Clients and colleagues share positive trends emerging from this difficult time.
It’s difficult to decipher exactly when the COVID-19 storm will lift, and while many around the world stare into crystal balls looking for answers on this, I have spent some time speaking to clients, colleagues and friends to understand what the most pertinent shifts surfacing are and how they’re set to impact our future for the better, creating opportunities and – finally – some positivity. Here are my predictions:
1. Collaborating purposefully
Finally, we will understand the full power of remote working technology. Forced into a situation where we have all had to become more experienced in hosting and participating in virtual meetings, we will start to use technology in more positive ways to bring people together. Working remotely will undoubtedly continue to play a large role, but physical interactions and collaborations will become more meaningful, human and special. Ultimately, the collaboration will be less exhausting and more natural, and a boon for both our physical and mental health.
2. New innovative products & services
All companies have had to look at how they protect themselves and their employees, and as a result, many have had to update or even re-invent their business models. It’s because of this we can expect to see exciting new products and services coming out. Products and services that will be considerate and make a value-adding difference in our lives and the new environment we now live in.
3. Flexibility and agility in production
Helping us to act more swiftly and reduce time to market, the untapped potential of production facilities to go beyond their original purpose will be realized. Making us more independent from global supply chains, robots and algorithms, can not only help in crisis situations but also launch innovative new products faster and at a lower price.
“Ultimately, the collaboration will be less exhausting and more natural, and a boon for both our physical and mental health.”
4. Capitalism light
Like the 2008 crisis before, we will see governments intervene with the economy, offering support and becoming shareholders of big corporations. Eventually, society will make its peace with capitalism light and accept that it could in fact be a more sustainable solution, something that is not contrary but could even be healthy for a democratic system.
5. All-in for saving the planet
We fully acknowledge that a slower life, and a slower economy, helps to save our planet. Everyone will be more open to implementing environmentally sustainable measures in their lives – in both the private and corporate sectors. Eco-radicalists will take a back seat as the world aligns around a joint purpose to act responsibly now, and for the generations to come.
6. Healthcare becomes THE place to be
Health is wealth and it’s for that reason that healthcare will become more important than ever. Combined with the opportunities presented by cutting-edge technology, it will be the ultimate destination for investors, but there will also be a noticeable shift as society takes a more vested interest in developments. Modern healthcare will be accessible and fun – not only for a niche set of hipsters but for everyone. People will be much more willing to divulge information for individual data collection and analysis to make healthcare even better.
7. Local communities becoming our new comfort zone
Local communities support us, and we support the community in return. We will have stronger relationships with our local shops and will again enjoy the quality of their products, the people behind those businesses, and be willing to pay premium prices for their produce and products.
8. Lower social pressure
Feelings of FOMO (Fear of missing out) will be a thing of the past as appreciation for time alone and/or with few close relatives or friends increases. JOMO (Joy of missing out) will become a reality and introverts will – for the first time – have more energy than extroverts. Intimate events will see a significant increase in demand and mass tourism, which has disturbingly plagued many destinations for so long, will finally die.
9. Feeling of togetherness & need for higher love
We see it everywhere at the moment, people selflessly leaning in where they can. Considering the magnitude of this crisis, the joint helplessness of nations has also brought with it a feeling of togetherness: a united front. The need and appreciation for higher love from families, friends and businesses is sticky and staying with us.
Within all this gloom, it’s important to focus on the potential positive changes and opportunities around the corner to give us hope and determination in order to beat this crisis. I can’t wait to see what other things could become the new normal once COVID-19 relinquishes its grip.
Owning Game-Changing Subcategories: A Conversation with David Aaker About His 17th Book
Digital powerhouses like Airbnb, Salesforce and Dollar Shave Club demonstrate the transformative power of subcategories.
It’s been nearly 20 years since I started working with my mentor and friend David Aaker. Dave inspired me to write my first book, Brand Asset Management and my second, with my Prophet partner in crime, Michael Dunn, called Building the Brand Driven Business. Dave remains a shining light in helping all of us think of brands as true assets that cannot only unlock true accretive enterprise value but can be also leveraged as a strategic north star in helping a company reach its longer-term growth aspirations.
“To grow you need to become the exemplar brand to position, scale, and build barriers.”
David’s ability to evolve his business acumen, while grounding it into his key landmark idea – brand relevance – has made him an icon in the eyes of generations of marketers like myself. His 17th and latest book, Owning Game-Changing Subcategories: Uncommon Growth in the Digital Age, tackles brand-building amidst digital transformation – a topic that could not be more important today.
As organizations and brands face unprecedented change, opportunities and challenges (i.e. coronavirus), they must turn to digital to continue to grow. Dave and I had a (virtual) catch-up recently to learn more about his book and what marketing leaders can gain by creating “must-haves” in the digital age.
Your new book, Owning Game-Changing Subcategories: Uncommon Growth in the Digital Age, is launching in early April. Why did you pick this subject and why now?
I observed in category after category— from Japanese beers to automobiles to computers— bursts of growth were almost always explained by the formation or reframing of a subcategory created by a new or improved customer experience or brand relationship. It almost never was caused by a “my brand is better than your brand” strategy. So, I felt that there would be value in a compact book that explained why that assertion was true and how to implement a subcategory growth strategy.
Of course, digital is putting subcategory growth strategies on steroids by enabling subcategories and their exemplar brands to pop up more often and grow at incredible rates. I knew that I needed to factor in digital’s prominent role into the book’s insights as it is a true accelerator in both overall brand and the use of subcategory growth.
You dive into several real-world examples of brands that are achieving growth by creating categories of their own. What are some of your favorite brands you discuss? Why?
The first was Asahi Super Dry which immediately took 10 share points from Kirin because it defined a new subcategory with a new taste AND a young, cool personality. Then there was the Chrysler minivan, which created and owned the minivan subcategory for 15 years with no competition. Enterprise Rent-A-Car became, for decades, the exemplar and only relevant brand for a subcategory that targeted an underserved market, those with a car under repair.
My favorite brands of the digital age include Airbnb, Dollar Shave Club and SalesForce.com. Each developed a new subcategory and customer experience and then expanded and enhanced that experience over time. Each also created a persona and brand relationship that delivered energy, passion, and creativity. Airbnb inspired and enabled the owner/managers to be entrepreneurial hosts. Dollar Shave Club and SalesForce.com both burst onto the scene as a feisty underdog ready to take on the established giants with an irreverent sense of humor.
What is the biggest takeaway you hope readers gain by reading your book?
There are four takeaways.
First, real growth comes from relevant subcategory creation, not from “my brand is better than your brand” competition based upon differentiation.
Second, to grow you need to become the exemplar brand to position, scale, and build barriers. Unlike other innovation strategy books, this book recognizes the role of brand building that makes a new subcategory come to life and win the day both win the short term and over time.
Third, brand communities in the digital age are an important way for customers to become involved in the subcategory and bond with the brand and others that share a common interest and/or activity. Brand communities can be built around B2B products or even at companies with ‘commoditized’ products or services but a social program that has relevance and energy like that illustrated by Dove’s self-esteem initiatives.
Fourth, digital has put subcategory creation on steroids through the Internet of Things (IoT), e-commerce, social media and websites, and brand communities.
You wrote your first book in the seventies, now you’re about to publish your 17th book in 2020. What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen over the decades? What has remained the same?
The concept of brand equity is the same. It is brand visibility, brand associations, and the size and strength of the customer base. And the process involved in creating and building brands is much the same as well.
One change is the enhanced role of higher brand purpose, particularly social higher purposes. Employees, especially, younger ones, need motivation that raises above increasing sales and profits. And customers increasingly value a higher purpose as part of a brand relationship.
Another is the power of digital—the IoT impact on offerings, e-commerce and social media providing customer access, and brand communities all have created a more dynamic marketplace, accelerated innovation and new subcategory formation. The digital era makes it more challenging to create messaging that breaks through. One answer is to package content into stories that involve, entertain, engender emotion, intrigue etc. in order to attract attention, change perceptions and avoid counter-arguing.
How has the necessity for brands to “go digital” shaped your current perspective on topics like “brand equity”?
In my view, digital transformation has an important strategic role to play in marketing and organizational strategy. Digital can enable the creation and success of new subcategories providing strategic growth platforms that become the basis of strategic vitality and success. Too often the focus is on the tactical role of digital. Its exciting to see the way Prophet is changing to help our clients with their digital transformations.
One of your passions is brand relevance. Not only did you write the book about it, but you’ve entered it into the lexicon of marketers and executives everywhere. What does it mean to be a relevant brand in the digital age?
Being relevant means being visible and credible with respect to a subcategory. So, it is context-specific. A brand that is relevant to automobiles does not mean it is relevant to compact hybrids. Becoming the exemplar brand is critical because it is not only the one positioning, scaling and building barriers, but its status as the subcategory representative makes it the most relevant or even the only relevant brand.
In this digital age, the road to relevance almost always needs to involve digital-enabled communication to provide both visibility and credibility and a website to represent the brand message in all its multiple dimension richness. And digital enables brand communities, a loyalty driver, to thrive.
You’ve been called the “father of modern branding.” What is your personal brand?
My purpose and my brand has been to encourage organizations to manage for the long-term by building brand assets that will be the basis of their future success. That has not changed even though digital has expanded the challenge and enabled new routes to that goal. My brand also involves aspirational process elements such as research-based ideas, rigorous conceptual thinking, and humor.
While many of the principles of modern branding remain the same, digital continues to make some more powerful than ever. The right subcategories can add rocket fuel to growth strategies.
The evolving COVID-19 pandemic has thrust us all into a new, urgent reality, one that—perhaps permanently—is challenging assumptions about how we live and work. From a business perspective, the pandemic is rapidly exposing the vulnerabilities in our strategies, systems and processes, and accelerating our reliance on digital systems that scale and connect where people cannot.
In this context, digital assistants such as chatbots and voice agents have a valuable role to play. They can support business resilience and reduced operational expenses, freeing up service and support representatives to focus on higher urgency, more sophisticated customer interactions; deliver needed information and services; become a source of “voice-of-the-customer” insight; or provide a moment of humanity and helpfulness when customers need it most.
The report that follows lays out strategic and brand guidelines for designing and activating digital assistants. We hope you find it valuable as you navigate this challenging time.
Susan Etlinger & Darcy Muñoz April 8, 2020
Executive Summary
Digital assistants — whether embodied in a voice agent, a chatbot, or a combination — change the way we think about brand, from a generally static and visual experience to one that is dynamic and conversational. They unlock new strategic possibilities for customer and ecosystem engagement, and, as a result, raise questions about how brands should sound and behave in dynamic, often unpredictable situations. Finally, they compel us to address questions of brand architecture, identity, behaviors, language choices, movement, and tone in an unprecedented way.
This report, based both on independent research and direct consulting experience with global brands, addresses the opportunities of digital assistants and the conversational technologies that make them possible. We focus on conversational brand strategy, the key elements of persona development, and how to build engaging and trustworthy conversational experiences. Finally, we include a checklist to help business leaders plan for the risks and opportunities of incorporating conversational technologies into a well-considered brand strategy.
This report includes the following:
How to build a conversational brand that supports business strategy
Key elements of a conversational brand identity
Fundamentals of a trustworthy conversational experience
A checklist & assessment to guide planning efforts and gauge progress
Is your organization well-positioned to deliver strategic, on-brand and trustworthy customer experiences using digital assistants?
Colleagues share the phrases that are helping their people most in these tough times.
We are all learning to adjust to a new reality: adding new skills; making new connections; uncovering new opportunities; adapting to be more present virtually – and none of it is easy.
At Prophet, our culture is stronger than ever because our teams are stronger than ever. It can be difficult to know how to keep your teams inspired and engaged at these times, so I asked the leaders at Prophet to share their secrets to success. Here is what they are saying to their teams right now:
1. You first
You can’t take care of others if you can’t take care of yourself. Encourage your team to get the basics sorted out, take breaks and center themselves. Sometimes the best way to connect is to disconnect. Make sure they know that their well-being is paramount.
2. You are not alone
We are all in this together. Check in on everyone on a regular basis. Share online resources on new ways of working. Recognize what’s working well. Try daily stand-ups: they are a great way to actively listen, prioritize and understand what’s standing in your team’s way.
3. What we do still matters
The need for purpose does not go away, in fact, it may be more meaningful than ever. Spend some time with your team discussing your organization’s purpose. Remind each and every one of them of the key role they play in delivering on it and explore ways to refresh it in the current context.
4. Uncertainty is the new normal
Working from home is going to continue indefinitely. Be prepared for change and don’t be unnerved by it, we’re seeing a huge economic impact with revenue streams in extraordinary flux. Take the time to highlight moments where the team has successfully adapted to the unknown.
5. Patience is a virtue
Homeschooling, elderly parents, cranky roommates: you may not understand everything your teams are going through – or how much longer routine tasks take. Allow extra time to get things done. Pair teammates with similar challenges to troubleshoot.
“We are all learning to adjust to a new reality.”
6. Don’t be afraid to ask for (and give) help
Reassuring employees that they are covered on their health insurance can go a long way to reducing anxiety. Point employees to assistance programs where they can get help. And encourage teams to offer help to each other and to their community. Generosity combats anxiety.
7. Soft skills matter more than ever
We are living online, from dawn to dusk. Pierce the virtual wall by starting or finishing every conversation with something personal. How are you feeling? What’s on your mind? How can we help? Not only does this give people a sense of community, but it also teaches them new skills, which we may all be needing for a while.
8. Look for the opportunities
Your teams are close to customers. They see what competitors are doing. They have ideas on how to respond. Find the time to brainstorm on the market opportunities that are emerging from the COVID-19 crisis. It will be fun and potentially profitable.
9. Well done
Recognizing contribution and celebrating progress are essential in these tough times. We need these rays of light to shine through in what can only be classed as a less than bright period. See it as more than a pat on the back, it’s a great way to extract learnings and replicate success.
10. What do you think?
Include teams in your decision-making. If your organization needs ideas for quick wins, run a digital hackathon. If you are thinking about shifting roles and responsibilities, share a Google worksheet. If you are thinking about a workforce reduction, ask employees how they might approach it.
Some of these seem obvious. Some may be new. But they all try to answer the same question: How can we be socially connected while physically distanced? Your teams have the answer. Just ask.
Interested to learn more about how to keep your employees inspired and engaged during challenging times? Get in touch.
Five Powerful Ways Brands Can Use Their Voices Today
Companies like Target and REI are finetuning what they say–and how they say it–to make people feel safer.
Brands with strong voices can lift us out of our fears, reassure us that life will move forward and assist us as we continue to embrace major change together. More practically, brands can drive clarity around important topics, like new safety practices, inventory availability or even business closures.
A distinct brand voice helps a company elevate its message and show the world who they are and what they stand for. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the way brands use their voices to communicate with us is more salient than ever.
It feels comforting to us, as verbal branders, to notice the brands that are doing it right. The ones who have used their brand voices to connect with their audiences and express who they are in a meaningful, lasting way. We drew helpful insights by evaluating how brands reacting at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic – communicating in a way that both comforted their consumers and supported their business.
Here are Five Examples of Communication Approaches We Love
Admit to Not Having All the Answers
While brands often have the responsibility of steering the conversation in their category, it is perfectly OK to ask customers what they want to hear.
Reformation, a sustainable clothing brand, chose a direct communication style to connect with their audience, ending an update with refreshing candor. “Lastly, we’re not exactly sure what is appropriate for a company like ours to be talking and posting about right now. What’s resonating with you? Do you still want to hear about new collection launches and sustainability-related stuff…? Please let us know.” This created a refreshing moment of candor that felt on-brand for Reformation.
Restate the Brand Purpose to Frame Inspired Action
Some brands are using this time to reflect on their mission and values.
Target frames its steps to protect employees and customers by stating a core promise of the brand. Chairman and CEO of Target Brian Cornell stated, “…a commitment to help all families is at the heart of Target’s purpose. Our goal is to be here for you and keep navigating through uncertainty together – and we will do everything in our power to live up to that promise.”
“The way brands use their voices to communicate with us is more salient than ever.”
Through this lens, Target’s actions, such as designating their early hours as a sanctioned time for the elderly to shop or enacting back-up care benefits for parents and caregivers, become proof points of its enduring purpose.
Address the Emotional Impact
Many brands are well-positioned to connect with their audience about the emotional impact this hardship is having on their lives.
Zola, a wedding registry company, primarily serves engaged couples. Right now, much of their audience is scrambling to make alternate arrangements or postpone their weddings.
Zola has sent several emails to communicate plans to support their audience, including setting up a help hotline to call for advice. One message rings clear across all channels: “If your wedding has been affected, we’ll do anything we can to help”.
The intentional use of the word “anything” subtly mirrors their tagline, “anything for love,” which is displayed under the signature of every email. Here, Zola is stretching beyond a registry to be a helpful resource in a challenging time.
Encourage Community Mindfulness While Communicating Operational Changes
Retailers are uniquely challenged with making tough business decisions and communicating them in a sensitive way.
Retail and recreation company REI stood their ground as community leaders by calmly communicating the temporary closing of their stores. The brand, which is well known for their unique take on consumerism habits (most notably, their Black Friday #OptOutside initiative), framed their announcement as a thoughtful decision to protect the community, rather than their business, saying “…there are more important things than business right now—we owe that to one another.” The letter ends with, “be well and take care of one another.” It’s simple but authentic to the REI brand.
Find Moments for Thoughtful Playfulness—If It’s Authentic to Your Brand
Kin Euphorics, a non-alcoholic social tonics brand, is deeply rooted in social connection and finding enlightened, healthy ways to connect. Their brand voice has an undeniable playfulness, which they brought to life by renaming social distancing as “Solitude Scaries,” playing off the phrase “Sunday Scaries.”
This pinch of playfulness feels on brand and is a simple way to ease the intensity of the stressor and create a sense of community.
Whenever faced with hardship, brands have an opportunity to connect with their audience to reassure and comfort. This pandemic has invited us to consider the unique and powerful ways brands can wield their voice to help us feel better—and move forward.
They don’t just add to a brand’s credibility. They bring together people with shared passions and purpose.
A fifth key topic in the book Owning Game-Changing Subcategories is brand communities that are enabled or enhanced by websites and social media. A major and often overlooked contribution of digital to business strategy is brand communities—groups of people that bond because of shared interest or passion in something connected to a brand.
Consider, for example, the community experience of the buyers and sellers on Etsy. They bond with each other through crafting and homemade goods, and with Etsy and its supporting programs. The affinity is strong and lasting and provides an Etsy “must-have.”
What Brand Communities Offer
People hunger for connection and a brand community delivers. Brand communities have been around forever. The Harley Owners Group (HOG) was founded in 1983. However, digital technology has radically enhanced the power and relevance of communities, allowing the membership base to quickly expand geographically and demographically by leveraging digital tools not available to HOG members of the early ‘80s.
“People hunger for connection and a brand community delivers.”
A brand community can be offering-focused, centered around the buying and using experience. That was the case for communities formed at Salesforce.com (where members seek to improve their use of the Salesforce.com software), at LEGO (where LEGO builders interact) and at the Marriott Vacation Club (with members who live for travel and to experience the Marriott vacation options).
If a brand lacks an offering-driven following, it may develop a shared interest that fits the brand to form the locus of a community. That was the case at the Sephora Beauty Insider (which centers on skincare and beauty), Nike Run Club (work-out programs) and the Dove “self-esteem” movement (a shared passion for inner beauty). Such communities also can lead to social benefits created by the involvement of like-minded customers.
How Brand Communities Help Exemplar Brands
Brand communities help exemplar brands and their subcategories by:
Creating or enhancing a brand relationship. When an exemplar brand is involved as an active partner with an activity that is important to a customer, it provides a relationship that could not be obtained by communicating functional benefits of an offering. A person has a special affinity for others that share his or her passion, goals and activities. If the brand is associated with that interest, it too will be highly regarded. When a community helps to represent a person’s identity, its impact is magnified.
Adding energy, visibility and involvement. These are critical elements of brand-building that are difficult to achieve using conventional media and methods. Every time a person interacts with the community, the brand is rewarded with some energy and visibility, accentuated because a person initiated the interaction, not the brand.
Providing credibility to members and brand partners. For many, online communities may feel like a grouping of valued and trusted friends. As a result, the information sourced from the community is not seen as biased, phony or self-serving. Further, the brand gains credibility because it is no longer a seller but is, instead, “one of us.”
Becoming a barrier to competitors. An exemplar brand that has created a brand community that can regularly involve the customer with a shared interest often will earn a core group of customers with a high affinity toward the brand. Those customers will be hard for competitors to attract.
Sourcing new or enhanced product/service ideas and evaluating these ideas. Being involved in product/service development and refinement provides useful and timely information to the brand team and a feeling of being an active part of the community for the customers.
Brands that encourage communities grow and achieve relevance faster, uniting like-minded people around shared passion points. Whether it’s cooking, fitness or gaming, communities help people belong to something larger.
In times of uncertainty, our research probes what makes some leaders feel strong while others struggle.
37 min
As organizations face difficult choices in response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Charlene Li, author of The Disruption Mindset and senior fellow at Altimeter, a Prophet company, discusses the strategies business leaders can deploy during disruptive times in her webinar series, “Leading in Times of Crisis”. Watch the replays and access the presentation slides for the webinars “How to be a Strong Leader in Times of Crisis”, “Operating in the New Normal” and “Creating a Culture Capable of Thriving with Disruption.”
How to be a Strong Leader in Times of Crisis
Watch the webinar replay to learn about five ways to help leaders navigate these trying times. Presentation slides can be accessed here. Please feel free to share and utilize with Attribution to Altimeter.
.
Leading in Times of Crisis: Operating in the New Normal
Watch the webinar replay for insights on what leaders should do and how they can prepare for operating successfully in a post-crisis world. Slides from the webinar are available here.
.
Creating a Culture Capable of Thriving with Disruption
Watch the webinar replay to learn about the key principles a disruptive organization can deploy to create a culture of change. Webinar slides are available here for download.
.
Learn more about how Altimeter and Prophet can help you and your organization. Our offerings include:
Sustained, profitable growth is increasingly uncommon for B2B companies as they face changing market dynamics and the threat of digital disruption. This book guides B2B leaders along a step-by-step path to uncommon growth through three transformative shifts:
The Digital Selling Shift to digital demand generation
The Digital Experience Makeover to digital customer engagement
The Digital Proposition Pivot to data-powered, digital solutions
Prioritizing customers over technology is the key to success.
The current paradigm of technology-led transformation is a recipe for failure. Successful digital transformation puts technology at the service of customers.
Rich case studies from Maersk, Michelin, Adobe and Air Liquide with best practices from IBM, Salesforce.com, Johnson & Johnson, ThyssenKrupp, and scores of leading B2B companies to illustrate in this book how putting customers at the heart of digital transformation drives uncommon growth.
“This book illuminates the secret sauce of digital transformation in the B2B space: the thrust should come from customers and how digital could improve their experience and relationship with the brand.”
Dr. Lars Brzoska Chairman of the Board of Management, Jungheinrich AG
“This is a great guide to applying best practices to the formidable challenge of digital transformation in complex markets and supply chains. It provides the tools leaders need to move ahead.”
Lindy Hood Chief Customer Experience Officer, Zurich Financial North America
“By providing case examples and step by step assistance in determining where to play, how to win, what to do and who to win, this book fulfilled my need for inspiring and pragmatic transformation guidance.”
About the Authors
Fred Geyer is a senior partner at Prophet. He has helped B2B clients in the financial services, healthcare, and technology industries – including Zurich Financial, AXA, Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices, Medtronic, and Avery Dennison – undertake customer-first transformations and address the challenges of digital disruption. Fred’s prior experience as president of Crayola Canada and chief marketing officer, North America, of Electrolux Floor Care, enables him to bring a practitioner’s perspective to making digital transformation work in the real world.
Joerg Niessing is a member of the faculty at INSEAD and is a globally recognized expert and strategic advisor on digital transformation, digital strategy, customer-centricity, and data analytics. He is the program director of INSEAD’s flagship programs “B2B Marketing Strategies” and “Leading Digital Marketing Strategy.” Over the past five years, Joerg has engaged with more than 3,000 executives from a wide range of companies in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia, including Google, Kone, Roche, Maersk, Michelin, IBM, Thales, PwC, and Kion. Joerg’s prior experience as head of Prophet’s Insight and Analytics practice, along with his previous work as a marketing data scientist, inform his insights on ensuring that digital transformations are data-driven, customer-centric, and drive sustainable growth.
Connect
Want to speak to Fred about how to become more consumer-centric and implement the essential shifts needed to unlock growth? Contact us today. And if you’re a leader looking for more insights into the B2B sector then visit the B2B Digital Transformation resource hub here.
Adjusting Your Marketing Priorities: Levers You Can Pull
Targeting, messaging, content and sharper value propositions can all trigger growth.
This is a time for every organization to re-examine its priorities for the next few weeks and even the next few quarters. Your customers’ needs, your partners, your employees, the world overall. Marketers, in particular, may choose to shift messaging, spend or delay initiatives, but it doesn’t mean to stop communicating—or to stop leading. Now’s the time to find your voice, demonstrate empathy and reinforce relationships you’ve worked hard to build. This is marketing’s time, so let’s take a look at how to adjust your marketing priorities.
Every Choice Should Flow from How You Can Help
Take this time to reflect on how you can help, and then take action. Help both your customers and employees acknowledge and manage their primary fear: staying healthy and keeping loved ones safe. Support them by providing structure and ways to fill time. Encourage them to connect to one another. Provide ways to practice gratitude for those guiding us through this. And finally, help people remember we will persevere.
Tapping Your Existing Marketing Skillset
While we haven’t experienced a moment exactly like this before, through our work helping clients transform their marketing strategies we can identify at least eight levers every marketer has, and shifts one might make now:
Value Prop: Revisit what you offer and supplement with a service, incentive and channel distribution that could make a difference and be relevant in this moment. Universal shifted distribution channels, accelerating shift of in-theatre releases to online rentals.
Pricing:Sensitive to customer needs, you might cut prices, waive fees, or offer rebates. Seamless removed delivery fees, instead giving them to drivers. CreativeLive made streaming health and wellness classes free. Burger King is offering free kids meals with purchase via its app. It’s promotional, but one can argue it helps parents joyously feed their kids.
Targeting: While your plan may have had a customer acquisition posture, this might be a better time to refocus on your core: existing customers who know you and need you more than ever. Is there a special group of people or need state you can demonstratively help?
Messaging: Refresh your messaging to focus on relevance, perhaps with customer updates on what the brand (and your people) are doing during the crisis. Ford replaced national product advertising with a coronavirus-response campaign, which includes mention of payment relief.
Content: Information, entertainment and utility all can be powerful levers. How can you serve the primary need of staying healthy, while managing anxieties about finances, need for everyday supplies, and many other general uncertainties that will be with us in the coming months? Many brands are shifting their services and are offering up support in open, honest – ultimately very helpful – ways. Zola, a go-to resource for wedding planning has provided updates and resources for couples whose weddings will potentially be affected as well as set up a hotline. Is there a timely video, article series or ebook that will help solve a customer need?
Spend: Pressured for cost savings or for an inappropriate context, you may drastically cut media or sales promotion spend. What will you do with those funds? We also expect to see shifts in media buys to reaching people at home including digital display, social, direct mail, TV, and video including OTT.
Measurement: Re-evaluate what matters and what success will look like. Put raw revenue and profit in context with human costs, reputation and relationship metrics. What you do for customers and employees has the potential for amplification via media and social more than ever.
Team Organization: Is your marketing team set up for this situation? How is the relationship and coordination with corporate communications, service, sales and product? Do quick pivots need to be made? Notice any skill gaps and needs to shift roles towards better listening and faster servicing.
“Now’s the time to find your voice, demonstrate empathy and reinforce relationships you’ve worked hard to build.”
Whether you are re-evaluating your marketing across one, five, or all of the above measures, remember this is a shifting situation. It’s important to be agile yet calm. Steadfast and strategic.
If you need help prioritizing which levers to pull, and what your moves might be? We’re here to help. Drop your questions, or ideas, into the comments or reach out directly here.
Grit, empathy, generosity and fierceness–these scary times are eliciting some of humanity’s best traits.
A Letter from Prophet CEO Michael Dunn
Like many others, we at Prophet are intensely focused on the rapid rise of COVID-19. And as this virus spreads in new and unexpected ways, our first concerns are–of course–for human safety.
Our worst fears are the most intimate. We’re worried about our own health and protecting our families, especially the very old and the very young. And we’re increasingly concerned with the well-being of those in all our communities. Coworkers. Neighbors. Clients. Friends. Family at a distance.
As the days continue, many of us are facing other fears. Ones focused on financial security – the health of our businesses and the livelihoods of our teams. Many of us are trying not to voice that concern when lives are on the line. But it is there – and for those of us who guided businesses through the economic upheaval of 2008, 2001, or even the early ‘90s and ‘80s, we understand that now more than ever, it is imperative to be a strong leader to help our organizations survive, and maybe even thrive.
Leading in the face of disruption requires a mix of characteristics that are difficult to harness, even when your business is at its strongest. Grit and empathy. Agility and decisiveness. Creativity and rigor. Generosity and fierceness. We need to bring our “A” game each moment, inspiring and drawing inspiration from teams all around us. If we can, we will all find a way through this, together.
“When you find yourself drifting, draw on your strengths and lean into a growth mindset.”
For more than 20 years, we have been studying how organizations, brands and leaders source growth in the face of disruption. Growth that is purpose-led, innovative, relevant and sustaining. By leaning into our organization’s core values and capabilities, by listening hard to our customers and stakeholders and by understanding how their rapidly shifting contexts are creating new needs, we are finding better ways to serve. We are charting new paths.
We’re already starting to embrace new innovations and shifts. Special shopping hours for seniors, take-out 5-star meals, the explosion of telemedicine and distance learning, yoga streamed “live”, 3-D printing hackathons to backfill medical device shortages: these hopeful responses are unfolding all around us. Pay attention to these actions that speak to the spirit of humanity, the impact of selfless business and the power of collaborative ingenuity.
When you find yourself drifting, draw on your strengths and lean into a growth mindset. Human-centered, digitally powered, purpose-led – find your way to emerge from the Covid-19 crisis stronger and more confident than ever.
Five Ways to Be a Strong Leader in Disruptive Times
During disruption, stability and security are important. So are openness and transparency.
Like many of you, the events of the past few weeks have thrown me flat on my butt. My heart goes out to the many people who are dealing with COVID-19 in their families or have lost their jobs. And my soul grieves for the pain that is yet to come.
This past Fall, I published my latest book, The Disruption Mindset, and drawing upon that research, as well as over two decades of studying disruption, I’ve learned that disruption creates opportunities for change. That’s because when a disruption happens, our sense of normal is torn apart into pieces and thrown into the air. The people who thrive with disruption jump into the air to catch the pieces before they fall. Those who duck their heads and hope not to get hit will become the victims of disruption.
My hope is that people will leap high with courage and conviction so that they can be the disruptive leaders we so desperately need in the coming days. Anybody can be a leader because it doesn’t require a title. Rather, a leader is simply someone who sees the opportunity for change and takes action to rally people to that cause.
I want to share five ways you can be the best leader possible in these trying times.
Develop a disruption mindset
Establish stability and security with structure and process
Use openness and transparency to create accountability
Communicate in 3D to nurture relationships
Identify opportunities for the future
1. Develop a Disruption Mindset
Let’s be honest, it’s hard to know where to head with such chaos going on. Personally, I feel whipsawed between dealing with family issues to answering text messages from clients and team members. It’s hard to focus your efforts on things that really matter and effectively manage the noise.
In researching The Disruption Mindset, I surveyed over 1,000 leaders globally and found that an individual most able to thrive with disruption possess a mindset that is both open to change and embodies the leadership behaviors that empower and inspire others. These disruptive leaders are called “Realist Optimists” in that they see the opportunity being created but are realistic about what actions need to be taken today.
At this point, you may have already had to make some tough decisions with your organization just to get through the past week. You likely won’t know the answers as your team asks, “What do we do now?”.
But it’s not your job to have all the answers. Your job as a leader is to ask the right questions – to focus your team on the work to be done. Your job as a leader is to connect with other leaders in your network to fill in the gaps of your knowledge and experience. Your job as a leader is to keep the process moving forward so that together you all find the path forward.
Use this as an opportunity to change your perspective of what it means to lead an organization. Last August, the Business Roundtable redefined the purpose of a corporation from being solely around increasing the value to shareholders to also creating value for customers, employees, suppliers and the community. I can’t think of a better time than now to create new frameworks, metrics and best practices around what this looks like.
Being a disruptive leader requires that you have the courage and conviction to step out of your comfort zone. Courage is when you don’t know what the outcome is going to be, yet you still move forward into that uncertainty. We need courageous, disruptive leaders in these crazy times.
2. Establish Stability and Security with Structure and Process
This new normal requires new norms, especially for leaders now working with suddenly distributed teams. For example, distributed teams communicate, connect and form relationships in vastly different ways from in-person teams. Simply transferring your office protocols isn’t going to work. In a time of crisis, more information sharing is needed.
When you can no longer manage by walking around, you will need to substitute it with daily standups and weekly check-ins. Formalizing what was previously informally done creates a structure and process that will benefit your business because it ensures that everyone is aligned around your strategic goals.
Given the current crisis, traditional meetings may not make sense when people are juggling childcare and working from home. One leader I spoke with made it clear that having a toddler in a lap or a cat walking across a desk was completely acceptable given the circumstances.
Another organization decided to do away with scheduled meetings because it was too stressful for parents to make sure that they were available for a specific time. Instead, they used digital platforms to gather, organize and make decisions in an asynchronous manner. As needed, team members held unscheduled chats or posted feedback over a set time period (typically 24 hours) to move decisions forward.
Lastly, decide on the tools that you are going to use to get work done. RingCentral found that many workers waste up to an hour a day navigating between enterprise apps; so minimize the number of apps that you use. One important process to define is how people will message each other – will it be by email or another platform like Slack or Teams or WhatsApp? Designate one messaging platform that you will use, one place to share documents and one collaborative project management e tool.
You will need to develop your own protocols that work for your organization. The key is to be very clear on how work is going to be done so that you remove uncertainty and confusion.
Use this disruptive time as an opportunity to build agility, flexibility and accountability into your culture and work habits. Make disruption work in your favor as you create stability and security out of new practices and beliefs.
3. Use Openness and Transparency To Create Accountability
To build trust with both your customers and employees, it is important to have one single source of truth that is known by all. Take the time to lay out how you will share information and decisions in a transparent way.
“You will need to develop your own protocols that work for your organization. The key is to be very clear on how work is going to be done so that you remove uncertainty and confusion.”
One leader I spoke with realized that only the leadership team had access to key company data on their collaboration platform, but that the team would benefit from seeing and using it. Except for a small amount of confidential information, they made everything accessible to the entire organization. Openness in information sharing ensures that everyone knows what is going on, giving them the security to be able to make decisions quickly.
To that end, encourage people to share information and decisions in the open. If you can’t physically see each other getting work done, then you need to tell each other what you are working on. Transparency creates trust, security and stability.
4. Communicate In 3D To Nurture Relationships
By all means, over-communicate in a time of crisis. Nokia Chairman, who guided the company through the sale of their handset business and its pivot into an Internet communications telecom giant, said, “No news is bad news. The bad news is good news. Good news is no news.” Rather than dribble out bad news slowly, deliver it with compassion and empathy as soon as you can. It’s far worse imagining the bad news than to receive it and then be able to take the necessary next steps.
Communicate in “3D,” using every channel available – email, video recordings, Slack, social media and Teams and WhatsApp. It also means using video to make calls. There’s nothing like being able to see each other to develop that connection, rather than a disembodied voice on the phone. Video also creates accountability – you can confirm that the other person is present and focused on the conversation and with you.
Another dimension is looking at communications from the perspective of being “Remote First.” Instead of thinking of remote as a second-best alternative to being face to face, think of it as the default going forward. Even when you go back to your office, keep the processes that work for distributed workers so that it makes sense for both modalities.
Lastly, your communications must also establish a new culture for this new normal. Without the serendipity of running into someone in the lunchroom, you will need to engineer serendipity by designating areas where people are encouraged to share and discuss non-work topics. From sharing pictures of their work area at home to jokes and memes, invest in this connective social tissue to help your team connect and continue to build their relationships. It’s these casual encounters that build trust.
5. Identify Opportunities for The Future
The final area is thinking about future opportunities. My research found that disruptive leaders and their organizations do one thing extremely well: they focus on the needs of their future customers. This is truer than ever in these disruptive times. It may be tempting to go back to existing customers and try to coax them to come back to you. But just as importantly, you must think about where new customers with emerging needs are going to be.
As an example, here’s a figure that maps the U.S. GDP growth rate over the last five years. You can see that times of recession and crisis resulted in great creativity and innovation. Microsoft was founded in the midst of the oil crisis of the 70s. Apple launched the iPod in 2001 after the dot.com bust. And Airbnb and Uber were founded in the depths of the last recession in 2008 and 2009, respectively.
Disruption today is creating a need not just for innovation, but also for ingenuity. The need hasn’t gone away with the shuttering of businesses – it’s instead shifted and if you can shift with the need, you can fill the gap.
Multiple examples of ingenuity have surfaced in the past few days. For example, some closed schools rerouted school buses to deliver meals to home-bound kids. In Ireland, small business AMI refurbished high-quality laptops from companies to meet a demand to rent or buy laptops for working from home employees. And my personal favorite is seeing trainers and yoga instructors bringing their clients together on Zoom calls – it’s gratifying to see my fellow class members also struggling to catch their breath!
As a leader, you can find the next disruption opportunity by aligning yourself and your entire team around understanding the needs of the emerging customer. Instead of asking, “What can I do?”, ask instead, “How can I best serve?”
Here are three ways to better identify and understand your future customer. First, use empathy maps to better understand how these people feel, what they say, what they think and what they do (below is an example empathy map from my book). Deepen your understanding of how they approach a problem or situation.
Second, create a Customer Advisory Board (CAB). It can provide you with insight and feedback on what you are doing well and how you could serve their needs better. Don’t stack your CAB with your biggest and best current customers. Instead, find the customers who push you to do things in a different way. Ask your sales and customer services teams who the most insightful customers are – the ones who challenge the way your company works. These customers will hold you to a higher standard.
A strong CAB will push you further and faster than anything you can come up with. Having concrete examples of what future customers want is a powerful antidote to stuck-in-today thinking.
Lastly, find your customer-obsessed people. Seek out the people in your organization who are already naturally inclined to think about your customers. You likely already know who they are. They walk in customers’ shoes and intuitively understand their pain points. When you find these customer-obsessed people, give them the social proof that their opinions, not only matter but are being heard and are making a difference.
For example, one organization routinely highlights call center staff at monthly team meetings who have not only surfaced a problem from a service call but also taken the initiative to push through a change in product or policy. Recognizing the advocacy that addresses a customer’s needs turns that person into a hero to be emulated, encouraging others to surface the voices of customers.
Every Step Is the First Step on The Disruption Journey
I wish I could promise that the journey ahead is smooth sailing. It’s going to be anything but. That’s what disruption is – it forces us out of our comfort zone and makes us come face to face with our biggest doubts and fears. But if you can look past them to the opportunities to serve created by disruption, you and your team will have a focus that will steady your hand.
Today, you can decide to take the first step on the disruption path. And given the difficulties, every step will feel like the first step all over again. But trust and believe that you are on the journey, which will be so much better than staying mired in the past.
A Perspective on Adapting to the New Normal of COVID-19
How flexibility, self-care and thinking like a first-grader are helping us find our way.
If you’ve listened to global news channels these past few days, you’ve likely heard the word “unprecedented” more than you can count. In Asia, we’ve been hearing similar language for over eight weeks as the COVID-19 outbreak took shape in our region. I fully realize that everyone’s personal and professional situations are unique, but I hope that there might be a nugget or two from my experience that will be helpful as people around the world begin to navigate this unprecedented crisis for the first time.
Here’s some advice for navigating COVID-19:
Stay connected
One of the most important things about working is the opportunity to build personal connections with like-minded individuals. Never underestimate the importance of the small casual interactions that happen in the office every day. It is not easy to fully replicate the in-person experience while working remotely; however, there are several tools and resources – Zoom, WeChat, Whatsapp—that can help you stay connected. Do not only use these tools to carry out “business as usual,” use video capabilities to check in with your colleagues on a personal level. This situation is new for everyone and everyone’s personal situation is different, so a quick call to ask, “How are you doing today?” goes a long way in someone’s day. In the end, we will get through this situation better together than on our own.
Be flexible
Flexibility is obviously very relevant for us as individuals as we learn how to adapt to a remote working environment, but it is even more important in the context of working together. Understanding that everyone’s situation is a little bit different and showing a willingness to flex your own schedule to accommodate your colleagues and clients will make it easier for everyone on your team to survive, and even thrive, in this new normal situation.
“We will get through this situation better together than on our own.”
Lean into the unfamiliar
Every day you will be faced with new challenges about how to conduct your work while needing to be physically separate. Our teams at Prophet have been able to conduct virtual whiteboarding sessions and hold fun and interactive weekly all-hands meetings and social experiences. All of this came from the team’s willingness to embrace the unfamiliar and apply our best creative thinking to designing a new way forward.
Add your home duties to your schedule
When we are at work, we are all controlled by our meetings calendar. At home, you will need to balance multiple demands – whether it be your children at home from school closings and roommates working in close quarters. Schools in Hong Kong have been closed since the last week of January and all of us with kids have needed to juggle new home-schooling duties alongside our regular work. In my family, I was responsible for the home-schooling duties of our 6-year-old son. What worked best for me was scheduling time for my “second job” into my day. Every day from 3-5:30 p.m. I would pause my work to teach Reading, Writing and Math. Did that mean that some of my work was pushed into the evening? Yes. Did this experience bring me even closer to my son? Definitely! Do I have a newfound appreciation for Grade 1 teachers? ABSOLUTELY!
Take time to recharge yourself
There is no denying that what we are all experiencing is stressful so don’t forget to take care of your own well-being. You may even find it helpful to add some time to take care of your personal health during the day, especially if you are trying to work from home while your kids are off from school.
While working remotely and from home will feel strange and unfamiliar for a week or two, it will soon become more familiar. Business professionals around the world will come out of this situation with new skills and a new appreciation for one another.
