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How Financial Services Brands Can Become Relentlessly Relevant

Prophet has released its latest Prophet Brand Relevance Index ® and it’s clear that banks, insurers and other financial services firms need to do more to energize their brands. This has been true for large and traditional financial services brands for several years running, though newer digital-native brands and fintechs have gained traction quickly, both in the market and the Brand Relevance Index.

At a high level, it’s clear that consumers are increasingly willing to give new and emerging brands a chance and will reward those that offer compelling value or a winning experience. In some cases, the edge comes from building a better mousetrap (e.g., easier payment transactions); in others, it’s more about articulating clear values and attracting people who share them.

For this year’s study, Prophet’s BRI team updated the methodology with more detailed questions about how consumers engage with brands emotionally (the heart) or intellectually (the head). Not surprisingly, financial services brands rate more highly in the latter category, particularly in areas like dependability, consistency and filling important needs. The best brands, however, are capable of connecting through both the head and heart, which is how they become brands consumers can’t live without.

Looking at our rankings, we can identify what differentiates the top brands across all sectors and how financial services firms might bolster their brands and become relentlessly relevant.

Top Ranked Financial Services Brands Showcased Two Things

1) A Clear Purpose That Creates Relevance and Passion

USAA, the top-ranked financial services brand in our index at #10, might show the way forward for financial services firms. It has a clearly articulated purpose and mission and a strong customer-centric orientation. Put simply, USAA knows its job and whom it serves. That clarity results in stronger emotional connections with customers, as evidenced by USAA’s top heart score among financial services brands. Online bank Ally (#87) also communicates a notably customer-centric value prop in its marketing efforts, which helps explain its relatively high heart rankings for the category.

Once an organization has made clear what it is and who it’s for, it can reorient the customer experience with a laser focus on customer needs, as well as align the organization around the vision. Our latest research into customer-centricity shows what success looks like for banks and other financial institutions and some recommendations for how they can achieve it.

2) A Sharp Focus and Frictionless Experiences

Among our top 10 brands, Peloton (#2), Spotify (#3) and PlayStation (#7) all have well-defined value propositions and deliver people exactly what they want again and again. Within financial services, highly focused and easy-to-use apps – such as Afterpay (#11), Zelle (#39), CashApp (#52) and PayPal (#56) – that do one thing (or just a few things) very well far outrank financial supermarkets. The same is true for TurboTax (#46), digital insurer Lemonade (#100) and trading app Robinhood (#107).

These brands are relevant because customers know the value they receive for engaging. Highly effective – even elegant – experiences that remove friction from core transactions are also part of the success equation. For these brands to continue growing, they must retain the focus even as they add more services.

Afterpay and Robinhood are very much “of the moment” brands, so it will be interesting to see how their relevance rises or falls in future surveys. For traditional firms to compete more effectively against these “less is more” experiences, they need to ensure their transformation investments are aligned to innovation and growth.

All Head, More Heart

Consumers understand the usefulness of and need for financial services firms. They provide vital services that are indispensable to the daily lives (not to mention the long-term plans) of countless people and businesses worldwide. But they are, for the most part, not very inspiring and rarely make emotional connections with consumers.

“There’s a real opportunity for banks, insurers and investment firms to meet people where they are emotionally.”

After two years of widespread financial uncertainty and with more consumers looking to boost their financial confidence, there’s a real opportunity for banks, insurers and investment firms to meet people where they are emotionally. Insurers that have offered premium holidays and discounted rates for people driving less are on the right track. So too are banks looking to lead on sustainable finance and “greening” the economy, provided their commitments are backed up with meaningful action. Financial services brands that can show some emotion and empathy and demonstrate their human values will have the best chance to increase their relevance.

For newer financial services players, the growth challenge starts with retaining customers and expanding their offerings once they’ve reached a critical mass. How far will inspiring brands take them if they can’t master the practical, “head” side of customer relationships?

More established brands should look for ways to emulate the energy of their newer competitors, injecting some emotion into their customer relationships. At the same time, they should seek to refine their operations to achieve the optimal balance of head and heart.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s safe to say that uncommon growth – the type of growth that is purposeful, transformational and sustainable over time – in financial services won’t be possible without increasing brand relevance. Consider how banking, insurance and investment brands increasingly compete with companies from outside the sector, including many that are absolute masters at brand relevance. The top-ranked brand in our study this year was Apple – a technology company that has become a leading player in mobile payments and has an expanding pool of customers for the Apple Card. Their presence makes brand relevance a strategic imperative for incumbent financial services companies.

These are just a sampling of our findings. To see where your brand ranked, you can find the full 2022 Prophet Brand Relevance Index ® here.

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How Relevant Brands Capture the Head and Heart of Chinese Consumers

In Prophet’s seventh Brand Relevance Index®, we once again explored the powerful way that brand relevance drives impactful, profitable growth. As the world continues to shift and settle into the “new normal,” brands are breaking through to connect with us on a more human level. This year, our analysis found that successful brands are evolving, building relevance with consumers by appealing to the head and the heart.

As we revealed the top 50 most relevant brands in the U.S., we asked our colleagues in Shanghai to share their perspectives on what some of China’s most relevant brands are. Here are their thoughts on which brands stand out.

HEAD: Redefining the Everyday

Manner Coffee

“Manner Coffee truly democratizes coffee for the average Chinese consumer in a way that no other brand has. Manner connects to the head through ruthless pragmatism and pervasive innovation. Its price point of 15 RMB for a hot latte is less than half of one at Starbucks, yet it maintains high standards for the quality of its beans and its baristas. Its menu is constantly updating with seasonal drinks and limited-edition collaborations. Manner also holds a unique perspective on what a coffee shop should look like. Beyond office buildings and subway entrances, Manner is also integrated into the fabric of the city, with locations in theaters and fresh markets alike, turning it into a simple yet classic component of life.”

Tom Zhang, Associate Partner

Wuling Hongguang Mini EV

“Wuling Hongguang Mini EV is a micro-sized, four-seater electric car that debuted in 2020 and has since become the best-selling electric vehicle in China. The EV offers a convenient yet affordable option for daily transportation in China’s dense urban areas. Its advantageous size makes it easy to navigate, park and charge – perfect for dropping kids off at school, stopping by the grocery store and commuting to work. Also, Wuling continues to launch new models such as a convertible version and customizable options. The competition from traditional players is fierce though, and Wuling must go beyond being solely a pragmatic choice and define what it stands for as a brand in order to achieve relentless relevance with consumers.”

Charlotte Zhang, Marketing Manager, Asia

HEAD: Reinforcing Promises with Performance

Bananain

“The innerwear category has exploded in China in the past few years, with several new players taking on traditional industry leaders, and Bananain is at the forefront. Bananain leaps ahead by positioning itself as a technology company built on patented somatosensory technology (e.g., Tagless, Zerotouch, Airwarm) rather than simply an innerwear brand. This technology-led approach is deeply integrated into their growth strategy and design process, allowing their products to deliver on the functional benefits they promise. With the belief that people should ‘focus on the inside,’ Bananain exists to ‘raise the baseline’ and elevate the standards for self-care.”

Baron Zhang, Senior Associate

HEART: Creating Magical Escapes

VETRESKA

“With hundreds of new, local brands entering the pet industry, VETRESKA has identified a unique formula for success: Viewing pets as their owners do, as family members. This strategy worked especially well with the rapidly growing segment of young, female pet owners who have rising disposable incomes and a discerning eye for quality and design. With backgrounds in fashion, VETRESKA’s cofounders have gone beyond typical pet products to create a shared fantasyland for pets and humans alike. As a mom of two cats myself, VETRESKA allows me to provide the best for my pets and brings us closer together.”

Flora Wang, Engagement Manager

Songtsam

“With borders closed and international travel restricted during the pandemic area, Chinese travelers are rediscovering domestic destinations and seeking out best-in-class experiences. Songtsam is a boutique luxury hotel group in the remote Yunnan and Tibetan areas of China, providing access to what were once hard to get to destinations. Songtsam connects intimately with the hearts of the guests who stay there. The brand offers  a both undeniably indulgent and deeply reflective experience inspired by nature and the local culture, with a staff that is over 90% Tibetan.”

Tracy Xu, Senior Associate

næra Hotel

“næra Hotel is similarly creating an immersive and escapist experience, located closer to Shanghai. The hotel integrates local Jiangnan cultural elements in its design but also combines modern aspects, exhibiting the artwork of 35 local and foreign artists. In addition, næra’s experience is anchored in its nearby 3,000-acre organic farm, which supplies produce for its restaurants and allows interested guests to pick their own vegetables. Songtsam and næra represent a new breed of boutique hotels in China that are elevating the standards for domestic travel.”

Will Chiang, Associate

HEART: Enabling Shareable Experiences

Holiland

“Holiland, a traditional Chinese bakery chain, turns 30 this year. It recognized the need to keep up with new market trends in order to surprise and delight customers and stay relevant. It aimed to be seen as not only reliable but distinctive as well. To do so, Holiland collaborated with many in- and out-of-category brands – including Toblerone, Diantaixiang Hot Pot and UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, to launch new and unexpected products. The brand also refreshed its visual identity and retail concepts, creating sleek, futuristic retail concepts that invite young consumers to come together to socialize and snap photos with friends.”

Yang Yu, Associate

MOBI GARDEN

“MOBI GARDEN is at the forefront of the new camping craze that has swept China. Originating as an OEM for foreign high-end brands, MOBI GARDEN combined its deep industry expertise and production capabilities with a unique understanding of the domestic market. This insight was key in their offerings of high-performance, cost-effective products that deliver safety and comfort as well as a premium “glamping” experience. The brand also recognized the need to position “glamping” as a lifestyle, creating shareable content while engaging with consumers through social media channels such as Douyin (TikTok) and RED. By making the outdoors more accessible and shareable, MOBI GARDEN offers a new form of social currency for China’s rising middle class.”

Shirley Liu, Finance Lead; Lily Xu, Talent Lead; Wynee Zhang, Executive Assistant

RELENTLESSLY RELEVANT: Elevating Modern Living

Swire Properties (Taikoo)

“Swire Properties, under the Taikoo brand in China, is redefining what urban life in China looks like. In an industry that is known to be stale, Swire creatively transforms urban space, community and culture through adaptive reuse, innovative retail concepts, and hyper-localized experiences. Its newest project in Shanghai, Taikoo Li Qiantan, features an open-plan and lane-driven architectural design that appeals to the head and unique experiences centered on wellness that appeal to the heart. The stores featured are a mix of well-known brands, rotating pop-ups and pioneering concepts such as Starbuck’s first Greener Store Lab in Asia. As a native Shanghainese, I can see this project putting the new Qiantan area on the map in a way that few other developers could.”

Joey Zhang, Associate

RELENTLESSLY RELEVANT: Inspiring Through Technology

Tesla

“Chinese consumers, once known for flaunting brand names and logos, are increasingly choosing brands that reflect their own perspectives and values, and Tesla embodies just this spirit. Tesla’s industry-leading technology fuels a mission that goes beyond itself or even cars in general – ‘to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.’ Elon Musk himself is a big part of the brand as well, speaking his mind and sometimes taking a stance that is at odds with other western brands and media. This characteristic appeals to Chinese consumers greatly. When he tweeted a cryptic, ancient Chinese poem in November 2021, the topic went viral on Chinese social media platforms as netizens praised his cultural knowledge and raced to decipher its meaning.”

Sean Hong, Senior Associate

RED

“When I think about brands I cannot live without, RED is at the top of the list. The social media platform allows me to experience life from new perspectives, places, interests and people, whether I’m on the go or in my daily living. On RED, I’m constantly inspired by users around me. It is not just following the latest trends, it is where trends are created. When I want to know something, I no longer use Baidu or Google. Rather, I turn to RED to get a more personal, unique perspective from influencers I trust. RED is also keeping up with the latest in tech innovation, launching its own NFT platform, R-SPACE, late last year where users can directly purchase NFTs within the app.”

Chuck Deng, Senior Associate

“Successful brands are evolving, building relevance with consumers by appealing to the head and the heart.”

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FINAL THOUGHTS

As marketers and consumers, we’re constantly intrigued by the way brands, old or new, continue to stay relevant in the ever-evolving China market. But we are even more impressed by the holistic way they can connect with our heads and speak to our hearts. From elevating our daily lives to creating fantastical escapes, relentlessly relevant brands have the ability to surprise, delight and deliver unforgettable experiences.

To learn more about our research, including how to assess, create and maintain brand relevance, download our 2022 Brand Relevance Index®.

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How Effective Go-To-Market Strategies Unleash Brand-Demand Love

The third post in a series about integrating brand and demand marketing capabilities to win in a complex and dynamic landscape.

We think it’s time for brand and demand to fall in love. After all, they’ve long been attracted to each other’s strengths and can shore up the other’s shortcomings. When brand and demand build a strong, sustainable and mutually satisfying relationship of equals it lays a foundation for increased brand relevance and ultimately leads to uncommon growth.

Like the best marriages and strongest teams, a commitment defines what is possible. Bringing complementary skills together leads to greater mutual success. In talking to senior marketing executives, we heard passionate interest in unifying marketing at every level and taking an integrated, agile and data-driven approach.

If one were to equate a relationship’s declaration of commitment to a declaration of commitment between brand and demand marketing organizations, one may reference a marketing go-to-market (GTM) strategy. An effective GTM strategy provides strategic guidance for achieving an organization’s performance goals across key channels and disciplines. Despite the importance of this guidance, marketing organizations continue to face challenges in developing an integrated GTM strategy across their brand and demand teams, leading to misaligned activation plans which ultimately impact the efficacy of campaign efforts.

The Prophet-developed framework described below highlights the key components of effective go-to-market strategies that powerfully combine the best of brand and demand. They are important because achieving the appropriate brand-demand balance is a constantly moving target, meaning GTM strategies must be designed for flexibility and ongoing adjustment.

Key aspects of the CMO agenda – from audience strategy to creative and content – are central inputs to designing an effective brand and demand capability. Indeed, they are the vows by which brand and demand teams can build solid and successful relationships.

Marketing GTM Strategy Framework

There are six key areas to address as part of an integrated go-to-market strategy, each with its own set of requirements and implications for execution.

Brand Strategy: Brand Position, Architecture, Key Messages, Voice and Expression

The brand strategy forms the core of the brand identity and should manifest itself clearly and consistently across brand and demand campaign initiatives.

Audience Value Propositions: How to Win with Your Audiences

Audience value propositions describe the reasons audiences should have an interest in your brand, product or service.

Customer Data and Insights: What You Need to Know About Your Audiences

The successful utilization of customer information provides insights into their behavior and opportunities to convert across channels. Both brand and demand campaigns generate key customer insights which can be used to improve all campaigns (for example high-performing digital placements on the sports-oriented websites may provide a rationale for purchasing TV ads on sports networks and programming). Establish a pipeline for sharing customer data and insights between teams.

Pricing and Distribution: How and Where Audiences Will Find Brand, Product or Service

Understanding how customers can acquire your product or service, including the cost associated with that acquisition, is a key consideration. While demand channels can provide a direct path to conversion, the impact of brand channels shouldn’t be ignored.

Creative, Content and Channel: Content and Experiences Will Attract and Convert Audiences

Creative and content contain the messaging and imagery that will connect audiences to your brand, product or service. While creative formats vary across brand and demand channels, a holistic analysis of creative performance provides opportunities for greater insights and improved content creation.

Media & Channel Communications: How, Where and When You Will Find and Engage Audiences

The touchpoints by which a customer can be reached and converted are important facets of any GTM strategy. An integrated model requires a mutual understanding of media campaign strategy and channel selection.

When developing a go-to-market strategy, it’s crucial to understand the implications for both brand and demand marketing teams. While each team is responsible for the successful deployment of campaign efforts against their respective channels, their measure of success should align against the overarching goals of the organizations as set forth by the GTM strategy. Organizations should avoid us vs. them mentality when crafting their organization and recommendations but instead account for the holistic impact of their recommendations against an aligned, cohesive goal for the organization at large.

Again, there is no set formula for effective brand-demand integration. Even if there was, it would fluctuate based on multiple market variables. That’s why these strategic principles are so powerful ­– they keep marketers pointed toward the “north stars” of business strategy and organizational purpose while enabling the necessary recalibration of campaigns, budget allocations and other levers that produce strong outcomes.

In our next post, we’ll look more closely at the financial and pocketbook implications of brand-demand love. Specifically, we’ll examine how:

  • To define shared goals
  • Set an investment agenda
  • Define smarter metrics for allocating budgets and tracking performance
  • Highlight how brand and demand can stop fighting about money

The new research report, “Brand and Demand: A Love Story” is here! Learn how today’s Brand and Demand Generation leaders are bringing their functions together to drive greater impact.
Download today!

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Understanding where brand and demand might have shared foundational components, from brand strategy to creative and content distribution, can create shared value across marketing objectives and enable greater agility between brand and demand goals. This sort of synergistic and complementary relationship is what we mean when we talk about brand-demand love.

Get in touch today if you’d like to learn how to develop effective go-to-market strategies to unleash your company’s “Brand-Demand Love”.

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Webinar Replay: The 2022 Prophet Brand Relevance Index

Our research uncovers a new pattern of relevance, with brands appealing directly to the head and the heart

51 min

Prophet’s brand experts join executives from Sony and Teladoc Health to share the results of and discuss the most relevant brands in the seventh annual Prophet Brand Relevance Index® (BRI).

In this year’s Index, we asked more than 13,500 U.S. consumers about what brands are most relevant to their lives. Watch the webinar for insights on more than 293 brands across 27 categories.

Key Takeaways

  • A new pattern of relevance emerged. Brands are finding new and unforgettable ways to deliver experiences in the new normal by connecting to us as humans – appealing directly to the head and the heart.
  • Brand relevance = growth. The top 50 brands saw 133% more growth than the S&P 500.
  • How are top-ranked brands are winning with consumers? See which trends – from tapping into authentic expression to enabling self-care – consumers say they can’t imagine living without.

Panelists

The Prophet BRI serves as a roadmap for building relevance with consumers, the type of relevance that leads to business growth. Contact our team to learn how to apply the insights from the 2022 Index to your organization.

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Get Ahead in the Great Reprioritization

The best employer brands appeal to the heart and the head, with a clear purpose and distinct values.

For years, the workforce has accepted the dichotomy known as “work/life balance”: A fiction that these were two separate domains, compartmentalized from one another. Over the past two years, this illusion has been shattered. The pandemic collapsed domains of work, family, school, relaxation and wellness into a single reality. Knowledge workers were no longer able to easily compartmentalize their feelings about their work environments when there was no longer a physical separation for them to draw an imaginary line.  

Naturally, something had to give. For front-line “essential” workers, it was jobs that didn’t pay enough to compensate for the risk they assumed. For knowledge workers, it was employers who were inflexible; who were misaligned with their personal beliefs or values; or whose purpose no longer felt meaningful enough. Subsequently, large portions of the workforce recognized the illusion of work/life balance for what it was. And they recognized the truth hiding behind it: It’s ALL life. 

With that newfound clarity, a collective re-prioritization has been shifting the relationship and expectations people have with their jobs and their life. This has been variously named the Great Resignation, the Great Retirement and, perhaps most accurately in our view, the Great Reprioritization. Because in the end, that’s what is happening. The workforce is re-examining their priorities in relation to work and to employers. Now more than ever, there is a deep need to integrate personal values into the professional aspects of one’s life. But what is it that employees want?  

“We find that relentlessly relevant brands appeal to consumers simultaneously in the head and the heart—these brands, their products and experiences are pragmatic and innovative, personal and inspired.”

Prophet’s 2022 Brand Relevance Index® (BRI) and annual Organization & Culture research series, Catalysts, reveal a compelling story at the intersection of consumer brands and employee experiences. We find that relentlessly relevant brands appeal to consumers simultaneously in the head and the heart—these brands, their products and experiences are pragmatic and innovative, personal and inspired.  

We also find that the best employer brands are those that appeal to the heart and the head. These are organizations that have a clear purpose and values, and the ways of working, operating model, and training help employees accomplish their personal purposes. And it is the organizations appealing to employees’ hearts and heads that are coming out ahead in the face of the Great Reprioritization.  

The Head, Heart and Human-Centered Transformation Model™   

At Prophet, we describe the organization as a macrocosm of the individual. Its DNA includes its brand purpose and values; its Mind is comprised of its talent; its Body is the operating model that creates value; and its Soul arises out of the mindsets, behaviors, stories and symbols that generate belief in its DNA. Whether you wish to forge a heart or a head brand, you must think holistically about how best to align your firm’s DNA, Body, Mind and Soul to achieve the desired outcome. The greater the misalignments, the more room for a competitor to win and you to lose your customers…and your talent. 

Take USAA, for example, a Top 10 brand in this year’s BRI. USAA has relative strengths in the heart and head—namely in trust and dependability, meeting an important need and upholding beliefs and values that align with those of its consumers. In looking through the lens of Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model™ we see USAA appeals to the heart and head by aligning the core elements of the organization.  

DNA 

For 99 years, USAA has been singularly focused on helping military families build financial security. Many employees seek out working for USAA to fulfill their desire to serve those who have served. Across sources such as Glassdoor, Indeed and Niche, employees remark how the company mission permeates operations and that employees are well taken care of “to encourage them to do the same for members.” As a result, 82% of employees at USAA say it is a great place to work compared to 57% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company according to Great Place to Work. 

Mind   

USAA has been a leader in digital member experience and was able to leverage such capabilities to keep members and employees safe throughout the pandemic. While doing so it also improved the efficacy of training. One example of this is USAA’s piloting the use of augmented reality-enabled glasses with field adjusters. This technology allows adjusters’ managers to see the damage without physically being present, thus eliminating dozens of hours of travel time for adjusters and enabling more efficient, practical training for new employees.  

More widely known might be the extensive and immersive training USAA employees go through which covers not only the fundamentals of their position but also helps employees understand the military culture. Prior to the pandemic, employees embarked on a boot camp-like training that simulates challenges military personnel experience regularly—such as eating meals-ready-to-eat (MREs) for lunch. The training is intended to give employees a better understanding of members’ perspectives and help them deliver more empathetic and effective service on the job. 

Body  

USAA has famously realigned the customer-facing components of the organization intuitively along the journey of its members. This effectively reduced the complexity and distraction of the full product portfolio to ensure that members are exposed to the products and bundles most relevant to their immediate needs.  

Internally, USAA is committed to leveraging technology to free up capacity for employees so they’re able to focus on service, not paperwork. For instance, USAA has deployed machine learning to digitize paper medical records and create materials for life insurance underwriting. The previous manual approach could take up to five days, whereas machine learning has reduced the time to just one day and has improved accuracy and capacity.  

Soul  

USAA’s commitment to immersing employees in the member experience is also embedded in the mindsets, behaviors, stories and rituals of the organization. One particular ritual is referred to as a “Mission Moment.” At the start of a meeting, an employee will share a story about a member. This story can be anything from their background, service, or interaction with USAA in moments that mattered along their journey. This seemingly simple story frames the rest of the meeting in a more member-centric mindset.  

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FINAL THOUGHTS

More than ever, organizations need to understand what matters to consumers and employees in order to create experiences, products/services and jobs that appeal to and satisfy the head and the heart of their respective audiences. And doing so authentically will require a holistic approach across the core components of an organization’s ecosystem. So, what are you waiting for? 

Are you interested in better aligning the core elements of your organization to be more authentic for both your consumers and employees? Our brand and culture experts can help, reach out today and hear how we are helping clients just like you. 

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2022’s Relevance Report: What Brands Can Learn From Apple, Peloton, Spotify and Bose

This year’s index uncovers important shifts, including a need for self-care, DIY swagger and a little escapism.

Prophet just released the 2022 Brand Relevance Index® (BRI), and boy, has it changed the way we look at the constellation of brands that dominate our culture. Of course, relevance is always a moving target. But this year’s BRI–our seventh–proves how quickly brands can gain and lose favor. As we sifted through the latest findings, a new pattern of relevance emerged. The best brands are increasingly finding success in our new normal by the way they connect with us as humans.

Some go straight for the heart, resonating with us emotionally. Others appeal to the head, drawing us in with practical benefits. And an elite few do both. These relentlessly relevant all-stars take the top three spaces in our Index this year, led by Apple, coming in #1 for the seventh straight time. Peloton ranks #2, followed by Spotify at #3. While Peloton and Spotify have been in the news recently for a number of reasons, it’s clear that loyal consumers continue to stand by their favorite brands. Bose and Android come next, with Instant Pot, PlayStation, Fitbit, TED and USAA rounding out the top 10.

Certainly, many brands gained influence in our lives because of pandemic-related changes, as U.S. consumers continue to find new ways of working and learning. An astonishing 23 of the top 25, for instance, are brands primarily used in the home (Don’t worry, there are also encouraging signs that we’re headed out of hibernation, with travel and hospitality brands perking up nicely).

Our research is based on the same foundations we’ve used since we started dissecting relevance in 2015. We asked more than 13,500 U.S. consumers about four key drivers and attributes of relevance. But this year, we filtered these responses through two additional lenses. We asked, “How are brands appealing to the head?” and “How are brands speaking to the heart?” Through this approach, we uncovered important lessons for brands looking to become more indispensable to their audiences.

Brands that appeal primarily to our heads are the ultimate problems solvers. These rely on ruthless pragmatism and pervasive innovation, two core drivers of relevance. And they have become more relevant as the pandemic wears on, with consumers looking to become more self-reliant.

“The best brands are increasingly finding success in our new normal by the way they connect with us as humans.”

These brands are competent and dependable. Led by companies like Bose (#4), Instant Pot (#6) and KitchenAid (#18), they reassure us that they’ll keep life running smoothly, no matter what.

Next, we have the brands that speak to the heart. These are driven by customer obsession and distinctive inspiration. It’s the kind of passion that turns consumers into passionate evangelists. That can only happen by making sure each brand experience makes consumers feel good about themselves, whether drenching them in sweat, like Peloton, or filling them with smiles, like Pixar (#17).

Our relentlessly relevant all-stars do it all, pulling our heartstrings even as they shine in every aspect of execution. Think of how brands like Apple, Spotify, and Android connect us to our work and the world. These all-star brands help us fulfill our goals to find happiness and strength.

How Brands Can Increase Relevance

No matter where they landed on this year’s Index, we think any brand can get closer to their customers, following the trends we’ve uncovered. Some clear steps toward building more relevance:

Build tech that’s more human – Apple, Peloton, Spotify and Android prove that when tech is personalized and helps us connect human-to-human, it resonates. Whether we are communicating directly through messages and social media, joining a new community or discovering new voices, these brands give us the power to express ourselves through technology.

Enable self-care – In an anxious age, Calm, #12, the app for sleep and meditation, scored highest of all 293 brands we studied on the “Connects with me emotionally” ranking. Despite its production problems and falling revenues, Peloton continues to earn adoration because it makes people happy. And Fitbit provides a gentle push towards better health.

Back promises with performance – More time at home means people are closer to machinery all the time, with reliability becoming more important. (If it takes months to get our hands on a new appliance, who wants to fool around with something second-best?). Besides Instant Pot and KitchenAid, Dyson (#19), Whirlpool (#45) and Keurig (#34) also made impressive showings precisely because consumers see them as better than their competitors.

Encourage autonomy – Nothing feels as good as DIY confidence, whether air-frying a chicken or filing taxes. Financial brands did well as a result, including Afterpay (#11), a financing service for online transactions, TurboTax (#46) and Zelle (#39). Highly digital and customizable, these offerings put more control in the hands of the user with ease and reliability.

Make magic – People are still eager for brands they can access from home, even as the pandemic drags into its third year. They want to escape, and content creators made up a considerable portion of our top performers this year. Marvel (#14) and Pixar (#17) outpaced even Netflix (#29), coming in first and third respectively for the attribute “Makes me Happy.” Gaming platforms such as PlayStation (#7), Nintendo (#23), and Xbox (#35) also took on outsized importance in daily life.

Emphasize authenticity – Social and technology platforms that encouraged people to strut their stuff also did well. From Etsy (#24) and Pinterest (#41) to YouTube (#70) and TikTok (#144), watching people “Create” online–whether they’re dancing, knitting or interviewing Noodles the Pug–does more than entertain. These platforms democratize the way people can create, sharing joy and inspiration with others.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Whatever tomorrow brings, we can be sure that brands will play a huge role in our lives. To achieve uncommon growth, brands will have to provide a must-have service while delivering experiences that make us feel alive. What are the most relevant brands in your lives right now?

Want to learn more about how the most relevant brands are tapping into the head and heart of consumers? The Prophet BRI serves as a roadmap for building relevance with consumers. Contact our team to learn how to apply the insights from the 2022 Index to your organization.

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2022 Prophet Brand Relevance Index®

Prophet asked more than 13,500 consumers in the U.S. about the brands that matter most in their lives today. We measure their relationship to 293 brands in 27 categories, looking closely at 16 attributes. A new pattern of relevance emerged in this research: Brands are finding success in our new normal by connecting with us as humans—by appealing to the head and the heart.

“Brands are finding success in our new normal by connecting with us as humans—by appealing to the head and the heart.”

Download the Index.

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How Brand-Demand Love Wins Across the Marketing Lifecycle

The second post of a series about integrating brand and demand marketing capabilities to win in a complex and dynamic landscape, based on our conversations with CMOs across industries.

As we highlighted in the first post in our Brand-Demand Love series, we think it’s time for a more integrated and complementary relationship between brand and demand-gen marketing. Why? Because the current separation isn’t aligned to the dynamic purchase behaviors of consumers across an increasingly complex landscape. As Karla Davis, VP of Marketing at Ulta Beauty, told us:

“What is brand, and what is demand? That’s a little gray now.”

Karla Davis, VP of Marketing at Ulta Beauty

When accomplished senior marketers question the validity and usefulness of the traditional brand-demand paradigm – and many do – then surely, it’s time for a new model. After all, the effective coordination of brand and demand-gen activation strategies represents an integrated and agile marketing capability – the gold standard amongst marketing pros.

Feeling the Brand-Demand Love Across the Marketing Lifecycle

Brand and demand-gen activation cannot be viewed as separate or competing functions, but rather as interdependent and mutually reinforcing capabilities that comprise the core of the overall customer experience.

Each set of tactics has a significant role in attracting buyers and strengthening relationships at every step of the customer journey and across the entire lifecycle. But, taking the perspective of marketers, it’s easy to see why the brand-demand balance is fluid. When considering marketing activation investments, companies might adjust their orientation as:

  • Brand-led
  • Demand-led
  • Balanced

As business objectives evolve and companies navigate distinct phases of maturity, the optimal marketing approach will vary. For instance, a brand needing to differentiate from a competitive pack may need to be brand-led to generate awareness and consideration, while a business undergoing a portfolio launch, expansion or refresh may have more balanced brand-demand priorities.

For businesses focused on customer acquisition or market share gains, demand-led models will serve their immediate priorities in tandem with brand campaigns. Many direct-to-consumer brands, unique in their offerings, initially focused on acquisition only to shift towards brand marketing as their category became crowded. Mature organizations that find themselves at a point of market saturation and businesses without fully defined offers will both rely on brand-led marketing efforts to develop, sustain and enhance customer relationships.

Learning from Airbnb

Airbnb’s decision to cease all demand generation activities coming out of the pandemic suggests just how much the brand-demand pendulum can swing. When the pandemic shut down all travel, the company eliminated its marketing activation spend, which totaled $1.62 billion in 2019. As lockdown restrictions eased, Airbnb saw most of its traffic return to pre-pandemic levels, prior to re-investing in marketing activation campaigns.

“I don’t anticipate doing a lot of incentives because we have a huge amount of demand for the service already,” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told CNBC. “We are never going to spend the amount of money on [demand] marketing as a percentage of revenue as we did before the pandemic [because] our brand’s incredibly strong.”

Not every brand is Airbnb, of course, and it’s far more common for brand marketing spending to get in the crosshairs of budget cutters. The brand-demand mix is fluid for large and small marketing organizations. Other companies will find they need a different balance at different moments within their growth curves and maturity cycles.

External factors also play a role in defining the right balance at the right time. Social issues, including diversity and inclusion and climate change, are leading some companies to deploy brand spending to align with important causes.  Ashley Laporte, director at the communications firm RALLY explained her company’s approach as “Less about cause marketing, and more about helping companies take part in driving systemic change.” Taking positions that consumers support may lead to some increase in demand, but it will be hard to attribute sales directly to, say, thought leadership regarding a company’s commitment to net-zero admissions.

Another CMO in the manufacturing industry said she wanted “credit from business leaders, the board and institutional investors” for effectively positioning the brand relative to these issues, especially since it made the business more attractive to rising generations of workers.  An industry analyst told us, “Brands are being tortured with the cultural and societal unrest that’s out there,” and not just because investments related to these tricky issues are extraordinarily hard to measure.

What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Mastering the brand-demand mix means being flexible and committing to making necessary adjustments over time, like those that take place across the course of loving relationships. One partner’s needs may take precedence during a certain phase of life, but afterward, things rebalance as conditions change. It’s never exactly 50-50 (or 60-40 as in the famous Binet & Field model for budget allocation, which we’ll explore in more detail in a future post). Such a rigid formula may cause opportunities to be missed and doesn’t match the real world, where marketers must continuously adjust based on changing market conditions and business needs.

The new research report, “Brand and Demand: A Love Story” is here! Learn how today’s Brand and Demand Generation leaders are bringing their functions together to drive greater impact.
Download today!

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We suggest speaking the “language of love” to business leaders and other stakeholders who struggle to see beyond the numbers in evaluating the merits of brand investments. The key is to connect business objectives to the power and resonance of brand. Marketers that can bring empathy and emotional intelligence to these conversations will be more likely to find supportive partners – and isn’t that what we’re all looking for?

In our next post, we look more closely at proven principles for shaping effective go-to-market strategies – the “vows of the brand-demand marriage.”

Get in touch today if you’d like to learn how to bring brand and demand together to win across the full marketing lifecycle.

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Into the Metaverse: How Should Brands Engage Today?

It’s not quite here. But brands need to know whether they intend to tiptoe, dabble or dive right into Web 3.0.

Many of us have been living in a world that feels a bit like Microsoft’s metaverse for the past two years. From Outlook and Teams to LinkedIn and Xbox, Microsoft has built a growing network of digital experiences that keep many of us in its ecosystem throughout much of daily life.

While the experiences don’t yet connect to form the fully immersive digital world deemed a “metaverse” it’s clear they are well-positioned to become a key player. Recently, this ecosystem got a monumental reinforcement in the form of the biggest acquisition in the company’s history: A near $70B acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one of the largest video game developers and publishers in the world. Through this move, the embattled Activision Blizzard will receive a lifeline from Microsoft in exchange for the developer’s hits, including “Call of Duty,” “World of Warcraft” and “Candy Crush.”

Microsoft is not the first tech firm to make a significant move toward the metaverse, with digital players increasingly positioning for this future. From Facebook rebranding their parent company to Meta, to Snap acquiring a host of augmented reality companies, many digital companies see the metaverse as the next frontier.

These companies are recognizing the significant shift in how consumers are engaging with digital platforms and are placing huge value on the impact these platforms can have with Gen Z and beyond. But with the metaverse arms race accelerating and the benefits of digital engagements clear, how can brands win in these new worlds as they continue to develop?

Brands Building Digital DNA

As the metaverse continues to unfold, brands shouldn’t wait to start engaging. Early adopters will earn an advantage by diving in with the platforms today, building native credibility in a market skeptical of brands, while gaining a competitive edge on brands that are slower to adopt this next frontier.

Brands that wait until the platform reaches consumer saturation will not drive incremental benefit beyond that of an additional ad channel – the opportunity in the metaverse is much more significant. There is no better way to prepare your brand for the future than to jump in now and refine your digital strategy and presence as you go.

To help with this transition, Prophet has identified three key brand strategy questions to consider:

How Can Your Brand Meet a Need in Consumers’ Digital Lives?

Brands entering these virtual worlds shed their physical limitations and have an opportunity to rethink the value they provide to their consumers. The companies that win in this space are the ones that create experiences to meet a need within this digital ecosystem while reinforcing the brand equity strengths carried through from the physical world.

Nike was able to answer this question in preparation for the introduction of NIKELAND on Roblox, clearly identifying that they would be able to support consumers in digitally expressing themselves, both in lifestyle and clothing.

How Might Your Brand Come to Life Within a New Digital Environment?

The metaverse creates immersive opportunities for brands to build relationships in real-time, beyond the bounds of the sequential conversations that dominate social media. In the metaverse, brands must be wholly authentic and dynamically engaging – and the ones able to strategically translate their voice, imagery and experiences into this context will earn new levels of consumer favor.

While AI-based conversational technology is yet to be widely utilized by brands, we can look to advanced virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Samsung’s Bixby for inspiration on how brands will soon be capable of continuous, real-time conversations with consumers. These dynamic and infinite touchpoints will demand continuous on-strategy voice and tone to build brands within these new platforms.

Ultimately, How is Your Brand Going to Commercialize the Metaverse?

Commercialization in these digital spaces goes beyond anything possible today. It’s more than just selling products – digital engagements provide an unparalleled opportunity for collaborations and completely immersive branded experiences on platforms where creators have the most power.

As augmented reality blurs the lines between reality and technology, brands will have unprecedented context for consumers’ daily lives and will need to commercialize themselves in ways that feel authentic and value-added. When brands overstep their bounds or present themselves in overly commercialized or sales-focused contexts, consumers will perceive the integrations as creepy and reject the offerings entirely.

“The companies that win in this space are the ones that create experiences to meet a need within this digital ecosystem while reinforcing the brand equity strengths carried through from the physical world.”

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Metaverse-defining moves like Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard will only accelerate as both big tech incumbents and forward-thinking startups converge in this next evolution of our internet.

Prophet’s Technology, Media and Telecom team has partnered with metaverse pioneers, and we’d love to help you think through these key questions as you consider your brand’s strategy within these new worlds. Whether you’re a traditionally analog brand looking to connect with Gen Z or a digitally native brand accelerating growth through new channels, let’s chat about how you can become a leader in this next phase of digital consumption.

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Coming Soon: Winners in our 2022 Prophet Brand Relevance Index®

Get ready for a shakeup. Consumer post-pandemic perceptions are redefining relevance.

Mark your calendars, brand watchers. We are getting ready to release our seventh edition of the Prophet Brand Relevance Index®, and it’s full of surprises. Without giving too much away, we can tell you that we have 96 new brands in the study this year, many of which landed in our top 50 brands. And as we’ve seen in previous years, relevance continues to be a key driver of growth – with the top brands outpacing the average growth rate in the S&P 500.

The new crop of winners shows that while relevance has always been a moving target, two years of seismic shifts in consumer behavior have solidified the way people adopt and abandon brands. And these changes go far beyond the obvious. Of course, digital matters more than ever. And we can see brands that have made intelligent moves to meet these cultural moments are those making the biggest gains.

For the second year in a row, that’s meant honoring how much time people are spending at home. It’s not just where the heart is—it is where the head is, where the body is, where everything is. And so, it is no surprise that every single brand in our top twenty-five represents an aspect of our home life. And a number of brands in the top 50 show that as the pandemic evolves and confidence builds, people are itching to come out of hibernation.

But more importantly, our brand thought leaders discovered that new patterns of relevance are emerging. The team includes:

“We’ve found that the four components underpinning our relevance research are as meaningful as ever,” says Mulvihill. “Brands still derive their relevance from customer obsession, ruthless pragmatism, pervasive innovation and distinctive inspiration. Yet as we continue to refine the science of relevance and interpret post-pandemic changes, these components express themselves in new ways.” Based on responses from 13,500+ U.S. consumers, we looked at 293 brands in 27 categories. We’ve discovered that brands are finding success in our new normal by connecting with us through three distinct avenues.

Brands that solve life’s frustrating problems are leading the first path to relevance. These ruthlessly pragmatic, pervasively innovative brands stand out by fueling the current need for self-reliance and DIY confidence. As we recalibrate our routines through this increasingly digital life, we choose only the best support staff. We want appliances, products and services that are smart enough to enable a new reality spent mostly at home.

“Brands that solve life’s frustrating problems are leading the first path to relevance.”

Others win us over almost by magic, increasing relevance by speaking more to people’s hearts than their heads. Customer obsessed and distinctively inspired, these are the names that turn customers into fans, loyalists and collectors. Devotion and demand like this are born from experiences that make people feel good about themselves, whether by providing easy access to escape or luxury that makes us feel alive and special.

Then there are those relentlessly relevant all-stars that somehow do both, hitting us simultaneously in the head and the heart. It’s because they are easily personalized, making us feel like they actually know us. They connect us to our families, work and the world. They help us discover communities of others who share the same passions. They fill our intimate spaces with stories and sounds from the outside. They help us fulfill our goals to find happiness and strength. These are the brands brightening the world, every single day.

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“In this year’s Index we not only wanted to understand what brands are most relevant but how these brands connect with people in different ways to become indispensables,” says Brandt Jones. “By looking at the data this way we were able to uncover fascinating truths about why we make the choices we make, not only because of the pandemic’s at-home reality but because of the role different brands fill in our lives.

Want to learn more about how the most relevant brands are tapping into our heads and hearts to win over consumers? Sign up now to be the first to receive a copy of the 2022 Prophet Brand Relevance Index®.

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Brand and Demand Marketing: A Love Story

Marketing has always been shaped by shifts in consumer behavior, expectations and technology advancements, as well as its contribution to the enterprise. As the scope and speed of such changes expand and accelerate, it is more difficult for brands to know which types of campaigns and media work best, and the growth to which marketing can contribute.  

They must make hard tradeoffs in deciding where to invest finite resources, how to differentiate amongst competitors and how ambitious they need to be as a growth engine. Are the tradeoffs—and competition between forces—helpful or harmful? 

Today’s marketing industry feels different, according to our recent candid conversations with a dozen senior marketing leaders across industries. Customers are harder to reach and engage, even though we have vastly more data and insights about them and stronger personalization tools. Budgets are tighter and internal stakeholders more demanding. Tried-and-true best practices no longer apply. There’s a sense that rules are being rewritten in real-time. The once useful “marketing funnel” concept seems less relevant given that consumer behavior changes constantly and paths to purchase are increasingly non-linear.  

As a result, many marketing organizations experience significant tension between brand marketing and demand generation – a tension we believe undercuts growth and harms performance. Brand marketing typically describes long-term efforts to drive awareness of and preference for a company, product or service, while demand marketing seeks to get audiences to take action immediately (e.g., click on an offer, sign up for a newsletter).  

“This topic is one of the things that we’ve [been] trying to understand – where in the funnel do we need to spend our dollars in order to really drive business results and drive growth.”

– TD Bank, CMO

As the CMO of a challenger consumer goods brand told us, “Brand is about growing awareness and affinity over time,” while the primary objective for demand, or performance marketing, is “driving short-term conversion.”  

The “either-or” bifurcation of marketing into these categories presents huge challenges as marketers seek to optimize budget allocation, track performance and structure their teams and operations to drive uncommon growth. The worst part, the split between brand and demand generation isn’t aligned with consumers’ consumption patterns in today’s world.  

As a senior industry analyst told us, “Consumers have zero separation between the brand being communicated and their experience. In finding the right investment for brand and demand, it’s both, not versus.”  

Stop the fighting and find the love.

This article, the first in a series, is based on our recent market research with senior marketing executives and focused on the specific internal and external challenges CMOs face today related to brand and demand. These marketers also highlighted the levers they have at their disposal to create effective and integrated brand and demand strategies.  

Every marketing executive we talked to confirmed the importance of finding the right balance between brand and demand. We also heard repeatedly what a difficult balance it is to strike; everyone agrees that brand and demand efforts must be coordinated and synchronized. However, how to do this is much less clear. Despite the interdependence of brand and demand marketing, many tricky questions remain: 

  • How much impact does brand marketing have on conversion?
  • How does customer acquisition efforts influence brand perception?
  • What’s the optimal level of investment across brand and demand?
  • How can brand and demand show up most effectively across channels?

“This topic comes up all the time, in the B2B context, the brand piece is a hard sell because our team doesn’t understand why it’s important.”

– Trane Technologies, SVP of Marketing

In our brand and demand blog series, we explore this important conversation with a modern lens, examining how marketers can embrace the brand-demand love. Specifically, we’ll cover:  

  • The seasons of love: Understand why brand and demand are meant to be together and how they can overcome obstacles to love across the marketing lifecycle – we’re playing a long game 
  • Writing the vows: Set a strong strategic foundation, because every brand-demand marriage needs a rock-solid foundation of what it stands for and how it will approach the market – when to say “I do” and when “I don’t” 
  • Shared finances: Create shared goals and an investment agenda, define smarter metrics for allocating the shared pocketbook, or budget, and track the performance of those shared investments – brand and demand should not fight about money 
  • Setting up the household: Determine how to organize teams and build the right capabilities – brand and demand need a comfortable nest 

The new research report, “Brand and Demand: A Love Story” is here! Learn how today’s Brand and Demand Generation leaders are bringing their functions together to drive greater impact.
Download today!

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We think it’s time for brand and demand to stop thinking of themselves as competing interests fighting for the same precious resources. Rather, they must be complementary companions with a shared agenda and intertwined goals. We believe it’s time for brand and demand to fall in love because together, they are the ultimate power couple to build relevance and unlock uncommon growth.   

Get in touch today if you’d like to learn how to bring brand and demand together to unleash the full power of your business.

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Brand Breakthroughs: What to Expect in 2022

As brand spending makes a comeback, we think the branding discipline is in for a big, big year.

Get ready, brand strategists – 2022 is going to be your year. The last 18 months have been packed with plot twists, creating new opportunities for better brand activations and experiences. And it’s not just the progression of the pandemic, supply-chain challenges, rising inflation or ever-more-digital consumers that’s caused this shift.

It’s that authenticity matters more as people struggle to absorb all those changes. They’re switching buying behaviors and brands at an unprecedented level. One recent study finds that 75% of consumers have shopped in a new way, with 36% trying a new brand.

To keep customers and attract new ones, companies need to prove they support the greater good in a way that’s unique to their brand. That’s terrible news for brands not actively building and delivering against an authentic purpose that consumers can believe and relate to. But this approach offers wide-open growth avenues for those that can find better ways to connect with customers. We expect the savviest brands to lean hard into these five trends in 2022:

Brand Spending Makes a Comeback

Companies are increasingly aware that they can’t earn customer loyalty without a clear brand identity. There’s just too much noise in the market, and too many options for consumers to choose from.

Clear communication about what a company stands for requires investing in a well-defined brand identity and awareness. How can companies expect to make connections if their target audience is unclear about what they are? We expect to see a greater focus on brand with more dollars shifting –often from the demanding budget – into brand building. Additional resources will allow marketers to ensure brand efforts are clear, inspirational and delivered with energy.

We even think brand and demand may stop fighting and find love, as the two resolve tensions and work together in harmony. CMOs will develop integrated models where brand –the long-term efforts to drive awareness –and demand – which seeks to get audiences to act immediately – are synchronized with shared agendas and intertwined goals.

Got Purpose? Prove it, and Make Sure it Benefits the Planet

For years, we’ve known that consumers are increasingly choosing brands with a higher-order purpose – they want to buy from companies that make a difference in the world. This year, they’ll expect brands to put their money where their mouth is. They’ll want action, like Lush leaving social media because it’s become toxic for their customers, or Nike, investing tens of millions in countering systemic racism.

Sustainability and environmental concerns are especially important. Too often, companies isolate ESG and DEI policies, but they need to become central to brand purpose – a golden thread that winds through every aspect of the organization. ESG and DEI aren’t just about mitigating risks. These efforts add value to everything the company does.

“To keep customers and attract new ones, companies need to prove they support the greater good in a way that’s unique to their brand.”

Whether companies like it or not, protecting the planet is the No. 1 concern for both Gen Z and millennial audiences. Led by firebrands like 18-year-old environmentalist Greta Thunberg and 21-year-old gun-control activist David Hogg many see themselves as warriors acting to protect the planet. These young consumers can spot green or virtue-washing efforts from miles away and will punish companies that get it wrong.

All Digital? Nope. Never

Once upon a time, the business world envied those digitally native direct-to-consumer brands and the way they dinged the dinosaurs who shopped in brick-and-mortar stores. But with the defeat of Casper in the public markets, it’s clear omnichannel rules, and those D2C darlings have stampeded toward the mall. Warby Parker, Glossier, Allbirds and Wayfair are all proving that ­humans like to look, touch and feel what they’re buying.

Led by companies like Apple, Lululemon, Nike and Samsung, this trend toward experiential retail is already strong and will continue to grow. Levi Strauss & Co., for example, is opening 100 new stores this year, and Lego intends to open 174 new locations.

While people know they don’t need actual stores to transact, they do need them for experiences – especially as consumers long for post-pandemic connections. People have spent the last 18 months re-evaluating many priorities. They’ve learned that they love digital for cutting down on the drudgery in their lives, like grocery shopping and banking, so they can focus on the experiences that mean the most to them.

They do, however, want to experience products before purchasing, especially in certain categories, and we expect to see more brands open physical spaces.

The Decline of the Mega Brand

After decades of consolidation, conglomerates are starting to see the benefits of breaking up. With a CEO openly mocking the myth of synergy, GE is leading the way, followed by Johnson & Johnson and Toshiba Corp. More will follow as companies increasingly challenge the belief that one brand can work in many markets, and that bigger is always better.

Companies are asking themselves the hard questions: Can we continue to use a single brand, expecting it to be equally meaningful among different verticals, markets and customers? Is that one brand universally credible? And if not, when is time to switch that strategy?

Facebook’s recent decision to become Meta, illustrates another facet of this trend: More brands may increase a company’s agility, allowing it to pivot in more precise (and perhaps even more affordable) ways.

Midlife Crises Spark Unicorn Reinvention

Remember all those companies we admired back when BlackBerry dominated the market? Twitter (founded in 2006), Airbnb (2008), Pinterest (2009) and Instagram (2010) are all middle-aged now. No longer the cool kids, they need a refresher course in disruption. As they revisit purpose, they need to better understand empowered consumers and find new growth channels. How and where can they innovate as they face younger rivals?

To keep up, they’ll need creative Web 3.0 pivots. We’re already used to watching elderly unicorns struggle. Google used its transition to Alphabet to age gracefully, but once-huge tech brands, such as Jawbone, GoPro and Groupon, have languished from lost relevance. We expect plenty of big news and at least a few missteps as these almost-old digital natives reinvent themselves.

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With all the disruption of the last few years, if we’ve learned anything, it’s that brands can’t sit on their laurels. They need to be actively thinking about their next move. To stay relevant with consumers and drive new growth opportunities, brands must be thinking about the future and be prepared to reinvent themselves to meet the moment.

Get in touch to learn more about we help our clients achieve uncommon growth through brand-driven transformation.

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