Prophet: The Indispensable Ally to Business Leaders
Uncommon growth requires purpose-led strategies, blending creativity, data and technology.
We strive to be an indispensable ally to our clients in their growth journeys, leaders who aspire to build brands, transform businesses and move society. This year has challenged us, as never before, to bring that purpose to life in new and innovative ways.
Many of our clients and employees came of age when the best solutions simply meant more sales and a stronger bottom line. Anything that increased a company’s return to shareholders counted as excellence. While the move to purpose-led growth and multi-stakeholder capitalism had already begun shifting businesses away from that narrow vein of thinking, the past year blew it up entirely.
What Does it Look Like to Have Prophet as Your Growth Partner?
Prophet draws on expertise around the world, with 600+ employees in 15 offices. And we work with a single global P&L that enables us to put a just-the-right expert in each client situation, whether our teammate is based in Austin, Hong Kong or Berlin.
From the ground up, we built Prophet to be your growth partner, driving high-impact digital transformation.
And all this consistently has helped us form enduring bonds with our clients. As Dr. Michael K. Stern, President and Chief Operating Officer, Climate at Monsanto, put it: “The Prophet team integrates themselves with the client – they felt like a part of the team and were completely aligned with what [the team] was trying to do.”
Our clients tell us we are responsive, supportive and thorough—a trusted extension of their teams.
These long-term relationships come from closely partnering with our clients, side-by-side, especially when the right path is the riskier one. Our Propheteers carefully cultivate these connections, blending creativity, data and technology in new ways to help our clients meet their growth goals.
Today, we know that is not enough.
Creating Enduring Bonds with Our Clients & Teams
“Indispensable” doesn’t mean the same thing it did a year ago and setting effective growth agendas can’t be the only goal. We build relevance–the kind that can only come from genuine purpose and empathy. That means we stand for companies that stand for something–and we’re here to push, prod and lead our clients to these new avenues of opportunity. What doors are opening in this changing environment? And how can we help clients find these purpose-driven transformations, nourished by digital and organizational change?
Our People Lead the Charge
This year, our unique team of thinkers, doers and makers increasingly challenged each other to share their entire perspective, including what it means to be gay, Black, immigrant or female. Those identities have always been there. But as we learn to be better allies to each other, the entirety of employees’ experience is helping us think more broadly and feel more deeply. We’re learning to be more empathic, compassionate and open-minded. Unsurprisingly, that’s allowing us to create even better solutions.
We’ve always tried to take our work seriously, but not ourselves. Our teams are recommitting to making life at Prophet positive, honest and supportive, bringing their most authentic selves to each experience. We’re not just indispensable allies to our clients. We’re indispensable allies to our colleagues, too. As much as we’re about respect, productivity and hard work, we’re also fans of irreverence, lightness and sincere pep talks. We’re here to enjoy the ride–and we expect our clients will, too.
Four Ways Social Programs Yield Employee Engagement
Social efforts boost retention, aid in recruiting and increase energy and engagement at work.
Employees need a higher purpose in today’s world. Increasing sales and profits and getting a paycheck are not enough. Even building great products or delivering exemplary service may not give an adequate answer to the “Why?” question employees ask when they sit down to do their work. Having an authentic, substantive set of social programs and compelling social purpose can be an answer for business leaders seeking to motivate and engage their employees.
Employees, including executives, want their jobs to have meaning in their professional lives. Employees motivated by a social purpose will be more likely to join a firm, turn their back on opportunities to leave the firm, and work effectively and enthusiastically toward the firm’s goals. They will be engaged.
Consider social programs like Lifebuoy’s “Help a Child Reach 5,” Dove’s Self-Esteem Project, Barclays’ Digital Eagles or Salesforce’s 1-1-1 Philanthropic Model. They are not about a commercial offering. These firms are no longer in business solely to deliver functional benefits and provide stockholders and others with the benefits that flow from generating sales and making profits. They now have a social purpose with substance. And that changes their relationship with employees in four ways.
Four Reasons Why Social Programs Will Help Engage Employees
1. Garners brand respect, even inspiration
One driver of employee engagement is simply to garner an employee’s respect and admiration for the firm’s brand. Take Lifebuoy and its “Help a Child Reach 5” program: it aims to reduce the number of kids that die from contaminated water by changing hand-washing habits using multiple initiatives including in-school programs. If an employee respects such a program because of its purpose, that respect will be transferred to the firm behind it. The ultimate connection will come when a social program brand not only impresses but inspires and this feeling of inspiration becomes embedded in the relationship an employee has with his or her employer.
2. Produces self-expressive benefits
The values and priorities of employees are not communicated by telling people but by the people they chose to associate with, the activities they pursue and, most importantly, the firm they work for. “Where do you work?” and “What do you do?” are common “get to know you” questions. Working for a firm that has developed social programs that are creative and impactful will reflect on the employee. They will represent his or her values and priorities. For example, one role of Dove’s Self-Esteem Program is to provide self-expressive benefits to the Unilever workforce. They are proud to represent a program that empowers self-confidence in young girls and to be a part of a firm that is willing to make such a program successful.
3. Creates opportunities for involvement
To address a trust crisis in 2011, Barclays empowered employees to develop social programs. A group of 17 employees started the Digital Eagles to create a set of social programs to teach the public about thriving in the digital world. Among its programs are informal “Tea and Teach” sessions for digital skill-building and Digital Wings, an online series of courses that advanced people from newbies to experts. The effort grew to involve over 17,000 employees. The result was a strong sense of community and an enhanced employee experience that is based on shared involvement in a program in which there is both individual and collective pride.
4. Provides natural talking points
What do employees talk about when they get asked about their job especially when the firm is unknown or when there has been negative publicity? How do they describe their firm? Social programs give employees a vehicle to describe an organization they are proud of because of its values, priorities and ability to make the world a better place. While talking about offerings and operations can be dull and uninspiring, a social program can be enlightening and perhaps intriguing. Of course, that which makes an employee’s firm more interesting and appealing will reflect positively on him or her and could even lead to business opportunities. Think of Salesforce’s unique 1-1-1 commitment and challenge, which invites companies to join them in committing 1% of employees’ work time to volunteer, donating 1% of their product to people in need and giving 1% of their equity to a nonprofit. It’s been accepted by some 10,000 firms, providing a meaningful way for employees to share the core values of Salesforce.
“Employees motivated by a social purpose will be more likely to join a firm, turn their back on opportunities to leave the firm, and work effectively and enthusiastically toward the firm’s goals. They will be engaged.”
If you’re a business leader hoping to make an impact on the world today, you’ll need your employees to believe in your organization’s purpose. In Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model, the firm’s DNA, which is comprised of purpose, brand and values, is at the center of employee engagement strategies, and it’s going to be even more powerful when a social program is a part of the business model.
Want to Make Your Strategy Stick? Make it a Behavior
Lofty directives don’t help. Specific behaviors do, making it easier for employees to follow through.
Leaders need to consider a broader set of actions, not only to make their strategies more effective but to help better engage employees too.
As a leader, you are defining a new set of priorities and getting ready to roll them out to your organization. The strategy is rooted in research, thoughtfully shaped and ready to take off. Or, you’re responding to the quick shifts of the current environment – finding ways to keep your employees safe while delivering value in new ways for customers. But what do you really need to make these strategies stick?
In his book, Simplicity, Bill Jensen outlines what his extensive research revealed about the questions employees ask when given an assignment. Of course, questions like “What exactly do you want me to do?” “What does it have to do with my job?” “How will I be measured?” and “What’s in it for me?” are standard. However, the most important question employees have may surprise you: “What tools and resources are available to me?”
In this period of rapid change – well-defined behaviors can be that employee engagement tool for your organization. While investments that require greater development take time to implement, clearly defined behaviors can inspire and guide transformation both within and beyond the pandemic. This doesn’t mean over-prescribing behaviors for every initiative, but rather linking a core set of guiding behaviors to priorities and making them actionable in daily contexts.
What makes for clearly defined employee behaviors? Behaviors should align to a business strategy or purpose, specific to individuals and teams and their roles. These behaviors should allow for flexibility and judgment while being measurable. Leadership behaviors can define ways to enable teams to live out company values. For example, they can specifically encourage adding a diversity of employee voices in key projects. Behaviors for frontline employees may include actions around service – opening the door for customers entering, or safety, wiping surfaces down after each interaction.
Think about your latest strategy and its objectives – how are you making it real for your organization and employees? What tools and resources are you equipping your teams to leverage? Specifically, what employee behaviors are you encouraging that reinforce said objectives?
“Behaviors should align to a business strategy or purpose, specific to individuals and teams and their roles.”
Prophet recently worked with a telecommunications provider committed to deepening relationships with customers. But in challenging settings like call centers where individuals have to solve issues quickly, “deepening relationships” would be far too broad of a directive. In partnership with the provider, Prophet helped define three core behaviors that employees could exhibit in any conversation. These behaviors weren’t mandatory scripts, rather a playbook to help make the strategy more concrete for the learner and measurable for the organization. We then applied these behaviors across various high-priority touchpoints to make them even stickier for the learner. Learners were highly engaged with the strategy, found the playbook very useful and are already putting it to use in their day-to-day.
And while organizations often think about defining behaviors for customer-facing employees, a clear set of behaviors can be critical for how employees work together. For example, in response to changing expectations of work from home during the pandemic, leadership at IBM defined a pledge on how to best support each other. The pledge doesn’t stop at generalizations – but rather gets incredibly specific. In a LinkedIn post, CEO Arvind Krishna elaborates on each pledge – taking “I pledge to be family sensitive” to the next level by defining “if [you] have to put a call on hold to handle a household issue, it is 100% OK.” Organizations around the globe are reinforcing the importance of creating better workplaces, but IBM has taken it to the next level by defining what better actually means.
Of course, behaviors require an ecosystem to stick – as we elaborate in our article Brand Behaviors Critical for Leaders, Managers and Employees. Organizations need to clarify the ambition for the behaviors, define the behaviors well, and then codify and connect them to the broader cultural ecosystem.
Once you have a clear set of behaviors, you need to, once again, consider what tools you’re offering to employees. As you roll out your behaviors program, consider a range of tools that can drive adoption and create strategies that stick.
Lower investment tools like internal resource hubs with scripts and guides, or huddle guides for coaches to encourage new behaviors.
Greater investments and tools including both live and asynchronous learning programs and realigned performance expectations
Full system changes and support such as built-in digital tools and AI tracking, which can enable more effective, real-time measurement and tracking
Strategies don’t just happen. And just as they require time to develop and refine, the same thoughtfulness should be put into making them real. Ask yourself “How should my team behave differently to deliver on this strategy?” and then answer the ever-important question “What tools will I make available?” Such employee engagement strategies and tactics are essential for every workplace – the organizations that invest in defining the right employee behaviors and supporting tools will be the ones who attract, engage and retain the best talent in the long term.
Do you need help defining which behavior changes could unlock business performance and increase your employee engagement? Reach out to our Organization & Culture practice today to hear how we are solving this challenge for clients just like you.
Expert Panel: Building Brand Relevance in China in the Era of Restlessness
How Colgate, COLMO, Alibaba and Vogue Business are navigating changing regional consumer sentiment.
Brand relevance is the most important element in determining the long-term success of a brand.
In his book, Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant, David Aaker, the “Father of Modern Branding,” describes his strategic theory on brand relevance for the first time. Aaker emphasizes: “Instead of promoting the superiority of the brand, consider framing a subcategory such that competitors are excluded or placed at a disadvantage. Ensuring that the subcategory wins is a route to brand growth.”
But as a brand marketer, are you sure of how to build and grow brand relevance in today’s rapidly changing business landscape?
In recent years, the China market, in particular, has proven to be especially “restless.” Growing capital sources coupled with hypergrowth e-commerce platforms have lowered the barriers to entry to an increasingly sophisticated and demanding consumer market. Brands must compete to capture consumers’ screentime and customer data through constant innovation, in terms of both products and marketing & sales tactics. But to win in the long-term under these conditions, brands must also focus on relevance now more than ever.
“Instead of promoting the superiority of the brand, consider framing a subcategory such that competitors are excluded or placed at a disadvantage. Ensuring that the subcategory wins is a route to brand growth.”
David Aaker
With the launch of the 2021 Prophet Brand Relevance Index®, we invited four senior experts in consumer brands, e-commerce, and media to sit down with Tom Zhang, senior engagement manager at Prophet. Together they discussed how to effectively establish brand relevance in China, along with key trends, opportunities, and challenges they anticipate.
Expert Panel：
These four experts shared thoughtful perspectives on brand building in the China market. Despite the diversity in their thinking and experience, we found some common themes.
Three Core Principles for Brand Marketers Seeking to Drive Relevance
1. A Customer-Centric Approach to Meet Multi-Layered Needs
There’s no question that a brand must be clear about its target consumers as well as their needs and preferences. However, the new generation of consumers is increasingly complex. Information channels are highly fragmented leading to content that is more diverse. The result is a multitude of consumer preferences and values that translates into more nuanced and multi-layered needs. Cenran Hu, Strategy Director at Tmall Fashion, who has been closely tracking the evolution of consumer trends from the platform side, pointed out:
“Chinese consumers are very open to new things, but they can also be quite uncompromising. They have wants, needs and interests. Therefore, brands must take into account these many layers and continually find ways to surprise and delight them.”
— Cenran Hu, Strategy Director of Tmall Fashion (Alibaba Group)
Cenran also added that the high expectations of Chinese consumers mean that brands cannot become “one-trick ponies” and need to constantly create surprises. In this regard, Starbucks is a strong example, as it continues to boldly explore opportunities for product innovation and new digital experiences in the China market. Cenran gave the example of beverage brand Yuanqi Forest (元气森林). In less than 5 years, Yuanqi Forest has grown to become a sought-after 6 billion USD company. The success of Yuanqi Forest is undeniably linked to its ability to redefine its subcategory – sparkling water – from multiple dimensions, including a healthy lifestyle (0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories), unique taste and trendy design. Compared to traditional brands such as Perrier, Yuanqi Forest is more in line with Chinese consumers’ demand for differentiated products that meet multi-layered needs.
Yuanqi Forest
Colgate’s Core Brands Marketing Director, Vicky, shares these same views. Colgate believes that increasingly sophisticated young Chinese consumers will force brands to dig deep into pain points to create relevance. A prototypical example is the launch of Colgate’s Miracle Repair toothpaste, which is made with concentrated amino acids. The product was specifically designed to meet the deeper oral care needs of young consumers (anti-premature-aging) as well as their expectations for new offerings.
“Brands must provide tangible benefits to solve practical problems and pain points in consumers’ lives. At the same time, they must inspire when it comes to appearance, design, and experience so that consumers are willing to share and recommend.”
— Vicky Hu, Marketing Director, China Brand Marketing, Core Brands of Colgate China
2. Balancing Functional & Emotional to Capture the Minds & Hearts
Functional benefits can help brands quickly seize subcategories, and emotional resonance can help them further secure their place in the hearts of consumers.
In 2018, Midea Group launched its AI-powered home appliance premium sub-brand COLMO, with a clearly defined brand essence – “Simply Extraordinary.” Based on this positioning, the name, visual identity and experience all highlight the concept of “keep climbing,” allowing the brand to have an emotional connection with the target consumer. Arlen, Director of Brand Marketing at COLMO, noted:
“When a brand enters a subcategory, it must achieve a balance between functional and emotional values. Even if the brand defines a new functional subcategory, it must lay the groundwork for emotional resonance in order to establish a higher degree of brand relevance.”
Denni, Senior Editor at Vogue Business, shared her observations on the fashion industry. Denni believes that in addition to distinctive styles, fashion brands also need to amplify the story behind the design (e.g., designer crossovers, sustainability). Moreover, offline retail and brand experiences play a crucial role in creating emotional connections.
“Brands need to ‘iconize’ their own styles and ideas to lead the market, creating communities like missionaries, thus inspiring consumers and creating deep resonance.”
— Denni Hu, Senior Editor, Vogue Business
3. Playing Offense & Defense in a Restless Era
To take advantage of growing e-commerce platforms and new sources of capital, countless new brands continue to emerge in the China market. For both emerging brands and mature brands, it is increasingly difficult to gain traction in a market that is fiercely competitive and constantly changing.
Today’s restless era and high-stakes environment require brand marketers to maintain both “courage” and “consistency.” While disrupting the status quo through trending hashtags, creative products and maximized traffic, it is also critical not to lose sight of the “core” of brand building. A clear and compelling positioning should serve as the North Star of marketing and innovation; only then can the brand maintain long-term relevance and build brand equity.
“Emerging brands need to be repeatedly refined in order to establish a positioning that is both clear and malleable. Consumers need constant surprises. However, if the core of the brand is not strong, the initial surprises will eventually be short-lived.”
— Cenran Hu, Strategy Director of Tmall Fashion (Alibaba Group)
“In today’s world, to build a strong brand, you must balance ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ tactics – not only leveraging traffic and hot-selling products, but also continuously strengthening the brand ‘moat.’ Companies with multiple brands should proactively find ways to adjust their brand and product mix according to market segments and industry trends, define the role of each brand, and balance sales maximization and brand development.”
— Vicky Hu, Marketing Director, China Brand Marketing, Core Brands of Colgate China
We are delighted to see emerging brands in the China market leveraging e-commerce and social media are creating many new spaces for brands to play in. But as mentioned above, despite the gains from the “speeding up” of traffic and capital, it is particularly important for brands to “slow down.” Brands must be guided by consumer needs, emotionally resonant and clearly positioned in order to ensure brand relevance.
After clarifying these core principles, how can companies effectively measure and improve brand relevance? To learn more about the application of these dimensions, download our 2021 Brand Relevance Index®.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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?
How can we generate content or inspire customers to create their own content that will lead to brand loyalty and earned media?
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.
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.”
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.
