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Meet Lindsey Schwartz

Lindsey explains why she loves working with the financial-services team, and what sets Prophet apart from other consultants.

A born and bred New Yorker, Lindsey loves a good challenge. In fact, she prides herself on being able to take on complex problems and identify the right solutions. With an undergrad degree from Cornell and an MBA from Columbia and a consultant background prior to joining Prophet, she has sought to apply her knowledge to help deliver customer-focused growth strategies for her clients. All that said, it is working alongside teams of fun, smart, and determined Propheteers that she identified as a key to her success.

As a Senior Engagement Manager in our New York office, Lindsey focuses on helping financial services clients truly understand their customers and helps them align their products, services, and experiences easier to customer needs. Get to know Lindsey more…

Walk me through an ideal day at Prophet. What does it look like?

“My ideal day at Prophet starts with a great breakfast and would involve spending time with the team first thing, figuring out priorities for the day. Then, we’d spend a few hours doing some problem solving and thinking through what solutions might look like for a client problem. Then, I’d hop on the subway for a client meeting, wrap up the day with a regroup with the team to talk about next steps or potential business development opportunities, all before heading home to pick up my son.”

How do you describe Prophet’s culture to your friends?

“I always say that our culture is really focused on problem-solving as a team. Regardless of your level, the team will want you to have a point of view when it comes to solving our client’s toughest challenges. It’s also fun! We are all-in and focused, but we have a good time while doing the work and we really support one another, whether it be personally or professionally.”

Which one of Prophet’s values do you resonate most with and why?

“Fearlessly Human, Unexpectedly Irreverent.  I love that I can bring my whole self to work and have my work taken seriously, without having to take myself too seriously.”

Do you have any mentors in your life? If yes, who?

“Yes, I have so many mentors at Prophet. People like my good friends, Davis Ward and Lily Peleg, and female leaders like, Marisa Mulvihill, Chiaki Nishino and Merritt Robinson. They help me balance what matters in my career with my matters to me as a person. They help me see the big picture, teach me new things every day, and are people I love being around.”

“As a Senior Engagement Manager in our New York office, Lindsey focuses on helping financial services clients truly understand their customers and helps them align their products, services, and experiences easier to customer needs.”

You’ve taken the time to meet the rockstars behind our work. Now, how can we help? Let’s chat.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We are just as passionate about growing our people as we are about growing our clients’ businesses. We encourage our employees to be fearlessly human and unexpectedly irreverent, welcoming the entire person to the office every day. We motivate our employees to think freely, push ideas and imagine possibilities. And we have a lot of fun while we are at it.

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Rosy and Gloomy Biases When Evaluating Consumer Insights

It’s easy to be either an Eeyore or a Pollyanna. Here’s how to take a more realistic view.

A third big idea in my book, Owning Game-Changing Subcategories: Uncommon Growth in a Digital Age, is the role that rosy picture and gloomy picture biases play in building a subcategory. The stakes are high. Backing a “must-have” idea that has serious deficiencies can result in not only a loss of resources but a loss of time and innovation momentum. Conversely, erroneously terminating ideas that would create a major growth platform may be even more costly.

What Is the Rosy Picture Bias?

The rosy picture bias assumes that customers will be as impressed with the new offering as its loyal brand champions and that any problems can be easily overcome. This bias has several causes. First, the innovation champion, someone who is focused on the “must-haves” for months or even years, may have obsessive optimism and fear that killing the initiative might be career damaging.

Second, there is perceived organizational commitment that creates a momentum that is hard to stop. Finally, the innovation may just feel like a winner, logically or emotionally, and may have a buzz in the marketplace, even with minimal or inadequate testing.

“The rosy picture bias assumes that customers will be as impressed with the new offering as its loyal brand champions and that any problems can be easily overcome.”

In the context of the rosy picture bias, the following questions need to be addressed and assumptions challenged:

  • Are the “must-haves” real? Are they so appealing and differentiating to a worthwhile segment that customers will avoid buying or using offerings that lack that “must-have?” Or is it only an incremental innovation that will not create loyal customers? Do you have confidence backed by market testing?
  • Is the market substantial enough? Can it be accessed? Is there a Plan B – a way to find new applications and segments if the going-in targets fall short?
  • Will significant competitors be attracted if the subcategory will be a success? Can barriers be constructed that will inhibit them from entering or handicap them upon entry?

What Is the Gloomy Picture Bias?

The gloomy picture bias suggests that a proposed new subcategory initiative will be costly in time and resources, have an uncertain outcome and involve risk without a clear payoff. This bias may be supported by unfavorable evidence from the market and is influenced by a tendency for people to be risk-averse. Tversky and Kahneman’s Prospect theory (for which they won a Nobel prize) demonstrated that individuals do not make decisions rationally by selecting options with the highest expected value, because “losses loom larger than gains.”

That helps explain why firms tend to overinvest in incremental innovation and underinvest in “big” innovations with more uncertain returns. To avoid having the gloomy picture bias kill off subcategory ideas that could be the basis for uncommon growth, it is worthwhile to analyze some of the assumptions being made with questions like:

  • Could disappointing test results be turned around by identifying and remedying problems internally?
  • Are flawed offerings that have appeared in the market caused by obsolete technology or organizational limitations that do not apply to us? Digital readers for a long time just didn’t get traction. Then came Kindle, which sold over 1 million units in a year and showed that sales of prior products were not a predictor of Kindle’s market acceptance.
  • If planned applications or markets are inadequate, could we have “Plan B” applications or markets that will support a business? There are a host of successful subcategories that occurred when an application or market was found after the original turned out to be inadequate.
  • Might it be possible to scale a subcategory market that is initially too small? Could the offering be extended into new applications, markets, or product variants?  Other brands, like Nike and Starbucks, have taken subcategory markets into the mainstream. Is this possible?
  • Might it be feasible to create or find new assets and competencies? Other organizations have done it successfully or found partners to help.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

The lesson is to be objective and analytical when testing assumptions.  And a good way to sniff out rosy or gloomy picture bias, especially in the digital age, is simply to try it out. Get a prototype, a crude version of the concept and put it in a test market or even release it so learning can occur. The live version of the concept will evolve as corrections and improvements are made, and your decisions will be clearer.

The e-book version of Owning Game-Changing Subcategories is now available and the book itself will be available in early April.

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Defining the Digital Future of Financial Services

Asset-light thinking, “little” data and bundled services are all responding to changing customer needs.

Remember when “digital”, to most banks and financial institutions, simply meant getting online? Mobile apps, online banking, digitized systems for claims, servicing, etc. – this was the first wave of the digital agenda. But those days have quickly moved into the rear-view mirror, as new enablers and disruptors present opportunities, and challenges, for financial services firms to tackle.

“New enablers and disruptors present opportunities, and challenges, for financial services firms to tackle.”

Here, we’ve highlighted the four differentiators that financial services organizations should be considering over the next 5 years and beyond. We have identified the A, B, C and D of disruptive forces seen from the perspective of the customer, the key shifts affecting them, and consequently how financial services companies can adapt to these disruptive factors to drive their business forward.

A: Asset-Light: From Ownership to Access

Banks that will succeed in the next 5 years will make the pivot towards being asset-light. First, this will require becoming asset-light as a company, e.g., smaller real estate footprint, fewer branches, less human staff in place of e-tellers, and so on. It used to be that you had to build it all yourself. Then, you could rent IT-as-a-service (IaaS), and over time you could rent products-as-a-service (PaaS), and eventually software-as-a-service (SaaS). Today, you can pretty much “rent” the entire business-as-a-service (BaaS), freeing you up entirely to focus on your core business. This is why asset-light companies have an advantage – they focus their full attention on their core business while building and scaling faster than ever.

Why Build the Foundation When You can Rent it?

But beyond the physical footprint, asset-light also means adapting to a customer who is more asset-light than ever – fewer houses, mortgages, cars, etc. Creating a more flexible and adapted product range to meet the needs of today’s asset-light customer will require a re-think of your firm’s product and service offerings.

B: Bundling: From More to Less

For years, big banks were a one-stop shop for all your financial needs – from your first savings account to credit card investments, mortgages, loans, and wealth management. These financial institutions had advantages in size (assets under management and customer count) and their global networks added a multiplier effect. They also had strong, globally-minded compliance systems in place to manage the difficult regulatory environment. So, they were hard to disrupt…if you tried to disrupt them in aggregate.

To overcome this competitive advantage, companies disrupted piece by piece, niche by niche, service by service. In the past 10 years, we’ve seen an emergence of niche players who entered the market and disrupted a very specific part of the value chain — Monzo (debit), Robinhood (investing), WeChat and Momo (payments), Revolut and Transferwise (FX), Stripe (B2B), etc. And they won share by being asset-light, freeing them up to deliver a better, more convenient (and sometimes affordable) experience.

But these niche players are no longer babies – they’ve grown up, raised billions, acquired millions of customers, and over time, have begun offering more comprehensive bundling of services.

For the first time since the fintech market took off 10-15 years ago, the big banks are no longer being disrupted in niche areas, they’re facing bigger threats as these formerly-niche-players bundle a more comprehensive set of services. It’s a global trend that customers are far more likely to refer a friend to a fintech than to a traditional bank.

So, today, who’s David and who’s Goliath?

C: Community: From Insular to Interoperable

For nearly a century, banks have thrived as closed systems, keeping data and assets in-house. But the rise of digital gave way to a new way: open source. It started in software, but over time open source became foundational to pretty much all businesses, none more so than financial services.

Meanwhile, openness isn’t just a customer nice-to-have, it’s becoming a regulatory norm. APIs that build and bridge communities and financial ecosystems will become a must. In this environment, financial services firms will need to strategically identify which data sources to share, based not only on what they can monetize, but what customers expect from a financial experience today.

But take note: openness is NOT about creating connections. It’s not simply enough to connect player A to player B.

Success comes down to creating community, which is about much more than connections. It’s about experiences. It’s sticky. Connections are a commodity – anyone can get access to APIs and connect things. But those who really create community do so in a way that creates stickiness, retention, loyalty. There’s a real value exchange, a real reason to come back time and time again.

D: Digital Identity: From Big Data to Little Data

For the past decade, the hype has been on big data. Collecting as much data as possible, storing it, and analyzing it. But the value actually lies in the “little” data — the data exhaust that you as a n=1 give off every day. Your daily schedule, shopping choices, patterns of travel, temperature preference in your home or car, physical health, emotions.

Google coined the term “ZMOT” a few years ago, with the idea that there was a single/zero moment of truth. That critical point when a decision is made. However, the reality is with little data, there are millions of moments of truth. When viewed in aggregate, they provide a much more compelling and interesting perspective of a person’s overall digital identity.

Millions of Moments of Truth

Companies that track, analyze and engage around “little data’ will be – and already are – the big winners, because they know you fully, not just in the realm of their industry or one-off interactions with you. They are becoming stewards of your digital identity.

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As we undergo a shift from placing value on share of wallet to share of data, financial services companies are uniquely positioned to be those stewards of our digital identities. What we spend, where we travel, what we save, who we transact with, financial services companies are entrusted with millions of data points. And as trust in social media firms erodes, financial services firms are strongly positioned to be the owners of our digital identities for years to come.

If you would like to assess where your financial organization sits on the path to transformation, and where it can go next, connect here.

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4 Examples of Digital Transformation’s Role in Strategic Growth

E-commerce, social media and branded communities are all intensifying the pace of innovation.

A second big idea in David Aaker’s new book, Owning Game-Changing Subcategories: Uncommon Growth in a Digital Age is digital’s role in the dramatic increase in subcategory competition.

Digital transformation is on the minds of most marketing executives.  Digital’s purpose is often assumed to be tactical in nature–generating customer leads, data analytics or making the customer experience more efficient.  But digital has a key role in strategic growth as well.

The Owning Game-Changing Subcategory book posits that the only way to grow is to create “must-have” subcategories, become the exemplar brand, and build barriers. That has always been true. But in the last decade or two, digital has put subcategory creation on steroids.

“In the last decade or two, digital has put subcategory creation on steroids.”

The frequency of new subcategories emerging has increased by an order of magnitude.  A firm that might have seen a new subcategory every half-decade might now see one every year or every quarter.  Digital is without question the driver of strategic growth and market dynamics. Let’s take a look at four ways in which digital has emerged to play this role:

Digital Technology

Digital technology in the form of sensors, microcomputers, voice recognition, smartphones, cloud computing, analytics and much more provides new avenues to “must-haves.”  Artificial Intelligence (AI) has unleashed new or changed capabilities throughout the value chain. The Internet of Things (IoT) has created smart cars, smart appliances, smart hotels and so on. Nest Thermometer, for example, created a new subcategory by using AI and IoT to control the temperature of homes, offices and industrial buildings.

E-commerce

E-commerce has provided fast, inexpensive market access that bypasses the cost of storefront retailers and personal sales teams. Nearly every product arena has a subcategory created by brands like Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, or Casper Mattresses that brought products to market via e-commerce. Even Amazon has developed its own subcategory with a host of digital-enabled “must-haves” surrounding its e-commerce model.

Social Media and Websites

These tools enable communication with reach and impact that is more effective and budget-friendly than traditional advertising or event marketing.  Dollar Shave Club shot out of the gate with a two-minute video that went viral largely because of its humor, establishing a customer base in a matter of weeks.  There was no advertising creative that required specialists and no media budget involving TV and magazines. The Dollar Shave Club experience has been replicated by many of the successful new subcategory entrants.

Brand Communities

Brand communities are groups of people that bond because of shared involvement or even passion in some activity, goal or interest area connected to a brand, and are enabled by digital. This provides a high level of involvement and social benefits resulting in loyalty to the subcategory and its exemplar brand.  The Sephora Beauty Insiders community, for example, is a magnet for people to gather and exchange information about skincare and beauty.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Digital has a tactical and operational role for sure.  But it also has a role to enable strategic growth and thus should be a key business priority.

The e-book version of Owning Game-Changing Subcategories is now available. The book will be available wherever books are sold in early April.

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3 Ways to Build Brand Relevance for Financial Services in 2020

Consistency, trust and emotional engagement can help companies impress and inspire their audiences.

Financial services companies have a relevance problem. Consumers – who will often be heard enthusiastically talking about everything from kitchen appliances to Band-Aids – yawn when they think about banks and insurance companies. Our research shows that consumers are more interested in just about every other category compared to the companies that are working to safeguard their financial stability and helping them plan for the future.

It doesn’t have to be that way. At Prophet, we’ve spent years exploring the science of relevance, surveying 51,000 global consumers each year about thousands of brands. Our Brand Relevance Index quantifies how indispensable a given brand is to people in their daily lives. And we do it by ranking each brand against four key drivers of relevance:

  1. Customer obsessed: brands that know you better than you know yourself
  2. Distinctively inspired: brands that win your head and heart, often with a strong purpose
  3. Pervasively innovative: brands that find new and inventive ways to engage
  4. Ruthlessly pragmatic: brands that are right where you need them, making your life easier

We’ve found that relevance drives business impact – the most relevant brands outperformed the S&P 500 average revenue growth by 230% over the past ten years. We help clients use these insights to be more relevant in their customers’ lives by engaging with them in ways that build more excitement, trust and loyalty, whilst also building their bottom line.

Why Do Financial Brands Disappoint?

Companies like Apple, Amazon and Netflix consistently dominate our ranking, generating almost endless brand love. But financial services brands have consistently underperformed compared to other industries. Only one brand – Intuit TurboTax (No. 37) – breaks into the top 40 in our U.S. index. And just four more – PayPal (No. 43), Vanguard (No. 44), USAA (No. 46) and Zelle (No. 48) – manage to sneak into the top 50. While consumers do find financial-data companies moderately relevant to their daily lives, property and casualty insurance, life insurance and retail banking occupy the three lowest rungs of all 27 categories we measure.

Familiarity isn’t the problem. These are brands with high levels of awareness. And, in the case of retail banking, consumers constantly interact with these companies, from paying their mortgage to buying their morning latte. But, there are three primary reasons people feel so detached from these brands:

They’re Inconsistent

Except for financial data services, where 77% of consumers say companies deliver a consistent experience, people say financial services companies are all over the map in terms of their performance. For instance, only 29% say retail banking and investments are consistent, 23% for P&C insurers and just 15% for life insurance companies.

They’re Not Trustworthy

The days when people found financial service companies inherently honest and reliable are long gone. Amid daily headlines about privacy scandals, security hacks and breaches, consumers rank trust as the second-most important attribute for financial data services. Assessed simply on trust, some soar – PayPal, TurboTax, Vanguard and Fidelity are seen as the most trustworthy of all brands. But others fare terribly, with Wells Fargo, Liberty Mutual and PNC among the lowest-performing brands.

Indispensable? Yes. Inspirational? No

Consumers certainly understand that financial services are essential. When we rank brands by “Meets an important need in my life,” for example, TurboTax comes in third, and Visa, Vanguard and Fidelity are in the top 20. But, all stumble on measures of inspiration and emotional engagement, and our data shows that those misses can create a real risk of customer turnover.

3 Ways to Increase Brand Relevance

In our work with financial services companies, we’re helping clients focus on the levers most likely to boost relevance. Take a look at three ways we’re guiding brands to develop richer, deeper and more meaningful relationships with their customers:

1. Impact When It Counts

Brands like Zelle and PayPal have made consumers’ lives infinitely easier by being there for them at every single payment moment that matters. Both brands score more than 95% for “makes my life easier.” Many financial services companies are failing to address the pain points in the customer experience journey. Increasing focus should be given to simplifying processes and exchanges and identifying opportunities to create those all-important memorable and meaningful moments for customers that are tailored personally to their needs and to their lives.

2. Tap Into the Power of Purpose

We help cultures and organizations evolve to find a higher order purpose, that is unique to their company and genuinely resonates with customers and employees. As consumers, particularly younger ones, flock to brands that support their commitment to sustainability and fairness, financial services companies must stand for something more than profits.

Among insurers, for example, brands like USAA and Aflac have built strong relationships by making consumers feel that they can connect on more than just a functional level. USAA, for example, with its deep commitment to the military community, earns an enviable 99% on “has a set of beliefs and values that align with my own” – the third-highest of all companies we track in the U.S. And Aflac and Vanguard aren’t far behind. By comparison, only 1% say that is true of MasterCard.

3. Cultivate Emotional Engagement

With the right experiences and innovations, financial service brands can radically improve their emotional connections with consumers. We might even argue that they have an inherent advantage here, given how often customers interact with their brands.

“We help clients use these insights to be more relevant in their customers’ lives by engaging with them in ways that build more excitement, trust and loyalty, whilst also building their bottom line.”

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We’re realists. Will paying a quarterly car-insurance bill ever make someone as happy as seeing a Pixar movie, shopping on Etsy or going to Disneyworld? No. But companies as varied as AARP, Lemonade and John Hancock have made sure that each touchpoint makes consumers “feel emotionally engaged”. By comparison, only 21% can say that of TurboTax, and just 13% about Visa.

There are many roads to relevance. Let us help you find the ones that will resonate most with your audience, and translate that into meaningful revenue growth, talk to our expert consultant team today.

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How Game-Changing Subcategories Drive Business Growth

The only way to grow? Create, position, and own a new “must-have” defined subcategory.

My new book, Owning Game-Changing Subcategories: Uncommon Growth in a Digital Age, is now available wherever books are sold. In a series of blogs, I will detail the big ideas from the book. These are:

  1. Growth by subcategory creation
  2. Digital’s role in accelerating subcategory competition
  3. Rosy and gloomy bias affecting organizational decisions to commit to a new subcategory
  4. The role of the exemplar brand
  5. Brand communities

I’ll start with the first big idea: the assertion that the only way to grow (with rare exceptions) is to create, position, and own a new “must-have” defined subcategory. This subcategory must change how a customer experiences the brand or creates a new relationship with the brand. To generate a growth platform, you need to create game-changers like Chobani, Tesla, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Dollar Shave Club, Airbnb have done.

About two decades ago, Peter Drucker argued in an interview that innovation should not be the goal.  Rather, an organization should aspire to be a change leader.  That is what the drivers of a new subcategory are: change leaders.

Identify or Create Must-Haves

A “must-have” does not have to be functional – it can be a personality or attitude.  Airbnb has created entrepreneurial hosts, as opposed to owner/managers, who are in it from more than just a financial transaction. They join the platform because they are passionate about their role as a host. It is an attitude, a job guide, an objective and a “must-have.” They aim to make the guest experience special through personal connection, augmenting it in creative ways, and enhancing their property and its presentation.

“The only way to grow is to create, position, and own a new “must-have” defined subcategory.”

The first step, of course, is to identify or create “must-haves” – elements of an offering for which customers will have a high affinity. The existence of a set of “must-haves” (there are nearly always more than one) will create a basis for a core loyal customer group— the cornerstone of a growth platform. Prius dominated its market for over 15 years with a loyal customer base and “must-haves” that included the Hybrid Synergy Drive, outstanding gas mileage, a unique design that helped deliver self-expressive benefits (“I am doing something for the planet”), and excellent reliability.

A “must-have”’ can also involve a higher purpose.  People want to connect with brands they admire and resonate with their own values and passions.  Patagonia shares with its core customer a reverence for the environment.  Avon with its Walk for Breast Cancer and Lifebuoy with its “Help a Child Reach 5” all create energy, visibility and a strong connection with many customers.

Differentiate Yourself and the Subcategory from the Competition

Creating subcategories is not enough — there are two additional tasks. First, become the exemplar brand that represents the subcategory. Then, use that status to build the subcategory’s visibility, positioning it around its “must-haves.” It is like brand building but with the focus on the subcategory and its “must-haves” and not the brand.  It involves moving from “my brand is better than your brand,” which almost never results in growth to subcategory competition.

Second, create barriers to competitors inhibiting their ability to become a relevant option. Barriers could include the committed customer base, “must-have” associations and brand relationships that go beyond functional benefits. Without barriers, even a successful subcategory will quickly attract others that will enjoy the benefits.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Organizational growth means vitality and opportunity for customers, employees and partners. It is (or should be) a strategic priority. In these dynamic times, it is critical to understand subcategory creation because it is usually the only path to disruptive growth.

The e-book version of Owning Game-Changing Subcategories is now available. The book will be available wherever books are sold in early April.

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How Dove Real Beauty Uses Digital Marketing to Stay Relevant

This long-running campaign has converted an authentic and inspiring purpose into tens of millions of shares.

In 2004, Dove provocatively widened the definition of beauty through its landmark Real Beauty campaign, challenging airbrushed stereotypes established by the personal care industry and rallying around the “real beauty” of women everywhere.  Originally positioned as a functional soap brand, Dove’s campaign leveraged digital marketing to provide a new opportunity for social discourse and community building, elevating the brand beyond the product line. Dove didn’t just sell beauty, but self-esteem and acceptance, becoming a brand grounded more in social and emotional benefits than functional ones.

How Far Dove Real Beauty Has Come

A primary reason for the success and resonance of the Real Beauty message was its deep rooting in digital activation at a time before digital marketing was commonplace.  For example, Dove used compelling and provocative videos to provide energy around the campaign, including its 2006 “Evolution” video – one of the earliest viral brand videos on YouTube. Its “Real Beauty Sketches” video also became one of the most-watched videos of all time.  It also launched the Dove Self Esteem Project, a web portal intended to improve the self-esteem of young people by engaging viewers in forums, workshops, articles and videos that educate on topics like body positivity and bullying.

“Digital engagement has become table stakes, audience touchpoints and expectations are changing in profound ways”

Now, nearly 15 years after the initial Real Beauty effort, Dove exists in a digital world that looks very different from the original.  Digital engagement has become table stakes, audience touchpoints and expectations are changing in profound ways and the “cause marketing” space has become increasingly crowded and noisy.  It would have been fair to question whether Dove’s brand message was at risk of fatigue.  However, Dove has continued to maintain energy around its brand and sustain relevance as we enter 2020 – using digital to continue to power its message and positioning.

Improving Brand Relevance Through Digital Transformation

The numbers back this up.  In the Prophet Brand Relevance Index® (BRI), Dove remains the most relevant brand in the Household & Personal category – a position it’s held since reclaiming the top spot from Crest in 2017.  Additionally, the gap between Dove and its category is growing, with a 2019 Brand Relevance score that is 35 percent higher than the category average, compared to 32 percent higher in 2016.  Dove’s score for “Customer Obsession” puts it in the top 10 percent of all brands and above noted customer-obsessed stalwarts such as Chick-fil-A and Southwest Airlines, validating the continued strength of the brand’s emotional connection with its audience.  The brand has also seen a steady increase in purchase consideration from 2014 to 20191, and as more and more brands position themselves more explicitly around a cause, Dove has managed to stand out, with the highest association with a social cause among all brands2.

Examining the moves Dove has made the last few years, it’s clear that it has accomplished this in part by investing in unique, thoughtful and more sophisticated digital marketing strategies.  These digital marketing campaigns – which range from stunt marketing to larger content creation strategies and partnerships – continue to reinforce Dove’s brand positioning, while leveraging more digital touchpoints that audiences interact with.  The approach allows the brand to build off of its earlier momentum by broadening and deepening its exposure with audiences.

Some of Dove’s Best Digital Marketing Strategies

  • In 2015, Dove partnered with Twitter to identify negative tweets about beauty and body image, and then respond to these tweets in real-time as part of the #SpeakBeautiful campaign. This was coupled with a creative advertisement about the ramifications of body shaming during the Academy Awards pre-show.
  • In 2017, Dove teamed up with award-winning photographers to take striking pictures of “real women” – pictures that spotlighted women’s strength, grit and talent. Through a digital back door, these pictures were uploaded to Shutterstock with a search tag of “beautiful” that flooded results for a search term that historically had yielded photoshopped, airbrushed pictures.  Dove then encouraged other photographers and brands to join the cause, and in turn, created a host of informal ambassadors for the Dove message.
  • In 2018, Dove introduced its “No Digital Distortion” mark – a symbol indicating that a picture hasn’t been digitally altered. This symbol runs across all branded content – digital advertisements, social media content and print – and serves as a consistent reminder of the Dove message across both digital and non-digital channels.
  • In the same year, Dove announced a two-year partnership with the Cartoon Network series “Steven Universe” to educate young people on body confidence and speak to the next generation of consumers.
  • In 2019, in partnership with Getty Images, Dove collected over 5,000 images on the Getty website that featured 179 different women, all of which were women from a variety of underrepresented backgrounds. These images were made available for public use, and like the Shutterstock stunt marketing campaign from 2017, created a sense of ambassadorship for users of the pictures.

1 YouGov

2 Do Something Strategic: A Social Impact Consultancy

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Dove originally built strong brand equity by repositioning around social and emotional benefits, capturing topical consumer concerns and executing on an integrated marketing approach with a distinguished digital strategy and content.

Now, Dove has broadened its digital footprint through multi-channel campaigns, new-age content creation strategies and partnerships and crowd-sourced stunt marketing, all while maintaining its singular focus around its support of “real beauty” in an increasingly loud “cause marketing” space.

These strategies have been flanked by its legacy digital marketing touchpoints like viral YouTube content and the Dove Self Esteem Project web portal, creating a rich, layered marketing strategy.

Looking ahead to a new decade of digital possibility, Prophet’s team of digital marketing experts will be keeping a close eye on how Dove and others continue to build relentlessly relevant brands through excellence in digital marketing. And we’re excited to see what 2020 will bring.

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2020 Trends: Achieving Growth in the Digital Age

Prophet’s consultants around the world forecast what’s ahead in the coming year.

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The pace of disruption continues to accelerate and redefine how companies drive growth in the digital age. Read our 2020 predictions to learn what trends we believe will drive measurable business impact this year and beyond.

Our global team shared their insights across several key focus areas to highlight the trends we expect to see in 2020:

Download the full report below.

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Executive Summary

In the last few years, marketers have had to adapt to the increasing demands of their businesses and customers alike. Customers now demand compelling, personalized content and experiences to be delivered to them on an ever-increasing list of digital channels, while CEOs now expect marketers to deliver results that go beyond brand awareness and ring the cash register. As a result, marketers, especially digital marketers have had to learn new skills, adopt innovative new technologies, and fundamentally reassess the role they play in driving the business.

While learning new skills and deploying sophisticated technology are key drivers of digital marketing excellence, their effectiveness is limited if the digital marketing teams aren’t structured or organized in the best way possible. Many businesses struggle with this crucial step as it could mean breaking legacy hierarchies and defying embedded cultures.

In our research report, we’ve defined four essential steps to help marketing leaders understand the key elements of a modern digital marketing organization and the choices they have in positioning them to best deliver on the needs of the business and its customers.

In this report, you will find:

  • A four-step process for organizing your digital marketing team
  • Three organizational models, with accompanying case examples
  • Recommendations for building out the core functions of your digital marketing team
  • A list of key questions to help you begin evaluating how your digital marketing team is organized

Download the full report below.

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Three Examples of Brands That Are Winning with Values

How USAA, Disney and Chick-fil-A transform purpose into growth.

Every time consumers open their wallets, they show their preference for the brands they trust.  A key driver of relevance is the values brands stand for and the way they bring those values to life in the customer experience.

The 2019 Prophet Brand Relevance Index® gives us a unique view into how brands today stay relevant to consumers. To determine relevance, Prophet surveyed 13,500 U.S. consumers about more than 225 brands across 27 industries. It measured four brand principles: customer obsession, ruthless pragmatism, pervasive innovation and distinctive inspiration. Within these principles, we measured how customers rated brands on a set of values and beliefs that align with their own.

The study reinforced a strong correlation between relevance and values (R2=0.55), suggesting that brands that effectively demonstrate strong values externally have greater relevance with the consumers they are engaging.  Said another way, consumers place greater weight on how brands demonstrate and live their values rather than the specific values themselves. We can look to brands that perform highly on “has a set of values and beliefs that align with my own” to learn how to help drive greater relevance in the market.

 The Importance of Brand Values

To have a lasting impact, brand values need to be more than words on a wall – they need to come to life across touchpoints, internally and externally. Internally, values can engage, empower and equip. They form the foundation of a company’s culture, defining behavioral standards, unifying employees, boosting morale and helping employees work towards a shared vision. When employees enthusiastically live the company’s values, those values radiate externally and can be felt by customers.

Brands that turn their commitment to values inside out create deeper relationships with consumers who share those values and believe in the brand’s bigger purpose. Brands with weaker values – or those that don’t live up to their values – can have negative impacts on customers’ perceptions of the brand. To see the impact values can have on brand perceptions, we studied brands that are winning with customers and employees around a shared set of beliefs and values.

1. USAA – Values That Build Empathy

USAA, #46 in the BRI overall, brings their values to life for employees, empowering them and transforming how they engage with customers. The company starts by reinforcing its values internally, providing employees with a USAA membership and conducting extensive training. Through USAA’s “Surround Sound” approach, trainees read deployment letters from soldiers and even practice carrying a 65-lb backpack. These values-driven experiences enable employees to see their work through the customers’ eyes, creating a connection between the employee and the needs of the customer. As a result, customers feel that USAA employees truly understand their needs, which are rooted in their personal beliefs and values.

“When employees enthusiastically live the company’s values, those values radiate externally and can be felt by customers.”

2. Disney – Values Motivate at Every Touchpoint

Disney, #5 in the BRI overall, has beliefs that are continuously reinforced throughout the organization – through how leaders communicate, to how performance is measured, to how employees are recognized and rewarded. Disney’s professional development team, Disney Institute, showcases the “business behind the magic” as a resource for companies across industries. One feature, “Disney’s Approach to Employee Engagement,” explains the company’s commitment to selecting the right people and retaining them. A key aspect of this commitment? Reiterating the brand’s core purpose – to create happiness – and empowering each employee from the start to provide outstanding service to guests with this purpose in mind. This constant reinforcement and clear communication of expectations create an intentional culture where decisions are rooted in those beliefs. And customers feel the values as the magic of Disney is brought to life across channels and touchpoints.

3. Chick-fil-A – Values Drive Consistent, Quality Experiences

Chick-fil-A, #27 in the BRI overall, has values that are an integral part of their company, with each team member – from corporate leaders to frontline employees – living them every day. Unlike the rest of the QSR industry which largely takes a transactional approach to customers and employees, Chick-fil-A has constructed an intentional culture rooted in family values with a “servant leadership” mindset. This is nurtured in the culture across every touchpoint, from how they recruit talent (e.g., observing how potential hires interact with employees) to how they engage with customers (e.g., closed on Sundays and saying “it’s my pleasure” when serving customers), and ensures employees truly live the culture and values every day.

Chick-fil-A’s values are so deeply engrained in employees’ lives, that they permeate into customers’ experiences. The chain has established a high bar for what customers will experience at any of their restaurants in the country, and with values that are instilled on the individual level, the brand consistently delivers.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

From our analysis and best practice examples, we believe that brands who get credit for their values do the following:

  1. Define shared behavior-driven values: Customers can tell when an employee understands who they are and what’s important to them. Creating values that employees and customers share builds a platform for authentic relationships and better service.
  2. Motivate at every touchpoint: Consumers can see values come to life across touchpoints along the entire customer journey and even beyond it.
  3. Make your values known: Of course, values need to be felt before heard, but brands should take a stand to communicate their values in order to help customers understand what they are and why they matter.

Consistently bring your brand values to life helps to shape customer’s perceptions and set expectations. By defining who you are and what you believe in, you can attract customers who share those same beliefs and foster deeper, sustained loyalty.

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Owning Game-Changing Subcategories

DAVID AAKER

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Summary

The only way to grow (with rare exceptions) is with “must-haves” that define game-changing subcategories. These subcategories must offer new or markedly superior customer experiences or brand relationships, an exemplar brand that positions the subcategory and creates barriers to competitors.

Subcategory-driven growth has exploded in the digital era because of technological advances and the fast, inexpensive market access made possible by e-commerce and digital communication.

The alternative, “my brand is better than your brand” competition, rarely generates growth because markets are so stable and difficult to disrupt. The book includes case studies from numerous companies including Airbnb, Etsy, Warby Parker, Prius and Muji to illustrate how subcategory creation has led to uncommon growth.

Highlights

  • Explanation of why growth almost always involves “must-haves” defining new subcategories, earning exemplar brand status, and creating competitor barriers
  • Tips for finding “must-haves” and examples with case studies featuring notable leading brands
  • Deep dive into how digital tech trends like e-commerce, the Internet of Things, brand communities and more that drive growth through subcategory formation

Endorsements

I really LOVE this book!! It is so right for organizations looking to drive growth. Through compelling insights, Aaker shows how to employ the Digital Revolution to create and own  Subcategories highly relevant to customers. A MUST READ book for our Digital times!

Joe Tripodi
Former CMO of Coca-Cola, Allstate, MasterCard, and Subway

David Aaker uses economics and case studies to show how growth comes from inspired breakthroughs that create new subcategories and not from expanding market programs.  Use the 20 takeaways to find your own subcategory breakthrough.

Philip Kotler
The Father of Modern Marketing

David Aaker teaches us how to grow in the digital era by harnessing the power of subcategories. A must have for all business leaders.

Yong-Jin Chung
Vice Chairman, Shinsegae Group (Korea’s Largest  Retailer)

Media

“From Brand to Subcategory Competition” in European Journal of Marketing, Fall 2018

“Winning in the Sharing Economy—Six Keys to Airbnb’s Success, ‘ Journal of Brand Strategy, February, 2019.

About the Author

David Aaker, is the author of more than one hundred articles and 17 books on marketing, business strategy, and branding that have sold over one million copies. A recognized global authority on branding, he has developed concepts and methods on brand building that are used by organizations around the world.

Connect

Want to interview Dave or feature him on your next podcast? Please connect with us or David Aaker directly.

Explore how David Aaker and Prophet can help your business create game-changing brands that resonate with both your customers and employees.

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The Four Principles of Brand Relevance

Our relevance research uncovers the primary drivers of brand fandom, offering insights into what makes us buy.

Today’s consumers are experts at ignoring the tens of thousands of brands that don’t interest them. But for their favorites, their loyalty knows no bounds. These brand favorites earn and re-earn loyalty by doing something others don’t: They continuously find new ways to connect, engage and inspire their customers.

What makes these rare brands—brand stalwarts like Apple, to emerging favorites like Spotify—stand out from their competition? They are what we at Prophet like to call relentlessly relevant.

Defining Brand Relevance

At Prophet, we believe that relevance is the most reliable indicator of a brand’s long-term success. We created our Brand Relevance Index to help business and brand leaders measure the relevance of their brands, and offer them ways to improve. Four key principles of relentlessly relevant brands were identified. The brands that ranked highest for each principle in our Index are highlighted in this graphic:

1. Customer Obsession

To build a relentlessly relevant brand, you must begin by adopting a mindset of customer obsession. This requires the brand strategist to truly focus on a greater customer understanding. This involves not only the customers’ wants but also an understanding of more than just a narrow bit of these customers’ lives. Everything these brands invest in, create and bring to market are designed to meet important needs in peoples’ lives.

2. Ruthless Pragmatism

Pragmatism is the most important piece of this puzzle. It’s the one that most marketers find extremely difficult, but it’s essential because it makes the other three possible. When a brand has pragmatism, it takes bold steps, makes smart bets, fails quickly, and experiments often. These brands make sure their products are available where and when customers need them, deliver consistent experiences, and simply make life easier for their customers.

3. Pervasive Innovation

These brands are obsessed with what their competition is doing and what their customers are yearning for. They know without innovation—their organizations won’t be able to grow and thrive. These brands make emotional connections, earn trust and often exist to fulfill a larger purpose.

4. Distinctive Inspiration

Companies love to throw around the word “Inspiration” to describe their businesses and brands, although most businesses and brands are unfortunately not inspired, or inspiring to customers. These brands don’t rest in their laurels. Even as industry leaders—they push the status quo, engage with customer in new and creative ways, and find new ways to address unmet needs.

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Brands

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Staying relevant in today’s market can be very difficult—with so many competitors, it takes a lot to stand out to consumers.

Learn more about how to build relevance and impact consumers’ attitudes towards your brand.

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