries. 

Re-asserting JetBlue’s challenger spirit

Our idea centered on a core truth at the heart of the brand: its challenger spirit and character. Every creative decision was made to vividly bring this unique personality to life. 

“JetBlue’s brand is synonymous with irreverence and personality, yet its identity wasn’t fully embodying these traits. Our mission was to bring this back at a time when the company was preparing itself for its next stage of growth.”  

Andres Nicholls 
Global Executive Creative Director  
Prophet

An expression of joy

A joyful, fun and contemporary brand expression came together through an enhancement of their colour, type and imagery. A system that gave the brand flex and the ability to play, delivering genuine brand moments that put a smile on customer’s faces.

Wit, positivity and plenty of carry-on character

Tone of voice has always been a key differentiator for JetBlue. We meticulously crafted every element of the visual identity system to amplify that voice. It’s designed to be flexible and seamlessly adapting to the practical requirements of each touchpoint, ensuring the effective delivery of JetBlue’s distinctive writing style. From the typeface to the color palette and copy, every aspect communicates with humor, capturing JetBlue’s youthful energy and positivity.

Illustration that tells a story 

Collaborating with Ben Wiseman, we crafted playful illustrations that narrate travel stories and provide imaginative perspectives. Ranging from the whimsical to the extraordinary, they express concepts that can’t always be captured through photography alone – providing yet another way for JetBlue to stand apart from the crowd. 

Imagery captures moments we love 

We’ve all encountered the typical, overly polished destination images. Our approach was to capture those authentic micro-moments that resonate with customers. By keeping imagery simple, subtle and uncluttered, our marketing becomes more relatable – without falling into clichés. 

Created to drive impact 

JetBlue’s new designs aim to turn heads, make a statement and elevate every moment of the experience. Setting an ambitious vision from the outset, Prophet and JetBlue have reshaped the brand expression into one that honors the past while preparing the carrier for its next phase of growth. The rollout continues across many of JetBlue’s primary marketing and communication channels.

Reimagining JetBlue’s liveries  

The project also evolved to include a redesign of JetBlue’s commercial livery. The reimagined identity and updated livery honor JetBlue’s legacy by retaining recognizable tailfin patterns, now extending beyond the tailfin to envelop the entire rear fuselage, ensuring maximum brand impact, visible both in the skies and at the gates.  

“Opportunities like this don’t come around very often. Guiding transformative change for an iconic brand like JetBlue, working so closely with their team, has been a privilege. The company is on an exciting journey and being part of it has been a phenomenal experience.” 

Chris Benson 
Associate Creative Director
Prophet

Launching JetBlue to the world  

The first of the new designs took flight in the second half of 2023, heralding the beginning of JetBlue’s fleet-wide transformation. We’re proud of how we helped make the fleet bolder. Bluer. Newer.

CASE STUDY

China United Airlines

Transforming the brand experience to new heights and journeys abound 

Challenge

Following a merger and transformation to position itself as a mass-market and low-cost airline in 2014, China United Airlines (China United) achieved rapid business growth, transporting over 10 million passengers every year. As one of the first airlines to be relocated to Beijing’s Daxing Airport, China United has maintained exceptional operations that ensure high quality and safety, reaching all four of its key objectives. China United’s successful launch at the Daxing Airport marks a new chapter of its journey as a key player in China’s aviation industry. 

Striving to provide its customers with diverse and affordable flight options, China United continued its transformation through its data strategy and product innovation. With this ambition, the airline wanted to further inject energy and momentum into its brand, propelling the company to elevate its passenger experience. 

To achieve its vision of becoming a trusted and preferred airline by all stakeholders, China United partnered with Prophet to refresh its brand identity and end-to-end customer experience. 

Solutions

Our team set out to create a distinctive and ownable brand identity for China United. We began by diving into the unique brand DNA and uncovered two distinctive equities:  

  • Diversity: China United brings people together with diverse travel destinations and experiences, giving travelers a variety of choices and options to make their journeys special. 
  • Energy: From past to future, China United is constantly evolving for the betterment of our communities, passengers, and employees, thanks to its collaborative and efficient culture. 

Prophet translated these unique equities into a brand-new design direction “Evolving travel”. Building upon the design direction, we crafted a new brand logo with a kinetic logomark and its Chinese logotype. We also curated a distinctive brand palette and typographic style, developed a travel photography style fused with the warmth and romance of magic hours, and created a series of applications throughout the passenger journey. The brand’s fresh visual identity expertly uses dynamic lines to capture the vibrant energy and fluid motion of the China United brand. 

Prophet translated these unique equities into a brand-new design direction “Evolving travel”. Building upon the design direction, we crafted a new brand logo with a kinetic logomark and its Chinese logotype. We also curated a distinctive brand palette and typographic style, developed a travel photography style fused with the warmth and romance of magic hours, and created a series of applications throughout the passenger journey. The brand’s fresh visual identity expertly uses dynamic lines to capture the vibrant energy and fluid motion of the China United brand. 

Results

Our work to transform the China United brand supercharged the airline’s ambition to offer a world-class end-to-end customer experience, breathing new life into the passenger journey. From new check-in experiences to new inflight amenities and captivating livery designs, the dynamic visual identity enables China United to create more delightful moments for its customers and employees.  

Creating the New Brand Logo

The new brand logo is designed based on the alphabet “C” for China United Airlines. The sleek contours of the letter “C” embody the excitement and thrill of takeoff, symbolizing the wings of boundless freedom in flight. The use of dynamic, circular lines not only signifies a continuous journey but also represents the spirit of exploration and innovation that drives the airline forward, capturing the essence of China United’s commitment to delivering exceptional travel experiences. 

Defining Distinctive and Impactful Brand Colors

In a departure from conventional industry norms, our selection of high contrast and saturated colors brings a fresh and distinctive allure to the brand. This unconventional palette injects life into our design, leaving a lasting impression that is both impactful and unmistakably unique.  

Transforming the End-to-End Passenger Journey

We helped to prepare for the application of the new visual identity throughout the passenger journey from online to offline (O2O), ensuring a unified brand experience, creating a cohesive and elevated visual language across the touchpoints. 

Constantly Evolving 

China United is dynamic and continually evolving. From its past to its future, transitioning from a low-cost airline to a world-class economy carrier, Prophet has helped China United in its constant evolvement for the benefit of society, passengers, and employees. 

Discover More 

In the bustling Beijing Daxing International Airport, China United proudly serves tens of millions of passengers with exceptional quality. Prophet played an important role in infusing visual experiences and thoughtful touchpoints that seamlessly guide and delight customers throughout their journey with China United. 

“The upgraded brand logo and visual identity of China United Airlines have imbued the organization with renewed energy and momentum, driving us to constantly improve our services in order to create wonderful travel experiences for our passengers.” 

China United Airlines

CASE STUDY

Personify Health

Personify Health: defining a first-in-kind health platform

Challenge

How do you build and launch a first-of-its-kind health and wellbeing company?

A company that brings together two leading players, who serve different audiences with different capabilities, and compete with different competitors? 

We asked ourselves these questions when we were chosen to create the brand strategy and expression for the merger of Virgin Pulse (a leading digital-first health and wellbeing company) and HealthComp (the largest independent health-plan administrator).

The new company was formed to tackle increasing healthcare costs and complexity with an innovative, holistic approach, offering health benefits administration, engaging wellbeing programs, data-backed analytical tools, and concierge-level service—all on one platform.  

From how to go to market, to what name to use, to how to bring the brand to life, one answer emerged and guided us throughout the work: it’s all about the people. Partnering with leaders from the combined organization, we created the new brand that was publicly unveiled in February 2024. 

Solutions

After careful analysis—conducted in partnership with New Mountain Capital and executive stakeholders—that modeled the upside value, risk, and costs of different scenarios, the team decided to part from the iconic “Virgin” brand in favor of a new name that signaled a bold strategic shift. 

Once the decision was made to migrate to a new brand, we had to bring it to life. It was clear that a company offering a first-in-kind combination of solutions needed a first-in-kind way to describe itself. Centering on the strengths of personalization, connectivity, and engagement, we coined the term “personalized health platform,” combining these ideas with key differentiators (integrated tech and scalability) to describe the new category. The brand strategy brought forward this idea, positioning the brand around a bold purpose to engage and empower people to lead healthier lives. 

From there we explored numerous territories and styles before ultimately selecting the name Personify Health, which emphasizes the company’s commitment to bringing more humanity to a category that is too often lacking it. The name was supported with a new tagline, “Because health is personal” and a bold new verbal identity. The brand voice and messaging strategies were modular enough to flex for various audiences and content types and felt freshly disruptive to break from the informative, serious expressions of their competitive set while underscoring the company’s credibility. 

Building on the people-first approach, our team crafted the visual identity with an emotive brandmark that acts both as a monogram for the logo and the personification of the brand. With an ability to flex between a bolder, consumer approach and a more measured B2B expression, the rest of the visual identity was designed to feel empowering, highlight the uniqueness of our audiences, and stand out. We developed a color palette around a distinctive yellow to convey warmth and optimism.  

Once the decision was made to migrate to a new brand, we had to bring it to life. It was clear that a company offering a first-in-kind combination of solutions needed a first-in-kind way to describe itself. Centering on the strengths of personalization, connectivity, and engagement, we coined the term “personalized health platform,” combining these ideas with key differentiators (integrated tech and scalability) to describe the new category. The brand strategy brought forward this idea, positioning the brand around a bold purpose to engage and empower people to lead healthier lives. 

From there we explored numerous territories and styles before ultimately selecting the name Personify Health, which emphasizes the company’s commitment to bringing more humanity to a category that is too often lacking it. The name was supported with a new tagline, “Because health is personal” and a bold new verbal identity. The brand voice and messaging strategies were modular enough to flex for various audiences and content types and felt freshly disruptive to break from the informative, serious expressions of their competitive set while underscoring the company’s credibility. 

Building on the people-first approach, our team crafted the visual identity with an emotive brandmark that acts both as a monogram for the logo and the personification of the brand. With an ability to flex between a bolder, consumer approach and a more measured B2B expression, the rest of the visual identity was designed to feel empowering, highlight the uniqueness of our audiences, and stand out. We developed a color palette around a distinctive yellow to convey warmth and optimism.  

The new visual and verbal expression is being used across an array of functions, from mobile apps to tradeshow environments. Prophet also designed and developed the new website in partnership with the Personify Health team. The site was designed to reach different audiences, across markets, with varying priorities—all while telling a unified brand story to drive more leads. 

Results

In early 2024, the rebranding was publicly announced and garnered overwhelmingly positive reactions, especially from a key stakeholder audience: the employees of both legacy brands. Employees rallied around the new name, positioning and expression. Customers and prospects showed interest too, with many reaching out with questions and partnership inquiries. 

  • “I love it. [Personalization, patient- and people-centricity]—all things the industry can use more of.” – Industry analyst from Gartner reacting to the launch 
  • “Celebrating both the great name (which is hard to do these days!) and the great combination you’ve forged. Onward to continuing the bold mission to support people in their best health.” – Health economist  

6.1M+

impressions driven by 10 original media articles within the first two weeks (with an exclusive feature in Fierce Healthcare, and coverage in Digital HealthWire, Endpoints, FirstWord HealthTech, HIStalk, MobiHealthNews, Providence Business First, and more)

12k+

impressions of CEO Chris Michalak’s LinkedIn announcement after 8 hours, including 600+ reactions, comments, and shares

Prophet’s interdisciplinary teams worked together to launch the brand and website in rapid time. Our ability to deliver speed-to-impact was enabled by our collaborative partnership with Personify Health’s key decision makers, including Chief Executive Officer Chris Michalak, Chief Marketing Officer Erica Sniad Morgenstern, and private equity owners at New Mountain Capital. The full brand migration will be complete by early 2025. 

This work not only resonated with consumers and the market—it also aligned seamlessly with New Mountain Capital’s thesis, validating brand as a lever for accelerated value creation. 

“Our company’s strengths around personalization, human centricity, and partnerships provide compelling and differentiated opportunities for the new brand. Personify Health emphasizes our commitment to creating health experiences that put people at the center of every interaction. This was an incredibly rewarding project with unbelievable talent and support from Prophet, our CEO Chris Michalak, and others.”

Erica Sniad Morgenstern
CMO

CASE STUDY

Commonwealth

Building a foundation for uncommon growth through an evolved operating model

Challenge

Founded in 1979, Commonwealth is one of the largest independent broker-dealers in the U.S., serving over 2,000 independent financial advisors. The company is also a paragon of advisor experience and service excellence. Commonwealth has been named “#1 in Independent Advisor Satisfaction” by J.D. Power 10 times since 2010 (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2018-2023), consistently setting the bar for advisor service in an increasingly competitive industry. Amid changing industry dynamics and consolidation, the company’s leadership wanted to build on its strong foundation of excellence to bring unparalleled service to an even larger base of advisors. The company set an ambitious goal to grow the enterprise to $1 trillion in assets under management (AUM) – nearly 4x its current business. At the same time, leadership recognized that the company’s current operating model would not scale with its new transformational ambition. Leaders agreed that modern product management methods and team structures would help the company grow while maintaining its industry-leading standard of advisor excellence. Leadership also knew that digital products, services and experience would be critical, as their advisor customers increasingly looked to flexible and efficient digital solutions to grow their own businesses.  

Solutions

Our work together started by partnering with Commonwealth’s leadership team to identify the specific value levers where a product-oriented operating model might drive growth. A core team of Prophet and Commonwealth members then explored leading practices in modern digital product management, directly engaging with pioneering leaders from other leading organizations, both within and outside of the Financial Services sector. Having explored multiple options, the core team and senior leaders applied their new insights to Commonwealth’s business, aligning on both a target operating model as well as an interim transitional state, and organizing its broad range of products and services into four clear portfolios.   

After the target operating model was defined, we co-developed detailed process designs and governance models to clarify how decisions would be made in the new models. We also conducted a detailed capability assessment of 45 individual product management capabilities based on Prophet’s proprietary capability model. Where the team identified and prioritized capability gaps, we defined 25 detailed initiatives to address them, outlining the activities, resources and accountability for each. The core team and senior leaders convened to review the initiatives in detail and sequence them into an agreed roadmap for transformation.   

Evolving Commonwealth’s organization required significant changes to team structures and roles, as well as the talent and skills to fulfill them (“Body” and “Mind” in Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model, respectively). However, we also knew that we needed to appeal to the organization’s “Soul” to make changes stick.  

Commonwealth is recognized across the industry for its strong company culture and unrelenting dedication to the advisor experience. To ensure that changes were understood to be in pursuit of those ‘North Star’ values, our core team developed a robust change management plan to coordinate clear communications and support the behavioral changes required at all levels – from senior leaders to individual contributors.    

Results

Our partnership over an initial 12-week engagement helped the Commonwealth team accelerate its transformational growth journey. The company created and staffed a new executive position: the Chief Product Officer. All Commonwealth products and services now operate within the four new portfolios – each with their own newly aligned leadership – and select product teams have begun applying agile development methods. The company has also mobilized a transformation management team to coordinate capability building across the organization and deliver its transformation roadmap. Most importantly, Commonwealth’s senior leadership and executive teams are moving forward with clarity and confidence toward the goal of $1 trillion in AUM and are ready to maintain their title of undisputed champions of advisor experience over the next decade. 

 “At Commonwealth, we’re obsessed with the experience of our advisors, and so we understand and appreciate what ‘partnership’ really means. The Prophet team were true partners – they worked with us to understand our business and our team and helped us find the approach for us. I’m excited for the journey to come, and the momentum they’ve helped us build.”

Rory Barratt
Chief Strategy and Product Officer

CASE STUDY

International Health Partners

Reimagining a software system to drive growth and global impact

Challenge

International Health Partners (IHP) is a global NGO committed to providing quality, long-dated medicines to disaster-hit and vulnerable communities worldwide, regardless of location or demographic.​ In pursuit of this mission, IHP developed Boaz, a cutting-edge product donations management software designed to enhance efficiency and compliance in the donations process. However, IHP encountered a significant challenge in actualizing its growth ambition for Boaz. Seeking to transform the software into a driver for expanding global access to medicines and generating a sustainable revenue stream, IHP sought assistance from Prophet.

Solutions

With a multidisciplinary team, Prophet set to work to support Boaz’s growth ambition focusing on brand enhancement, user experience refinement and operating model optimization.    

Collaborating closely with the IHP team, we conducted a strategic review of Boaz’s brand and user experience, with the aim of elevating its customer journey to a premium, scalable level while ensuring operational sustainability. This involved the development of a comprehensive Boaz customer experience map, meticulously detailing each step of the user journey. Through iterative testing and refinement with Boaz users, we ensured that every interaction with the platform was intuitive, efficient and aligned with IHP’s mission.

We then crafted four distinct brand territories, leveraging Boaz’s strengths and unique differentiators to create a compelling brand positioning statement that effectively captured its purpose and promise. This involved communicating Boaz’s impact, engaging Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environment, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) teams and maintaining visual cohesion with the overarching IHP brand.

Moreover, we equipped the IHP team with the operational organization setup necessary to bring Boaz’s vision to life. Through capability assessments, a detailed 5-year roadmap and financial modelling, we provided actionable insights to guide Boaz’s growth trajectory and ensure long-term success.  

Results

Armed with the expertise and resources provided by Prophet, the IHP team seamlessly integrated Boaz into their operations, utilizing the materials and support across various initiatives, from sales pitches to committee budget reviews. Boaz’s webpage is also now live, marking a significant milestone in their journey towards expanding global access to medicines. 

Client Testimonial

“The comprehensive support provided by Prophet, spanning from the brand guidelines to pitch formulation and customer journey mapping, has left us with a clear roadmap for our next steps. We now have a solid foundation and actionable insights to drive Boaz forward and maximize its potential.”

Colleen Harrison-Dodds
Director of Compliance and SaaS at International Health Partners

CASE STUDY

Rust-Oleum

A market leader generates new demand in a fast-changing retail landscape

Challenge

Rust-Oleum is the leading manufacturer of premium consumer and industrial paint and coating products. While market share remains strong, they recognized a shift where retailers are increasingly capitalizing upon consumer insights stemming from proprietary purchase data, and Rust-Oleum wanted to ensure they remain at the forefront of understanding consumer needs. 

As retailers build sophisticated media networks capable of targeted advertising throughout the customer journey, Rust-Oleum identified their own need to deepen target audience segmentation, streamline consumer purchase journeys, and improve product experiences. They are constantly working to increase brand consideration across products to build loyalty and generate repeat purchases. While Rust-Oleum has built substantial retail distribution through product innovation and depth of channel relationships, it has become essential for Rust-Oleum to build its own demand generation capability to inspire and educate consumers in new ways. 

Central to this transformation is the pivotal role of data, posing a significant opportunity in understanding target audiences, evaluating sales performance, and aligning marketing investments with sales and broader business objectives. 

Rust-Oleum’s ambition goes beyond defining a new organizational function; it requires a shift towards consumer-centricity, emphasizing projects over products and necessitating the establishment of robust data-driven capabilities. 

As a leader in their space, the company recognized the importance of staying ahead of the latest demand generation capabilities and ways of working.  

Solutions

Organizational paradigm shifts are complex. Helping this 103-year-old company transition from a product-centric wholesaler to a customer-driven growth engine required four components.  

Structural overhaul: Rust-Oleum’s first crucial step clarified the structure, capabilities, and resources required for the demand generation team. That meant redefining the marketing function, finding new ways to work with sales and content creation teams.  

Prophet, which has researched ways brand and demand work together in today’s marketing industry, helped increase focus on internal misunderstanding of a demand generation capability, emphasizing the importance of understanding a broader audience target beyond their core spray paint consumers. We helped stakeholders see how these demand generation goals align with the company’s overarching business objectives. 

Building the perfect pilot: Next, we focused on creating a tangible example of exemplary demand generation, illustrating what success looks like from conception to execution. The effort required a comprehensive industry and landscape analysis, using competitive insights to deepen the company’s audience personas and develop a meticulous media plan.  

Full-funnel implementation: The solution also emphasized a full-funnel approach, guiding Rust-Oleum beyond awareness and into sustained engagement and enablement.  The company has implemented that approach across their national marketing platform as they shift focus from products to projects. 

While the company was experienced in using paid media to engage audiences and spur sales, this revamped strategy opened new ways to sustain, maintain and nurture consumer relationships across owned channels and touchpoints. 

Sharpening measurement tools: Ongoing campaign planning and execution is measuring performance and improving the effectiveness of the end-to-end demand generation process. This equips Rust-Oleum with the ability to optimize their retail media, drive brand awareness and allow for future project inspiration. And it is building organizational confidence that will guide future investments. 

Results

Rust-Oleum kicked off the first campaign using this full-funnel approach in late 2023, with plans to run through the summer of 2024. Paid search, paid social, and direct partnerships with industry publications began generating positive outcomes almost immediately.  And the new approach is helping the team use real-time performance data to refine and enhance investment strategies, which are skills it needs to compete in dynamic retail environments. 

Rust-Oleum’s robust data analysis has allowed the team to develop vital experimentation muscle. The current marketing campaign includes many new test and learn approaches to assess paid media impact on sales and improve marketing performance, thus driving future investment decisions.  Armed with these findings, the company is moving beyond advertising, creating web and mobile experiences that enrich the consumer journey. 

Rust-Oleum is evolving from a traditional wholesaler to a consumer-centric organization, tapping into new audiences and product use cases to drive sales more effectively. 

These insights are building the brand’s retail resilience, helping it make profound correlations between marketing efforts and sales impact. These are the kind of “aha” moments that build brand relevance and lead to uncommon growth. 

“This effort involved new thinking for Rust-Oleum. Armed with more robust data and insights, we can drive sales and support our retail partners. Prophet helped us bring deep credibility and rigorous data measurement. That was invaluable in demonstrating the impact of Demand Generation to our executives. The Prophet team is also fun and meshed with us in ways we haven’t experienced before. That helped us upskill our own teams and get to unexpected solutions faster.”

Lisa Bialecki
Vice President, Strategic Communications & Demand Generation

CASE STUDY

Eat. Learn. Play

Refreshing Eat. Learn. Play’s compelling brand to elevate their mission 

Challenge

Eat. Learn. Play. is an Oakland-based public charity dedicated to unleashing the amazing potential of every child. Founded in 2019 by four-time NBA champion and two-time MVP Stephen Curry and entrepreneur, host and two-time New York Times best-selling author Ayesha Curry, Eat. Learn. Play. launched with a focus on improving the lives of kids and families in Oakland, the Bay Area and across the country. Rooted in three of the most vital pillars for a healthy childhood—nutrition, education and physical activity — Eat. Learn. Play. works to ensure that every child in Oakland has access to the nutritious food they need to be healthy and thrive; resources to learn and love to read; and safe places and equitable opportunities to play. The organization has been on an amazing journey since their inception, creating meaningful impact for the community it serves. Nearing their four-year mark, they recognized the need to hone in and more effectively communicate the scope and scale of their work at the highest level—elevating their mission to tell a concise and compelling story about what makes them special, and their continued impact on the Oakland community.  

Solutions

To understand how similar organizations were talking about their work and missions, we underwent a deep immersion in the space. We also spoke with Eat. Learn. Play.’s stakeholders and staff to understand the organization’s impact to date and uncovered key themes that weren’t coming through in their current communications. To elevate these themes, we created a brand strategy that showcased the full scope of their mission to bring the uniqueness of Eat. Learn. Play.’s work to life. Then, to activate the refreshed strategy and drive content creation, we created a set of voice principles to guide their tone of voice and a set of key messages that could flex across primary audiences, such as donors and program partners. We included a range of updated content to demonstrate how this new voice and messaging could be activated across channels. We also developed a brand narrative, to tie together the strategy and verbal expression to tell the story of who Eat. Learn. Play is and highlight the meaningful work they are doing across the Oakland community.   

Using the brand strategy as a foundation, we then created a new visual system including a refreshed logo design and color palette. Eat. Learn. Play relaunched their brand and mission in 2023, as part of that, we produced a brand anthem video meant to not only inform and educate audiences, but also to build excitement about the refreshed mission and strategy. The video was produced to be used for donor presentations and eventually for their refreshed website.   

Results

The overall brand refresh and anthem video positions Eat. Learn. Play for their future growth, but also helps them deliver on their commitment to change the school experience for a generation of Oakland students. Across Eat. Learn. Play social media channels, the brand anthem video received over 4 million total impressions. Around the time of the video launch, Eat. Learn. Play announced their enhanced strategic vision and goal to raise $50 million in additional educational support and resources for students in Oakland by end of the 2026 school year.  

“We are so grateful for the work the Prophet team created for Eat. Learn. Play. They approached the overall project with an impressive level of passion, joy, care, and professionalism. Our brand narrative, voice, messaging, and visuals are much stronger now than when we started this work together. Their strategic and thoughtful approach helped to unlock so many invaluable insights for Eat. Learn. Play. I can’t recommend the Prophet team highly enough.”  

Chris Helfrich
Chief Executive Officer
Eat. Learn. Play.   

CASE STUDY

SafePlace International

Elevating the story of an organization on the ground with the global LGBTQI+ community 

Challenge

The LGBTQI+ community fights for space in this world. For a global community of queer persons, the simple act of living puts them at risk, and often causes them to flee their homelands in search of safety. SafePlace International is an organization dedicated to centering and amplifying the voices of LGBTQI+ people around the world.

The core of SafePlace International’s work centers on equipping their community members to find their purpose and thrive in their new environments. From welcoming someone who was recently displaced to supporting them as their goals change, the organization starts with a foundation of safety and stability, working side-by-side with global and local partners to protect people who need it. From there, they look to the future with The Dream Academy, a 10-week intensive virtual course focusing on leadership development, socio-emotional learning, and job skill training. Led by members of the LGBTQI+ community and available in English and French, the Dream Academy connects participants to purpose, power, and the new possibilities they need to heal from individual and collective traumas. The Dream Academy has over 1000 alumni from 19 countries to date, and as it’s virtual, it can be accessed from anywhere that web support is available.  

The organization played a unique and vital role in the global LGBTQI+ community, but audiences didn’t always understand or internalize it. SafePlace needed a more comprehensive, clear, and cohesive way to express its mission to attract more supporters, and ultimately reach more people. Its new positioning had to be powerful and profound as well as easy to understand and share with a wide audience, from donors to partners to community members. Their team also needed a visual system that would bring this positioning to life. 

From this, we created a new brand purpose, “We believe happiness comes from being in the flow in all activities we do at home.” We then created brand principles, tone of voice, and the tagline “Work. Flow. Home” to bring the brand to life in a unique and distinctive way against other competitors. The name “Beflo” came out of the idea of being “in the flow” when everything you do works seamlessly and effortlessly.  

Beflo began developing a desk prototype, combining motorized height-adjustable settings with modular tech accessories around cable management, charging features and other productivity tools. As part of that, we worked with them to create brand principles based on their new purpose that would have implications for their product design.

The visual identity also used the “flow” concept to create a simple and ergonomic-looking logotype with rounded letterforms and the curved ligature between the “f” and “l” that mimicked the side profile of the curve on the desk’s legs.

Solution

We started by analyzing the communications and visual systems of SafePlace International as well as peer and aspirational organizations and immersing ourselves in the organization’s strategies and materials.

Through collaborative workshops across three continents and interviews with several stakeholders, we found there was an opportunity for their mission to express not only the work SafePlace does, but also why it is so vital: expressing the lived realities of displaced LGBTQI+ persons as well as the broader implications and transformative impact these community members can have when in positions of leadership and influence.  

We also learned their original strategic pillars were only telling part of their story. So, we worked to evolve these pillars and put more context around what SafePlace International does—and what community members can expect as a result. We wanted to keep the impact and memorability of the original pillars, as well as describe the full journey: Reach, Protect, Connect, Invest.  

Bringing all of these elements together, we wrote an emotive narrative that acts as the foundation of articulating the strategy to community members, donors, and partners, and can be used in fundraising materials, video scripts, and anywhere they are trying to drive understanding of who they are and what they stand for.  

From there, we shifted our attention to the visual system. We began with a key question: do we modernize their existing rainbow tree logo, which was recognizable and held a lot of affinity? Or do we introduce a new symbol? We explored 20 concepts that ranged from minor modifications to their existing logo to bolder designs that could cut through the noise with simplicity and strong graphic elements.   

Results

The brand concept, name, visual identity and product design successfully came to market in 2023. The branding was recognized in the 2021 Transform Awards as the Best Visual Identity in Technology, Media and Telecommunications. 

Results

The SafePlace International team launched its bold new mission, story, and visual identity at a fundraiser in Prophet’s San Francisco office in October 2023 as well as on the organization’s newly re-designed website.  

A Story on a Mission: The Heart of the Strategy 

We worked closely with the SafePlace International team to co-create mission and belief statements that could celebrate the diversity, nuances, and humanity of their community members, balancing the urgency of the organization’s work with its inherent optimistic and inspiring view of the world.

The Rainbow Connection: A Bold, New Logo 

Ultimately, we landed on an abstracted rainbow, keeping the connection to a meaningful symbol embedded in their previous logo, while evoking a canopy, or safe place, through its shape. The design system celebrates the rainbow motif–one whose asymmetrical arcs illustrate the community’s intersectionality and SafePlace’s commitment to inclusivity. It is optimistic, simple, and flexible, while honoring the visual language of the LGBTQI+ community. 

“I’ve been fortunate to work with Prophet several times over my career as a global Chief Marketing Officer, but this was my first engagement with the pro bono practice, Prophet Impact. It’s an intense sprint, but one that always left me feeling like a valued client and partner. We have tested the new brand identity and voice with donors, influencers, community members and board members to name a few stakeholders and the feedback is positive and jubilant all around—and we are just getting started. Thank you again, Prophet! “

Maggie Lower
Board Chair
SafePlace International

“Going through this process with Prophet was an absolute delight and nothing short of transformational. They’ve not only provided us with a clean, beautiful new brand identity that reflects our warmth and professionalism, but also helped us refine the way that we communicate our layered and often complex work to the outside world. We’re so grateful and could not be happier with the results!“

Rachael LeClear
Executive Director
SafePlace International

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