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4 Steps to Optimizing the Remote Employee Experience

It’s time to re-evaluate what works best–and what that means for recruitment, retention and profits.

Remote teams want a better employee experience. Where to start?

Getting work done remotely isn’t the issue. It’s getting it done well, in a way that’s best for the organization and most engaging for the virtual workforce.

Through our efforts in digital transformation, customer and employee experience and cultural change management, we’re discovering straightforward approaches that companies can implement quickly. And by focusing on increasing employee engagement and productivity, they are leading companies to more effective–and even transformational– solutions.

Learning the ropes of engaging a remote workforce

It goes without saying that the work-from-home trend was well underway before the pandemic began. Many companies have long allowed at least some employees to contribute remotely. These organizations are already enjoying long-term benefits. They recruit the best talent from all over the world, regardless of location. And they enjoy a higher retention rate, especially among Millennials and Gen Z workers, who crave a better work/life balance, shorter commutes and more affordable housing.

But with the global surge in home-based workers holding strong, it’s important for all companies to design the best remote employee experience. That means supporting the company’s purpose, culture and customers, as well as its people.

4 Steps to Optimizing the Remote Employee Experience

Step 1: Start by analyzing workflows

Smart companies are treating the evolved employee experience as an opportunity to accelerate digital transformation, digging into which internal workflows might remain virtual for the long-term, even as recommendations of social distancing begin to ease.

To continue to identify workflows that make the best fit, implement metrics for what’s working so far, measuring productivity and engagement in all departments.

Step 2: Create engagements that support the culture

Zapier, a global remote company that helps users integrate web applications, has been primarily remote since it started back in 2011. To increase the sense of collaboration, it hosts a weekly Design Club, a digital open house that allows anyone in the company to present work for feedback. Anything is fair game, including research plans, visual designs and new concepts from product teams.

Using a Design Club channel on Slack and a weekly Design Club video call, colleagues can sign up to receive asynchronous or real-time critiques from their peers and stakeholders. It fosters an inclusive culture of appreciating and leveraging diverse perspectives, giving people visibility into what others are working on. And best of all, it improves the quality of the work.

With a little effort, most companies could implement similar ideas in less than a week.

Step 3: Review tools and applications often

Workers have grown numb to the onerous burden of email. And while switching to remote work offers much more efficient options, like Slack, Teams and Zoom, they can be just as paralyzing if they’re poorly managed. Finding the right mix and balance of communications channels becomes even more critical for a remote workforce.

Pay close attention to what seems to be working, and what’s burying staff in pointless group alerts and notifications. In an interview, Matt Mullenwegg, founder of Automattic, which operates WordPress.com and a host of other properties, discussed the importance of trial-and-error in building a virtual company with 1,200 people around the world.

“Today we use an internal blogging system called P2 instead of email,” he tells Ben Thompson, author of the popular business strategy blog Stratechery. “We use Slack for real-time chats and things like Zoom for calls and meetings. But over the years, we’ve also developed just a lot of cultural things around how we use these tools.”

For example, with employees in multiple time zones, meetings in real-time become more difficult, so asynchronous options are essential.

Step 4: Keep weighing the long-term implications

What changes might remote work have on your business long term–in terms of recruitment, retention and profits?

Automaticc’s Mullenwegg often surprises people when he talks about the company’s considerable investment in employee travel. Because almost everyone is a remote worker, real-estate outlays are minimal. But it spends heavily on group meetings, bringing the entire company together at least once a year. And individual teams of up to 15 people meet more often. “There’s nothing, no technology, VR or otherwise, that has the same effect of breaking bread across the table or sharing a drink with someone, for building trust, for building communication, for getting to know someone,” he says.

“There’s no doubt that as companies adjust to the new normal, they must revisit the definition of their employee value proposition.”

For many companies, building for the future means getting past the question of whether employees will like working remotely. Not all will, just like some people hate open-floor office plans. The point is to quickly pick up on employee concerns about efficiency, productivity and engagement.

Try fostering models for continuous exploration of better ways of working remotely. Those might include a group of colleagues who have this as a side project, internal and external surveys to see what different teams and companies are doing, or a Slack channel where people share ideas.

It’s important to keep looking at new tools that are worth testing. For example, new video-conferencing platforms, such as Around, offer features like AI-driven background noise cancellation and facial focus.

Shockingly, many companies have stopped probing employee sentiment at this critical time. And if they are, they are often asking about process and technology, instead of the key question: “How is this working for you personally, and how can we make it better?” Tools like Glint, an employee-engagement platform, make this kind of pulse-checking easy.

There’s no doubt that as companies adjust to the new normal, they must revisit the definition of their employee value proposition. And as companies thread their way through the after current of the virus, , we don’t expect to see many overnight decisions. But we do believe this will be the most durable change wrought by the coronavirus and one that will benefit both employers and their employees.

The reality is that there are far more people who are underserved in their desire to work virtually than most employers realize. Many will fare better as remote team members. And as best practices continue to emerge both from digital pioneers and remote newbies, we see the best results for those who design the optimal remote employee experience. That means creating a continuous model for improvement, steadily looking for net new benefits and using the right tools for the right reasons.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Take command of the situation today, with these three simple steps:

  • Identify the workflows your teams indicate are best positioned for long-term success in a remote, virtual model
  • Provide the right digital tools to enable their work
  • Be flexible as needs change, requiring new tools and working methods

Continuously re-assess, finding new workflows to convert to remote teams or bring to more of a hybrid or dual model in the future. And don’t forget to consider implications for your broader employee value proposition.

Interested to learn more about how to improve the remote employee experience? Get in touch.

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Play is Back. What’s Next for Toy and Gaming Brands?

As people look for more and better ways to play–on their own and with their kids–innovation is essential.

PLAY had a break-out year in 2020. While the world dealt with the pandemic, people sought ways to distract and entertain themselves. They craved escape from what felt like nonstop bad news and needed a little joy while staying at home. As a result, the brands that came out to play rose to the top of the 2021 Prophet Brand Relevance Index®. For the first time, five toy and gaming brands– LEGO, PlayStation, Fisher-Price, Xbox and American Girl–rose to the top 20 brands.

But it wasn’t just kids looking to find joy through play. Adults picked up puzzles, got their endorphin kicks from Peloton and connected with others on video games. And for their children, it meant stocking up on nostalgic classics, like Hasbro’s Monopoly and Mattel’s Barbie, as well as toys and activities that encourage learning and creativity.

It’s easy to say these gains in relevance for top toy and gaming brands are simply due to the pandemic. And yes, COVID-19 has undoubtedly been the catalyst, bumping game night back into living rooms and with so many more people saying, “I can’t imagine my life without this brand”. But there’s a deeper change happening. These toys and games aren’t just ways to pass time. They bring joy, comfort and ease into people’s lives–and they’ll want to hang on to that.

And while toy brands saw a bump in engagement over the last year, not every brand will maintain consumer interest. Toy and gaming brands need to find new strategies to build on sales momentum as the pandemic eases. With family life slowly shifting away from home, brands must find new ways to engage.

Four Clear Paths to Growing Brand Relevance (Even as the Pandemic Subsides)

Rethink Community

As the world moved toward digital everything, staying connected–especially when it came to play–became more critical. Digital gaming had its best year ever in the BRI. Besides PlayStation (No. 9) and Xbox (No. 19), Nintendo, Blizzard, Minecraft and Fortnite all made the Top 100, beating hundreds of other brands.

Roblox, which has been generating buzz because of its recent IPO, is winning with the 9-to-13 set by creating an entirely new category, which it calls “Human co-experience.” In many of its games, like MeepCity, kids don’t compete at all–they cooperate and simply hang out.

And Animal Crossing: New Horizon, which launched in March of 2020, isn’t just a lockdown obsession that propelled Nintendo to $1 billion in profits. Its simple whimsy enabled new ways of connecting with others. Public personalities, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, played, engaging millions of followers. It even infiltrated the NFL, with the Detroit Lions using the game to reveal its 2020 schedule.

These digital gaming brands are changing conversations in their communities. As part of the growing Black Lives Matter movement, PlayStation and Xbox took on hate speech in a way that resonated with gamers around the world – proving that brand relevance can come from outside of the core business.

Genuine conversations between players also fuel the success of LEGO. Yes, it’s beloved because of the tactile nature of building–and the way kids yearn to create. But it does so well in the digital realm because its free content sparks online invention in new (and safe) ways. And its “Build & Talk” initiative, gives parents the tools they need to raise better digital citizens.

Reinvent the Flywheel

Kids hear about toys in new ways, so it’s important to be where your customers are. Many brands are embracing YouTube, using tactics those in other categories haven’t quite cracked. Due to the soaring popularity of “unboxing” videos, the most potent demand drivers are grade-school millionaires: Anastasia “Nastya” Radzinskaya, 6, has 67 million YouTube followers and is worth $20 million–and a deal with IMG to develop her own product line. Ryan (“Ryan’s World”) Kaj, with 28 million followers and an estimated net worth of $32 million. He also sells his own toys, working with Pocket.watch, a company pioneering this YouTube-to-toy shelf strategy.

Toy brands have become more reliant on these influencers. And there is also an opportunity to build authentic content. Taken together, content, community and commerce form a powerful trifecta for direct-to-consumer growth.

Ecosystems are expanding based on intellectual properties that can lead to mega franchises. Disney continues to master the cycle of media-to-toy merchandising. Still, older brands like Barbie and LEGO, and newer ones, such as PAW Patrol, continue to grow via the toy-to-entertainment route. What matters is that they are all finding avenues that are both authentic to the brand and create growth opportunities.

Lean Into Purpose

When it comes to measures of inspiration and purpose, toy and gaming brands did exceedingly well in our Index. To a degree, nostalgia is driving this admiration. American Girl ranks No. 4 in “Has a set of beliefs and values that align with my own”–only Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic and Peloton did better. LEGO and Fisher-Price also scored in the Top 20 on this metric. When parents can say, “I had one of those when I was a kid,” it’s easier for them to get excited about sharing a safe and familiar experience.

But nostalgia isn’t enough, and young consumers also demand pervasive innovation to be considered a relevant brand. For years, Barbie couldn’t quite shake off her controversial image as Ken’s girlfriend. But thanks to multi-media engagements, Mattel has resurrected her as an enduring role model, with multiple career paths–and creative content–that appeals to millennial moms as much as to little kids. Barbie, old enough to collect Social Security, is taking a stand on everything from white privilege to running for office to mental health, including a partnership with Headspace, the meditation app.

But best of all, Barbie is fun again. In 2020, Mattel says it sold a new Barbie Dream House every single minute not because of its past, but because it’s loaded with details that enchant kids right now.

Find Bigger Playgrounds

Adults want to play, too, and it’s important to understand just how fierce that longing is. The NPD Group reports that 79% of U.S. consumers have played video games during the pandemic. The fastest-growing audiences are people between 45 and 54 (up 59% for the year) and those 65 and older (up 48%.)

Grown-ups also crave a creative release, powering a surge in adult coloring books and a resurgence of paint-by-numbers kits. They snapped up extra-difficult jigsaw puzzles. And LEGO is targeting adults with new art projects and a Botanical Collection.

A year of play has reminded many adults how much they love to stretch their imaginations. The classic Dungeons & Dragons, a role-playing game that has been around since the 1970s, had its best year ever, with more than 40 million active players, an estimated 60% are 25 and older.

Toy and gaming brands that can help adults find new ways to relax, create, compete and blow off steam will stay connected, even when people begin to socialize more in person.

“Toy and gaming brands that can help adults find new ways to relax, create, compete and blow off steam will stay connected, even when people begin to socialize more in person.”

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While top toys and gaming brands gained relevance during the pandemic, maintaining that close bond with customers will require new strategies. To continue to achieve uncommon growth, they’ll need to stay better connected, following consumers as they make their way back to schools, work and in-person social events.

Have you found a clear path to driving brand relevance? We can help – reach out today.

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How To Sell Insurance in the Post-Pandemic Digital Age

Agents need organization structures to help navigate a fast-changing, digital environment. Our roadmap helps.

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The insurance game is changing. The past year has seen life completely upended for insurance agents, whose success once hinged on a certain skillset, often with physical touchpoints. While many insurance providers have raced to increase digital selling efforts in reaction to COVID-19, the results have been mixed. It’s going to keep changing too, so it’s time to adapt to fuel a post-pandemic recovery and lead the way to future growth.

Embracing Digital Selling from our dedicated Financial Services practice outlines a roadmap for digital selling with the steps to take now in order to create a strategy that supports new digital tools, efficient models and the development of the necessary capabilities.

In this report you will learn:

  • The four primary challenges insurers need to overcome to compete in the digital world
  • How insurers can maximize digital selling efforts for both short and long term growth
  • A roadmap to guide how to install a structure that helps agents navigate a fast-changing, digital selling environment

Download the full report below.

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Five Principles for Stronger Customer & Employee Engagement Events

Make sure every idea expresses the organization’s culture.

Strategic events are often one of a company’s largest, annual recurring investments as part of their broader engagement programs. And of course, the global pandemic has changed the stakes and expectations for such events as organizations pivot to engage employees, customers and partners in a virtual setting, using the opportunity to reinforce key brand messages, strategies and experiences.

But, what exactly do we mean by “strategic events?” Events can range from annual sales conferences to investor days to customer appreciation events to events with a shared goal of shifting the beliefs and behaviors of the attendees to the desired state of engagement and alignment.

Yet, far too often the desired outcome isn’t achieved by one, standalone event, which means the price tag of it usually outweighs the benefits. And measuring ROI? Don’t even think about it—especially when buy-in, attention and attendance are hindered in a virtual environment. A day out of the office at an offsite location? Why not. Step away from your job demands to be on Zoom for 8 hours straight? A harder sell.

5 Principles for Increased Success at Customer & Employee Engagement Events

But that doesn’t have to be the case. Companies that follow the five essential steps outlined below are much more likely to come out of a strategic event with more engaged employees, customers and partners. We’ve found that these five principles lead to the strongest levels of employee engagement and ROI at events:

1) Build a digital program, not a digital event

Events have a shelf life. They can generate short-term enthusiasm, but often not sustained engagement. To combat this, companies should design events that connect to a broader virtual engagement program. In shifting perceptions and behaviors, people evolve along a curve of hearing, understanding, believing and living. It is difficult, if not impossible, to go through each of these phases in a single event. Long-term programs, on the other hand, employ a steady drumbeat of communications and experiences that reinforce core messages and behaviors of the event over time.

2) Start with insights

Too often, we see organizations use events to communicate to an audience based on what they want to tell them. Just like customer research before launching a new product or service, it is vital to find out what’s on the mind of the target audience and shape the content and experience based on that insight. What is most important to them right now?  What questions and concerns do they have? What type of experience are they expecting? Go on a listening tour of your audience, and even take them through the early stages of the content and event plan to get their feedback.

3) Define the core idea and story arc

Most events are like an all-you-can-eat buffet of ideas and messages. Content, more so as we work remotely, gets developed in silos and, at best, may be connected together by talented speakers. But more often than not, the audience is left having to piece together the messages and determine the universal takeaway themselves. Instead, companies should start with a well-defined idea or belief and integrate it throughout the virtual event, from the messages of individual speakers to the event experiences. This core idea is more than a high-level event theme. It is a through thread that creates a compelling story arc and breaks down silos so everyone can hear, understand and apply the main point of the strategic event.

“Companies should start with a well-defined idea or belief and integrate it throughout the virtual event.”

4) Modulate the experience

Many events overly fixate on the “main stage” talks. These are great for inspiration but fall short on application. It has been proven that adults learn best when they are given multiple ways to access the content. The best-structured events do not rely on a single format like the main stage; they create experiences with multiple formats. This could be smaller “Zoom breakout” group labs or workshops, small group experiences, or an exposition where attendees can interact more intimately with experts or artifacts – like a live Q&A. The bottom line is, mix it up. Create a diverse experience that stimulates the audience in various ways and strengthens customer and employee engagement.

5) Put culture at the center

Employees, customers and other stakeholders are increasingly attracted to organizations with a clear purpose and strong culture. However, too many companies still treat strategic events strictly as a “business meeting.” At Prophet, we have found that core messages and desired behaviors are more easily retained when the company’s culture is reflected at events. This means keeping things light, having moments of fun, surprise and recognition and celebrating heritage. Just like the story arc, spend time crafting the emotional arc of a strategic event and figure out when, where, and how to infuse signature stories, recognition and fun into the agenda.

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These are the core principles we start with when working alongside clients to design strategic events in the post-COVID landscape. Put them to work at your upcoming sales conference or as part of your employee engagement program, and you’ll see more engagement and higher retention levels.

Interested in planning an event to drive growth within your organization? Reach out today.

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Why Are Leaders More Optimistic Than Sales Teams About Digital Sales Transformation?

Our research reveals a scary disconnect: Leaders are more positive about transformation than their sales staff.

In our 2020 State of Digital Selling global research report, we found disconnects between the views of front-line sales staff and their leaders. Leaders view their progress in digital sales transformation more positively than sales staff in three areas: technology, customer experience, and organization/people-readiness. This post delves into those disconnects to help leaders and staff better understand their respective sales transformation realities and ends with recommendations on how to close the gap.

Technology & Data

For front-line sales teams, technology is far less effective than what their leaders believe. The largest gap was the effectiveness of foundational CRM and sales automation tools, which only 22% of front-line team members rate “highly effective” vs 38% of leaders. Only 23% of staff strongly believe that increased use of digital tools has helped them meet their objectives through the COVID-19 pandemic, vs 40% of sales leaders.

“The root cause of the tech gap is skills and training.”

One clue that points to the root cause of the tech gap is skills and training: 31% of sales staff say that it is the biggest digital selling transformation challenge, vs. just 21% of leaders—who instead name technology as the greatest transformational challenge.

Customer Experience

Front-line sales staff view customer experience much differently than sales leaders. The front-line would like to expand buyer digital tools to match buyer preference and self-service (41% front line vs. 29% leaders). Front-line sales teams understand CX from direct engagement with customers and prospects, while sales leaders are a step removed and often rely on IT or CX experts to recommend digital tools. To tackle this disconnect, leaders should engage the front-line more in CX development.

The biggest disconnect was the value of content and selling assets: only 24% of front-line staff strongly agree they have the right to sell assets based on the customer journey vs. 44% among managers. Reinforcing this disconnect, only 26% of sales staff strongly agree that sales and marketing successfully collaborate to deliver the right content at the right time to move leads to conversion (vs. 37% of sales leaders). At the end of the sales funnel, only 27% of front-line staff strongly believe the handoff from sales to customer success teams results in high customer satisfaction (vs. 39% of leaders).

In addition, when it comes to content, I hear a consistent story from front-line sales: they don’t know how to select, customize and share (within the customer’s context) content. All too often, content is shared without adequate context from the seller, and this leaves the customer with less reason to read it. This is a training issue. Part of the problem could be the complexity of tools sales teams are asked to use, but training on the “why” and “how” of content is also a challenge.

People & Organization

Front-line sales staff perceive sales and marketing collaboration as much less effective than leaders do. Only 24% of sales staff view collaboration as effective (vs. 35% of leaders). This attitude shows up in two areas: the ability of sales and marketing to collaborate and refine what a sales-qualified lead is (32% staff vs. 43% leaders) and the provision of timely customer intelligence to understand prospects (30% vs. 40%).

No doubt, part of this may be a visibility problem: leaders are more likely to work cross-functionally (including with marketing) than front-line sales. The more problematic issue is the front-line’s view that sales-qualified leads aren’t well-defined, and the fact they’re not getting adequate customer intelligence to understand leads. This should trouble leadership, as both of these issues have a direct impact on the front line’s results. Leaders likely have metrics that indicate access to customer intelligence, but it won’t tell them how effective it was in closing a deal. Of course, an upward trend in usage data indicates growing reliance on it and so is a good indication of ultimate usefulness. If leaders don’t see an upward trend, there’s likely a problem that can be uncovered through direct conversations (or field polling) of the front line—something metrics won’t tell managers.

What It Means & What You Can Do

It’s not unusual to see differences in attitudes by role in our research, but this consistent gap between front-line sales staff and sales leaders drew attention because it was persistent (across all questions we asked). These gaps could hamper the progress of those organizations seeking to digitally transform their sales teams and so are worth paying attention to. Keep the following in mind to successfully transform sales:

  • Regularly poll front-line staff to understand their perspective and compare to related metrics like content effectiveness and sales tool enablement adoption. Sales managers and leaders should question those metrics that indicate front-line use of data, content and tools without proof that the front line is truly getting the value A salesperson downloading a white paper to share with a prospect is a vanity metric. It doesn’t indicate whether that content was effectively shared and made a difference in converting the prospect.
  • No one likes to take a great salesperson off the front line, but you need to in order to best match transformation tactics to real-world experience. If you have a digital selling transformation council or team, include some of your best sales staff to ensure your whiteboard ambitions address real-world needs. In addition to basic capabilities, tools, etc., involve the front-line in the selection and prioritization of metrics leaders see when it comes to sales enablement.
  • Regularly analyze buyer and customer surveys to understand key disconnects, e.g., front-line sales staff see the need for additional customer-facing digital tools that leaders are clearing missing. You’ll discover those gaps—and others—by better understanding digitally-savvy buyers.

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Have you identified sales transformation gaps between leaders and staff? What were they and how did you handle them?

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Creating Brand Relevance Through a Direct-to-Consumer Approach

Other brands can learn plenty from Peloton’s commitment to content, community and commerce.

In the 2021 Prophet Brand Relevance Index® (BRI), we witnessed a major rise from a direct-to-consumer (DTC) fitness brand that has been slowly moving up the ranks over the past few years. The most relevant DTC brands in today’s market are those that have a seamless orchestration of content, community and commerce. In most cases, content is what drives community which then propels commerce. However, in the case of this brand, their nurturing of community actually generated content (both native and UGC), which drove sales. As we think about the DTC trifecta (content, community, and commerce), we cannot find a brand in this year’s BRI that has been more successful in delivering on all three components. This has led to undeniable brand relevance, along with dazzling financial performance.

Our winner began 2020 off to a rough start with an ill-executed advertisement where the intent did not match the perception of the audience. However, in the months following, the brand found its stride, reaching such a level of demand that they were forced to halt advertising until their supply chain could catch up. If you haven’t guessed it just yet, we’re talking about Peloton, which started out with the Peloton bike but has quickly expanded into other offers (e.g., at-home treadmill or online yoga classes). Even if you don’t have a bike yourself, you’re likely to know someone who likes to talk about theirs and how it has changed their life.

Let’s dig into why Peloton is this year’s BRI direct-to-consumer winner, and how it beat out other DTC brands as they adapted during the pandemic.

Building Community in a Time of Isolation

Finding ways to create community became more important than ever in 2020. While Peloton already built its model around community, it truly brought it to life by not only highlighting user stories but also in the experience they delivered. Without the ability to create community organically in a physical space, Peloton supplemented it through key features such as allowing users to send each other virtual high fives, creating and viewing user profiles, and using the video chat function to live chat with friends as they enjoy the same class in the comfort of their homes.

“Peloton continues to innovate its products and services to build a meaningful community.”

Peloton also introduced “tags”, which allow members to filter the thousands of people on the leaderboard into sub-communities of people with similar interests, such as #Vets or #Teachers. With these tags, members can then see what classes others have taken and when they are taking classes, allowing them to ride together. These sub-communities have grown beyond the Peloton platform, through Facebook Groups and other social platforms. Tags are just another example of how Peloton continues to innovate its products and services to build a meaningful community.

Delivering On-Demand, High-Quality Content

Peloton’s community is the gift that keeps on giving, including an explosion of user-generated content. With the goal of becoming the “largest connected fitness platform in the world”, Peloton has aggressively pursued customer acquisition onto the platform. For many DTC brands, the enormous costs of customer acquisition can jeopardize profitability and sustainable growth. Aside from Peloton’s massive library of on-demand, curated fitness classes, Peloton’s user-generated content creates virality and generates earned media. Instructors create themed rides with playlists that become shareable and dance moves that become iconic. Peloton is a case study in how a community of devoted fans and celebrity-like instructors can produce content that works on behalf of the brand.

Fueling a Commercial Pipeline

With a massive increase in brand awareness comes the question of whether the company can convert that interest into a purchase. With bikes starting at $1,895 and treadmills at $4,295, Peloton’s physical products are cost-prohibitive to the average customer. Peloton has navigated this cost barrier through a diversified, commercial model that makes it easy for customers to justify the purchase. Through their app, Peloton acquires customers that might not be able to afford the physical products, while building brand loyalty that helps convert customers to buy the equipment. Most importantly, Peloton has stood out as a reliable brand during the pandemic with clear communication around potential supply chain delays and how to provide installations in a COVID-safe way.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Whether your company is digitally native or B2B, there are still lessons to be gained from Peloton’s success. If you want to think more like a highly relevant, DTC brand, consider asking yourself three questions:

  1. What tactics might we use to build and nurture our community of customers that will lead them to engage with other customers and our brand in authentic ways?
  2. How can we generate content or inspire customers to create their own content that will lead to brand loyalty and earned media?
  3. How can we deliver a frictionless, high-quality experience that will make customers more likely to try our products/services and remain loyal?

At Prophet, we help companies leverage direct-to-consumer practices around content, community, and commerce to drive growth like Peloton. Please reach out if you are interested in learning more about our direct-to-consumer expertise.

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Three Ways Digital Transformation Can Close the Diversity Leadership Gap

Women of color are systematically squeezed out of advancement opportunities. We can fix that.

As a woman of color, I’m often asked how leaders and their organizations can address systemic inequities in our society. My response is to look in our own backyards, within our own organizations. You don’t have to look far to see inequities that we have chosen too long to ignore. 

Take for example the advancement of people from entry-level up through leadership into the C-suite. If our promotion criteria and processes were fair and based on a meritocracy, then you would expect that people would advance in the same proportion at which they entered the company. 

Yet that isn’t the case. The figure below shows data from the LeanIn.Org and McKinsey study “Women in the Workplace 2020”, where representation by corporate roles of four segments — white men, white women, men of color, and women of color — is indexed to the entry-level population of that group. For example, white women make up 29% of the entry level population and they make up 26% of managers which indexes at 0.90. 

At the very first level of promotion from entry-level to manager, there is a separation. The good news is that white women and men of color get promoted to manager at close to their representation. These two groups continue to maintain strong representation all the way into the C-suite — but it could be better. 

But look at the representation by women of color. At the very first level of promotion to manager, women of color drop off significantly in representation to 67% of their entry-level population compared to 126% of white men. This borders on becoming an adverse impact. 

By the time we get to the C-suite, representation by women of color is a minuscule 17% of their entry-level population. Intersectionality — which is the compounding of overlapping discrimination and disadvantage, in this case, gender and race — means that the glass ceiling is far lower for women of color than we realized. Looking at diversity through the lens of intersectionality means that we include the layering impact of multiple forms of discrimination, including age, disability, sexuality, class, and education.

Transforming Leadership in Our Organizations

Numbers matter because we manage what we can measure. We know from countless studies that diverse teams disrupt the status quo, driving exponential growth and profits over their less diverse counterparts. 

This isn’t a C-suite problem. It begins at the very beginning of the leadership journey which means that leaders at every level of the organization can be a part of the solution. When we can recognize discrimination in all of its forms, our leaders can identify and address systemic bias built into our organizations. 

I’m heartened by the increased awareness of unfairness in our organizations and society and the desire for leaders to take action. I’m also excited about the ways that digital transformation can play a role in these efforts. Here are three specific examples of how technology can make a difference in how we increase fairness in our own organizations.

  • Create digital dashboards to provide visibility and enable early intervention. In most organizations, diversity numbers remain hidden in a vault to be pulled out for reporting purposes. Put that data to good use by providing real-time data on candidate pools at all levels of the organization, from hiring to promotions to ensure a slate of diverse candidates. For extra impact, focus on promotion paths for roles that develop profit and loss management skills as these lead more directly to C-suite positions.
  • Use artificial intelligence to identify and reduce bias in promotions. We can point AI at employment and promotion data to identify adverse impact in ways that we couldn’t detect. Services like Textio can help write more inclusive job descriptions. And technology like Text IQ, which identifies patterns in natural language, can be pointed at performance reviews to identify bias.
  • Create personalized development plans and training at scale. Front-line managers rarely receive substantive leadership development and training, perpetuating systemic issues. Platforms like AceUp identify skill gaps and create personalized leadership with a technology platform. AI can development plans can prompt leaders to develop under-represented groups to increase their skills in critical areas.

“When we can recognize discrimination in all of its forms, our leaders can identify and address systemic bias built into our organizations.”

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FINAL THOUGHTS

It may feel like a long path to close the leadership gap and we won’t get there by incrementally pushing things forward. Let’s use digital technologies to disrupt and transform our organizations to make them more fair and equitable for everyone.

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Building Brands That Win in the Market

Even the smartest strategies need the right creative approach to make impact.

Prophet is a place where creative passion and commitment merge with strategic smarts and intellect. Our clients – across industries – are true partners in our joint pursuits to differentiate brands and reach and attract customers in innovative ways. Digital, strategy, design, verbal, insights, analytics all work together to develop brands that win in the market.

Learn More About the Work Featured in Prophet’s Design Reel

Poly: Creating a Marketing Campaign to Celebrate a Historic Day

Prophet created the 50th-anniversary marketing campaign to celebrate Poly and Plantronics’ role in the 1969 Moon Landing. The team ultimately won two Transform Awards for its out-of-this-world work. Read more.

L’Escape: Creating a Parisian Escape in the Heart of Seoul

Prophet reimagined Shinsegae Chosun Hotel Group’s brand strategy to successfully revamp its luxury hotel, L’Escape. Praised for its creative differentiation and sophisticated attention to detail, Prophet’s design work earned two gold Transform Awards. Later on, L’Escape was awarded an iF design award for its website design – based on Prophet’s brand concepts and designs. Read more.

Keurig Green Mountain: Energizing an Iconic Brand Portfolio

Keurig Green Mountain needed a partner to successfully merge its newly merged businesses and accelerate growth. Prophet supported its large-scale transformation – setting the strategic foundation for its marketing organization and clarifying its brand architecture. Read more.

Fora: From Co-Working to Pro-Working

Prophet helped Brockton Capital fill a unique gap in the market for a new type of co-working space – developing a unique and elevated brand experience for sophisticated professionals. FORA became the fastest-growing player in the co-working space, expanding its locations in London and beyond. Read more.

The Wharton Center at MSU: Defining Brand Purpose for a Performing Arts Center

Prophet revitalized Michigan State University’s performing arts center by developing a brand purpose that resonated with the community. The new brand expresses the boldness, courage and diversity of the 300,000 young people that use the space each year. This work received a gold award for key art and a bronze award for print collateral at the 2019 International Design Awards. Read more.

“Our clients – across industries – are true partners in our joint pursuits to differentiate brands and reach and attract customers in innovative ways.”

Nam Nghi: Defining the Brand Story & Experience for a Vietnamese Luxury Resort

Prophet developed a compelling visual identity and signature customer experience that differentiated the brand, attracted new customers and sparked interest across the luxury tourism industry. Read more.

USWNT OOSA: Creating a Brand that Pushes for Progress On and Off the Field

Prophet partnered with U.S. Women’s National Team players to create a brand and digital experience that captured the essence of the team—both as world-class athletes and as passionate activists. The pro-bono work won two Transform Awards for creative development and audio branding. Read more.

Formula-E: Reframing a Racing Championship for an Electrifying Future

Formula E was having a hard time finding its place in the racing world and beyond, so they partnered with Prophet to reframe the series, create a relevant position, and craft a visual identity. This work was recognized with two Transform Europe awards, two Transform APAC awards and was acknowledged within the Creative Review Annual as one of the best brand identities. Read more.

Colmo: Designing a Simply Extraordinary Brand of Smart Home Appliances

We developed a brand positioning, verbal identity and visual identity for a new premium home appliance brand COLMO. The big idea captured the philosophy of highly crafted products that are effortlessly simple in delivering an extraordinary user experience. Read more.

Regal: Evolving an Entertainment Icon

We revamped Regal Cinema’s brand identity and digital experience to reflect a modern, ever-evolving theater experience. Our teams also helped strategically think through how the new brand could be activated across touchpoints from the theater façade to concessions and the digital experience. Read more.

Do you need a strategy and design partner to push your brand forward into its next evolution? Reach out today.

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A ‘Human-First’ Approach Is Essential for Employee Communications and Engagement

Reimagining what it means to come to work requires an entirely new way of understanding people.

When COVID struck over a year ago, many organizations were already gearing up for a new future of work – they just thought they might get there through evolution, not necessarily by “forced” revolution. The pandemic triggered experimentation – as organizations found themselves leaning into ways to reassure, support and connect with their employees that they had not attempted before, learning “on the go” and demanding new efforts from leaders too as they played their part.

Now as we try and take the best from the COVID experience, many of those leading strategy developments for employee communications and engagement are reshaping their approaches. Yes, we are still not free from the pandemic, but there’s been a firm shift from reacting and maintaining to reimagining. In the midst of this, and as we yearn for interpersonal contact, one theme keeps bubbling to the top: that the human touch – virtually applied for many months – needs to be brought front and center as we go forward.

“Technologies will play an even more important role in personalizing communications and curating fit-for-purpose interactive experiences.”

Of course, for employee engagement exciting new technologies will play their part – they are already for many organizations. But even those declaring a “digital-first” future are realizing success remains “human-first” on that journey. In fact, technologies will play an even more important role in personalizing communications and curating fit-for-purpose interactive experiences.

Driving this are some clear employee expectations and needs around the content as well as the engagement experience. Employees expect employers to provide:

  • Increased transparency and accessibility – something that many organizations did more of in the face of COVID-19.
  • More flexibility and support – as the line between work and non-work lives continues to blur.
  • Commitment to shaping a better world – employees want to be confident that their employer is not just dealing with “the business,” but rather continuing to do what matters in the world – focusing on impact beyond outcomes.
  • Foresight around what lies ahead – employees want more insight and direction on the “future of work.” It’s not easy to look ahead but even without all the answers, employees want to understand the options which are under consideration and what they might mean for them.

How Should Employee Communication and Engagement Strategies Be Developed?

Already we have called out “humanity” – and this is at the center of Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model.

Using this model, we can see some areas of focus for business leaders when it comes to employee engagement and the need to interconnect these areas to take a truly holistic approach to the organizational ecosystem.

How To Use Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model To Enhance Employee Engagement

  • DNA: Take care of the ‘whole’ person. Be aware of what people are going through – at work and at home – and find ways to engage beyond work topics. Design a holistic approach that truly enables employees to bring their best selves to work.
  • SOUL: Become the heartbeat of the organization. Inspire dialogue, demonstrate empathy and provide the channels and mechanisms to create a compelling rhythm of engagement as well as constant feedback loops. Build connections and create links between individual action and collective impact.
  • MIND: Get the organization fit for ongoing change. Guide the learning agenda, setting expectations and allowing for agility and curiosity. Lay the groundwork for continuous re-skilling and up-skilling, open sharing and rapid learning.
  • BODY: Be where your people are. Keep up with the latest needs, expectations and digital tools being used. Tailor what, how and when you communicate and engage to increase relevance and make it stick.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

The future of work is here – and “human-first” leads the way. If you have not started, this is the critical time to reset your employee engagement strategy as we slowly emerge into the next phase of the pandemic. Leaders need to be aligned, capable and equipped – as they are the ones that set and deliver on the expectations for the majority – and there is no escaping this core dynamic.

If you would like to learn more about how we approach employee communication and engagement as part of a holistic cultural system get in contact today.

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How Five European Brands are Winning Over U.S. Consumers

IKEA, LEGO, Dyson, Spotify and BMW keep finding new ways to gain relevance.

The Prophet Brand Relevance Index® ranks hundreds of brands on the characteristics that U.S consumers find most meaningful. And while many of the usual suspects rise to the top, a year of pandemic and political upheaval has caused dramatic shifts. People are embracing and rejecting brands in entirely different ways.

This is the sixth iteration of our ground-breaking research, based on the same core principles of relentless relevance. We measure whether a brand is customer-obsessed, ruthlessly pragmatic, pervasively innovative and distinctively inspired.

Five European brands have risen fast in the relevance stakes, offering lessons that transcend industry and category and apply to any brand trying to compete in the U.S.

LEGO: Providing creative escapes for all generations

Danish brand LEGO has shot up 23 spots into 5th place this year. And while competitive toy brands like Mattel, Fisher-Price and American Girl also saw their relevance scores increase as parents adapted to their unexpected role as home-schoolers,  yet LEGO was the brand with the highest marks for innovation. Consumers love that it “engages with [with them] in new and creative ways” and perceive that it has better products, services and experiences than competitors.

Much of LEGO’s purpose is built around its commitment to helping children flex their inner architect. However, it also understands that adults hunger for creative play too, launching such products as LEGO Botanical Collection, which allows grown-ups to build flower bouquets and bonsai trees from its bioplastic components.

Spotify: Hitting those personal sweet spots

Pandemic living is zapping some of the music streaming category’s relevance, with fewer people commuting to work. Yet Swedish music maestro Spotify (#12) sits at the top of all media and entertainment companies, outperforming Pixar and Netflix. It wows in the attributes that drive customer obsession, ranking fourth among all brands in both “connects with me emotionally” and “makes me happy.”

One way it does that is by offering intuitive, adaptive and highly personalized products. It then communicates those advantages with dialed-up marketing. To introduce Spotify Premium Duo, adorable puppets dramatized couples’ challenges in sharing music accounts. And as people scrambled to find productive ways to fill the downtime created by stay-at-home orders, it introduced a digital campaign called “Music, Meet Podcasts.”

Spotify’s real relevance comes from understanding its users’ deeper yearnings. “Listening is Everything,” for example, is a brand platform that continuously reminds people of everything they love about music, doped with personalization and inventive social-media interactions. A sharp marketing effort that truly reaches users’ emotional sweet spots.

Dyson: Limitless capabilities for the ‘Apple of Appliances’

Very few companies can inspire the same sort of brand loyalty and consumer confidence as British brand Dyson.  Jumping up to #30 in this year’s ranking, up from #51, its commitment to continuous innovation sees it disrupting markets and outpacing the competition. The brand reimagines mundane domestic appliances – such as vacuum cleaners, air purifiers and hair dryers – to spectacularly enhance their utility. And with more people spending time at home over the past year, appliance-buying has been on the rise.

Respondents rated Dyson highly for being modern and in touch, engineering technology to actively destroy harmful gases in the air and to dry our hands in rapid time – just in time for the world’s obsession with hand hygiene.

But good products alone are not enough to win consumer favor today. Nor is it about innovation for novelty’s sake. Consumers want products and services that align with their personal values and genuinely benefit the greater good too. As a brand built on ‘lean engineering,’ Dyson is devoted to making things more efficient while using less resources – putting sustainability is at the center of its business.  Whether they are better for the planet, for people – or both – purchasing a pricey but environmentally responsible Dyson product makes consumers feel good about their buying decisions.

IKEA: Offering initiatives that support a shared sense of purpose

With hundreds of millions of people staying safer-at-home, the living room couch became the center of the universe. So did the need to quickly turn laundry rooms into office nooks, kitchen tables into classrooms and bedrooms into a place to hide from the rest of the family. This was IKEA’s moment in the sun. It sailed into the #42 spot, up from #93, easily passing such companies as the Home Depot, Lowe’s and Wayfair.

For all its practicality and commitment to affordable, functional furniture, its strong suit in the U.S is an inspiration. And it earns its highest scores for “having a set of beliefs and values that align with my own.” IKEA has baked purpose into everything it does since the furniture maker was founded in Sweden in 1943. Initiatives such as #buybackFriday, where the company bought back unwanted IKEA items for Black Friday, demonstrates how the brand’s North Star goes well beyond kitchen cabinets. IKEA extends its trademark warmth to everyone: One advertising effort, “Be someone’s home,” encourages people to accept all sexual orientations and gender identities.

BMW: Linking heritage to innovation

Fastest-rising brand in the automotive category? Look no further than Germany’s very own BMW. Accelerating 45 places to #67 in the BRI, its growing relevance in the U.S. could answer why BMW beat Lexus and Mercedes-Benz as the best-selling luxury car brand in the country in 2020.

With more time to think about cars and road trips, BMW stands out from other brands by aggressively showcasing what it has always stood for: Well-designed vehicles that push the boundaries of what’s expected.

Autophiles are already drooling over the BMW iX, the electric sport utility vehicle that will compete with Tesla, due in the U.S. next year. And it’s making waves with its Remote Software Upgrades. No wonder people give it such high marks for “always finding new ways to meet my needs.”

At the massive U.S. Consumer Electronics Show, BMW released a short film that both mocks and brags about its innovative history, including a car fight between a 20-year-old “Grampa” model with a smart-mouthed all-electric “Whippersnapper.” An artful blend of safety and familiarity in its marketing strategy that builds trust with U.S. consumers while emphasizing design and innovation signals its commitment to continually improving.

“Consumers want products and services that align with their personal values and genuinely benefit the greater good too.”

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Of course, we know that the brands that rank highest in the BRI aren’t doing one thing. Those leading relevant brands are pursuing multiple paths.

Here are four key areas on which to focus in order to connect better with customers:

Lead with purpose.

A compelling purpose is a roadmap for change and should drive everything a brand does.

Adopting a mindset of customer obsession.

Focusing on increasing customer understanding so they can invest in delivering products and services that truly meet an important need in their customers’ eyes.

Improving the customer experience.

Making bold steps to delight and drive loyalty. Driving more holistic, targeted and personalized omnichannel marketing efforts.

Innovation is critical.

Without innovation, organizations will not be able to grow and thrive. Many are moving at two speed, introducing products and services to address immediate needs, as well as driving a forward-thinking innovation strategy that paves the way for future business growth and success.

Want to learn more about the most relevant brands? Download the Prophet Brand Relevance Index® today. If you need help building and maintaining your brand relevance, then our expert team can help. Get in touch.

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Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model

This short video explains how we developed our new roadmap for organizational change.

2 min

Summary

Organizational change is a crucial component of any digital transformation effort. Prophet’s organizational transformation model is designed to help businesses undergoing digital transformation align on a customer-centric roadmap.

REPORT

Virtual Care: From Rarity to Reality

In their quick pivots to telehealth, leaders learned plenty about patient experiences and the care continuum.

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How 12 Industry Leaders Are Shaping the Virtual Care Revolution

The role virtual care plays in the healthcare ecosystem has rapidly accelerated since the onset of COVID-19. In fact, according to research by Doximity, as many as 20 percent of medical visits in 2020 occurred via telemedicine. And it’s clear the trend is only gaining momentum.

To assess how the healthcare universe is responding, Prophet spoke to 12 leaders across the ecosystem to understand how this shift is transforming the patient experience and the broader healthcare care continuum.

Read this report to gain deeper insights on:

  • Four virtual care sub-categories and the ways they continue to blur virtual wellbeing, connected health, virtual health and virtual medicine
  • The changing dimensions of audience and interactions
  • Insights from 12 industry leaders on what organizations are – and aren’t – getting right
  • Three path companies can take to connect virtual care to better serve patients and customers and to achieve exceptional growth

For full insights, download the full report below.

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