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Modernize the Marketing Planning Cycle

Clear your calendar. It’s time to make room for a brand-new approach to annual marketing plans.

The annual marketing planning cycle desperately needs a makeover. Every marketer who has ever groaned, “There has to be a better way to do this!” is right, and the most effective companies are already finding new ways to inject efficiency and effectiveness into a cumbersome process.  

While much of this change has been coming on gradually, changing customer behaviors, increasing demands of marketing within the enterprise and growing opportunities with technology have intensified it. And amid growing business uncertainties–inflation, supply-chain and recession concerns–modern marketers feel an urgency to help drive strategy, not just follow it.  

More and more, marketers are being asked to deliver value that is tied to the overall business outcomes.  

That’s because the customer journey is more complex and less linear every day, highlighting the tension between brand and demand marketing. Our recent research takes an in-depth look at the intersection of these marketing disciplines, tapping the insights of more than 500 marketers. Our findings underscore that an updated approach to planning separates the most successful companies from competitors.  

“Today’s marketers are coxing other execs out of their respective silos, moving to “a more agile, `brains in room’ format,” says Tyrrell Schmidt, CMO, U.S., TD Bank, one of our respondents. “We want to build a structure that puts the customer at the center.” 

And business leaders are learning that while the annual planning process is still way too full of retro drudgery, it’s also full of possibility and potential. Many see it as the most creative endeavor of the year, allowing them to show off the value modern marketing can bring to the enterprise.  

Here are five ways the most effective marketers are reshaping the annual planning process.

Take an Integrated View  

Historically, disparate marketing teams have driven different objectives. Because they’re working separately, they’re not optimized for holistic growth. They’re often not even pointing in the same direction. 

Marketing needs a more integrated process. That requires cooperation among brand, demand and corporate marketing teams so that they find agreement on all-important basics (We’ve covered other planning checklists in The Eight Essentials of a Successful Marketing Plan). 

For starters, these working groups can nail down a common language (“Do we say `initiatives’ or `programs’? `Campaigns’ or `tactics’?”). They can also agree on standard measurements, balancing short and long-term approaches, as well as lagging and leading indicators. And they can establish a set of unified tools, such as an integrated calendar and a single marketing brief. 

Focus on Customers-Not the Funnel

If companies want to be customer-centric in how they market, then they need to be customer-centric in how they plan. Yet too many firms lose sight of the people that matter most. 

Part of that stems from the limits of funnel vision. Yes, marketing funnels are the conventional backdrop for planning and helping identify specific marketing strategies. And we’re not suggesting companies shift from that approach outright.  

But on its own, the funnel does a poor job of coordinating multiple efforts. And by definition, it takes a company or product view. That’s the opposite of customer-centricity. 

A journey view helps assess how to best allocate resources to acquire customers and build loyalty. It also has the added vital benefit of revealing missed opportunities in customer experience. 

We understand the shift from the funnel to a customer-centric journey can be challenging, and many will ask if there’s room for both. Of course, marketers can–and maybe even should–keep the funnel in mind even as they develop the journey view. But ultimately, it’s the customer who makes the purchase, so anticipating their needs and providing the right solutions matter more than anything else. 

Align Under Shared Initiatives

Companies often struggle with overly complicated messaging strategies scattered across multiple product offerings and customer segments. They frequently say they’d like programming with “fewer, bigger, better” ideas but don’t know how to get there. 

It’s complex. Because demand marketing has an expanded role in driving revenue, there’s more pressure to crank out more messages and promotions. That means many competing, overlapping, and siloed marketing initiatives reach customers simultaneously.  

That can be managed better with unified views of calendars, a hierarchy for messages and promotions, and commonly integrated plans. Those all build more alignment and clarify optimal resource allocation during the planning process. This view then carries forward into activation and more frequent re-prioritization that may be needed throughout the year. 

It can also be an important venue to talk about experimentation. Test-and-learn thinking that too often gets left behind in the planning process. Will those NFTs pay off? The storefront in Horizon Worlds? Anamorphic billboards? No one yet knows what kind of return on investment these might have, and they indeed fail the “Bigger, better” test. But fledgling ideas need budgetary support if the organization wants to gain agility and build a marketing edge.  

In our research, we found that Marketers who work for businesses that successfully meet goals cite strategic experimentation as the predominant force behind their investment decision-making – perhaps shifting the mix based on objectives. Compare this to marketers who work for businesses that do not successfully meet goals. They, instead, rely mostly on industry best practices and historical effectiveness to inform their decisions – a more static and unchanging approach. 

Importantly, planning under a unified umbrella provides satisfaction. Teams can walk away knowing how their plans and responsibilities support the greater business objectives. 

Bring the Village

Those shared initiatives require inviting a bigger cast of characters into the planning process. Integrated marketing means inviting more people into the planning meeting. When setting up planning sessions, marketers should reach beyond product and sales to include research and insights, partners and operations. 

However, there’s no one size fits all approach. B2B companies may have to think this through differently, often including sales teams and product leaders even earlier, as part of the bottom-up planning process.  

Regardless, all companies should include as many perspectives as possible while also keeping their customers in mind.  

We recognize that this may bring up concerns about “too many cooks in the kitchen”? You’re not alone. While it can seem clumsy initially, it’s an important first step to being collaborative. The more companies strive to achieve cross-functional consensus, the less “re-work” and pivoting they need later.  

Map to Business Outcomes

Our research finds that marketers who describe their companies as top performers actively align marketing activities and tactics to shared business objectives. While many marketing objectives remain essential to the success of the plan’s performance, this calls for bigger thinking. It connects marketing to the goals of other stakeholders in the firm and functions far beyond their own. 

The first step is to decide on those “no-regrets” business opportunities and align the most supportive marketing strategies. Many start with a worksheet that looks like this: 

Download the Mapping Marketing Tactics to Shared Business Objectives Worksheet.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

The shift toward integrated, customer-centric planning requires weeks if not months of new kinds of preparation. That can include new journey maps and competitive intelligence.

But the pay-off is well worth it. Integrated marketing allows a company to develop a modern approach that connects brand to demand. And ultimately, it serves customer needs better, improves execution and leads to uncommon growth. 

Ready to reimagine your 2023 marketing planning process? Get in touch with our marketing and sales team today.

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Unlocking Sustainable Growth

How companies can link ESG strategy to business objectives to drive growth and shared value

In response to the rising demands of stakeholders, companies are racing to put out sustainability commitments, with 92% of the S&P 500 now publishing these reports.  

It’s an important shift. Companies with established environmental, social, governance structures have integrated ESG thinking into every aspect of their business – increasing transparency, rethinking environmental impact and improving how they treat employees and other stakeholders. Job seekers, particularly the newest entrants to the workforce, will disproportionately want to work for organizations with an established ESG strategy over others. New hires are also more likely to stay if the intensity of the business’ actions matches the commitments. Lastly, ESG matters more to investors, with 85% of investors now mulling a company’s ESG status before buying shares. 

Many companies, though, are struggling to connect their commitments to action. They set ambitious targets–and that’s a good start. But once it comes to integrating ESG across the business, change leaders often don’t know how to navigate the path from ambition to demonstrable impact. It can be hard to build positive business cases for ESG initiatives. This is because there often isn’t a clear operating model for driving durable change and an ESG strategy requires collaboration across all parts of the business.  

We think another major problem is that many companies still see ESG primarily as a compliance and risk mitigation tool, almost exclusively. 

But we recognize it as a bigger opportunity, offering the potential for shared value creation. And there are many reasons to believe that ESG will be the next big driver of growth and transformation in the coming decade.  

As companies use ESG strategies to find more purposeful, inclusive and regenerative business models, they create value in important ways: 

Attract Talent, Boost Retention and Increase Employee Well-Being

It’s hard to overstate how important positive environmental, social and governance practices are to the modern workforce. A recent study from Marsh & McLennan finds a strong correlation between high employee satisfaction and companies with the best ESG scores. These ESG outperformers are also especially attractive to students and young professionals, with 86% of employees preferring to work for companies that care about the same issues they do.  

Improve Customer Acquisition and Retention to Build Brand Strength

People care–and deeply–about how companies contribute to solving key issues in our culture and society today. Consumers and B2B buyers alike want to do business with organizations that are environmentally responsible and fair to employees. They want businesses to stand for something.  

Ipsos reports that 66% of U.S. adults say they prefer to buy brands that reflect their values, up from 50% in 2013. The global average is even higher, at 70% of respondents, with those in emerging markets especially likely to agree. 

Optimize Supply Chains, Drive Efficiencies and Create New Opportunities

While pandemic-era shortages may have vaulted supply-chain concerns to the popular consciousness, they’ve been growing in complexity for some time. They present dizzying ESG challenges, with the average company having 3,000 suppliers for every $1 billion it spends. Supply chains are fraught with risk, with the World Economic Forum estimating they account for about 90% of all emissions and widespread human-rights problems. 

Using ESG principles to optimize and build resilience into supply chains is a huge growth tool, as companies with advanced supplier collaboration and innovation outperformed their peers by 2x in growth. 

Power Innovation and Lead to New Business Models, Products and Services

As companies move through the early phases of ESG–from mitigating risks and achieving efficiencies–they reach the point where the assets and capabilities that power ESG performance can simultaneously become growth tools for competitive strategy and innovation. This requires deeper bridge-building across all parts of the organization. ESG may have first emanated from investor and regulatory pressures, but as it becomes more understood throughout organizations – including product, commercial, and go-to-market leaders. This should open up new pathways to business model innovation, new services and inspire new ways of working.  

Here again, bold and clear goals pay off. In a study of 1,000 companies with climate objectives, those with the most ambitious carbon targets invested the most and made significant operational changes. The result? They also drove the most innovation. 

We clearly see how the principles of sustainable and socially responsible business can unlock opportunities for new products and services. The circular economy offers a $4.5 trillion economic opportunity. New business models focused on reuse, recycle and regenerate are unlocking new opportunities for innovation. Additionally, inclusive design, which embraces a larger view of the human spectrum, has proven to drive innovation that leads to business advantage.  

Moving From Ambition to Impact

Companies must find new and better ways to close the gap between ambition and impact. This requires designing scalable ESG solutions, exploring requirements for change throughout the organization and developing plans that integrate ESG into companywide strategies and operations. 

We’re not suggesting a common path. It’s essential to address what’s material to your industry. For example, water usage and resource availability will be crucial to CPG companies but less to professional services firms. In an analysis of 2,000 U.S. companies, a Harvard Business School study found that companies that consistently addressed material issues in ESG strategies significantly outperformed competitors. Those that paid more attention to immaterial problems, however, significantly underperformed.  

Stakeholders and consumers know when companies are authentically supporting their stances with strategy and when they are greenwashing, rainbow washing and virtue signaling. 70% of Gen-Z and Millennials are skeptical of virtue signaling from organizations, and roughly 80% of companies are just going through the motions and not holding themselves accountable with measurable action, continuing to erode public trust.  

It’s also important to take the ESG maturity of the organization into account. Some have been establishing and finetuning policies and programs for decades, while others are just beginning. 

That said, there are five fundamental shifts common to every organization seeking to sharpen ESG strategies to create new value. 

Companies must move from… 

Embarking on Your ESG Journey

Moving from ambition to action is a complex journey. Targets fluctuate as external factors and pressures increase. And as test-and-learn efforts enrich the company’s knowledge, they become agile and confident enough to take on new endeavors. 

To drive meaningful change, leaders need to evangelize the ESG mindset. Acting on these new tenets of sustainable and responsible business, they need to build coalitions, think creatively, iterate continuously and take risks. It’s a unique skill set but essential if ESG is to come to life throughout the company.  

We’ve found meaningful analogies to these shifts in digital transformation. We’ve helped dozens of companies take the role of digital executives from a single department to an enterprise-wide commitment. Digital thinking now forms the backbone of a modern company’s culture, operations, go-to-market strategies and business models. In many ways, chief sustainability officers are already traveling the same path. They’re driving the ESG mindset and bringing it to life throughout the company.  

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FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s time for companies to tap into the transformative potential of ESG. It continues to be an important tool for compliance and risk mitigation but can do much more. With bold ambitions, close alignment to business objectives, and commitment to high-impact follow-through, the ESG mindset can create shared value and uncommon growth.

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Small Acts of Inclusion 

How inclusivity is reshaping the way Prophet works

We have been continuing to work on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts here at Prophet and have have made steady progress since our last update. We know that achieving representation reflecting the communities where we live and work will take time. And we are also learning a lot when it comes to the importance of understanding the complexity of inclusivity. 

While some organizational practices need to be changed to be more inclusive, we are learning that it is at the micro, one-on-one level where change and impact are being felt most. When everyone at our firm understands and makes a habit of small acts of inclusion each day, we believe that change can happen at scale. 

Propheteers are very proud of our culture, and we should be. But as our inclusivity efforts have strengthened, we sometimes bump up against defensiveness. Even among those who are the most vocal about adding diverse representation, there’s a resistance, or perhaps better put, lack of understanding, to becoming more inclusive in our work.  

We are trying to reinforce that bias does exist here and everywhere. There is no organization where bias does not exist. And so creating a truly inclusive culture means looking at the day-to-day interactions that happen throughout the firm. These connections are the foundations of the employee experience. In each moment, they give people a sense of belonging, letting them know they are valuable members of the team.  

In other words, inclusivity has to be addressed at every level of interaction – macro, corporate level, team level and individual level. The quality of those interactions and the relationships that develop determine how well and for whom the systems are working. 

So far, we’ve found three focus areas that are especially helpful. 

Learning New Language

The ability to have DEI-related conversations throughout an organization requires a common language, and the evolving list of terms initially feels unfamiliar. A first step has been starting small group leadership discussions and introducing inclusion concepts through unconscious bias and allyship training. We’re proud that all of our 600-plus employees have completed this work. 

That’s only a start, though. It’s important to keep talking to translate ideas into individual and collective action. 

Tokenism is one example. Building an inclusive team means gender diversity should be represented. But if a partner asks a woman to work on a pitch just because she’s female, that’s not inclusion. Tokenism is just for show–it’s performative. On the other hand, representative teams are intentionally built because if the goal is cognitive diversity, we know that identity diversity is critical to adding a valuable perspective that wouldn’t otherwise be there. Who we are in the world shows up in how we think and navigate the world differently.   

As a practice, leaders should question “Am I building a team that is as representative as possible?”  Slowing down to process and talk about decisions that impact the way we work can open up healthy dialogues and lead to better outcomes.  

The right language takes these daily conversations from defensive to pragmatic, hopefully making them more productive.  

Reconfiguring Networks

Internal networks–often invisible and informal–are places of exclusion in many workplaces. Remote work has made this even more challenging. Do the people who choose to go into the office, for example, have more access to certain leaders and the chance to develop relationships, while those working remotely may not? Or do certain groups have an easier time interacting and building relationships in a virtual group environment than others?

Making Intentional Connections

We are creating strong employee resource groups, which make space for people to build community and find support. These include Black@Prophet, Pride atProphet, Latino@Prophet and Women In Leadership. And we’re constantly looking for new ways to bring people with shared interests together. We need to do more, though. So we’ve begun opening up opportunities to learn about our leaders and different parts of the company. 

How Inclusivity Needs to Change Our Work

We are focused on moving inclusion beyond awareness through group training and individual coaching. We’re seeking more actionable strategies that impact the way we work, including business development and other go-to-market practices. By setting expectations, mitigating structural bias, and role modeling small acts of inclusion, we know that we can create a firm with imperfect people and their biases that nevertheless contribute to maintaining a healthy and inclusive environment.  

We know that more inclusive teams lead to more innovative and varied approaches to our work for clients, from broader digital transformation strategies to more accessible user experiences. We are trying hard to make this a consistent way of doing business. 

There’s growing urgency to these efforts. Like so many other companies, our work accelerated with the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020. It continues to speed up, fueled not just by the increasing awareness of racial and gender disparities but also by the Great Resignation’s tailwinds. An inclusive culture is key to recruiting and retaining the best people–that’s true for Prophet and every one of the clients we work so hard for. 

So we’re not slowing down. We’ve intensified our planning, becoming more intentional. We’re leveraging strategic approaches within campus, lateral and executive hiring efforts to increase the diversity of the candidate pipeline and, ultimately, incoming hires. And we’re systematizing our process, creating a scalable program based on business rules, such as an Inclusion Rule for diversity on interview slates. We’re completing contract-bound pipeline requirements for external search partners. 

We’re looking to our data to understand employee experience across all diversity dimensions. And we’re using that lens across the board to help ensure that we support diverse teams to lead clients to the best solutions.  

The end goal? A Prophet where one cannot predict a person’s success based on how they look, whom they love or whom they pray to.  To get us there we’re working to clarify and communicate each employee’s role in DEI. We’ll know we’ve arrived when DEI is no longer seen as the responsibility of a handful of people but as a new kind of thinking and behavior each of us brings to work every day. 

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Prophet’s purpose–the reason we exist in the world–is to help our clients find uncommon business growth. Our inclusivity efforts are helping people find uncommon personal growth, using curiosity and innovation as they discover more equitable and inclusive ways of working with one another.

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How Top Brands Get to the Hearts of Consumers

Three standout trends the top heart brands are doing to become relentlessly relevant to consumers.

It’s no secret that the brands consumers are obsessed with hit closest to our hearts–the ones that make up our identities and help express who we are. The brands we call “magic makers” make us feel true affinity and loyalty: the sneakerheads, gamers, Tesla owners and devotees get it. There is no logical explanation for this kind of love— the kind of love that has lines wrapped around the block at Gucci and people camping out to see the next Marvel movie, even amidst a global pandemic. In the 2022 Prophet Brand Relevant Index (BRI), our annual study which asks 13,500 U.S. consumers which brands are most relevant to their lives, we learned what the top-performing brands do to attract such devoted consumers. For one, they create emotional stories and connections that consumers just have to have and experience. Unlike their counterparts, brands that appeal more to our head and practical side, these brands, fill an emotional need that goes straight to our hearts.

In addition to our overall BRI ranking, we have identified the top brands that speak directly to consumers’ hearts.

Top 25 Heart brands, ranked:

So, what do the top heart brands do to be considered relentlessly relevant to consumers? We discovered three standout trends where brands appealing to consumers’ hearts are excelling.  

Bringing the Fantasy to Us

To create “magic,” brands need to do more than fill a need in our life—they must make us feel like part of something bigger and provide connection and stimulation to escape monotonous days. Gaming and platforms such as PlayStation, Nintendo and Xbox enable escape and connection, and respondents agree that they could turn to their consoles to engage in new and unexpected ways. Marvel, Disney, MLB and NFL joined our top ten for brands that “Connect with me emotionally,” making us feel part of something bigger than ourselves. The power of these “magic makers” is to transport us out of our lives and into the past, the future or another planet entirely—and recently that transport mostly happened in our homes.

Nothing gets you closer to a shared in-person experience than live sports and the NFL had an especially strong showing in its first year in the BRI. Despite a variety of controversies, the NFL had more viewers in 2021 than in the previous six years. Because the experience of watching a game depends on live viewership, advertisers could count on a present audience, a rarity in today’s TV market. Innovations in adjacent categories also helped NFL: Sports betting laws opened up and a record 45.2 million Americans are expected to bet on NFL games and wager more than $20 billion, according to CNBC.

Inspiring Authentic Expression

2021 was the year the “creator economy” exploded in full force. From Etsy and Pinterest to YouTube and TikTok, extra time at home coupled with the “Great Resignation” led to increased engagement with social platforms for both viewers and creators. There are over 50 million who consider themselves ‘creators’, according to Forbes, especially among younger generations with strong aspirations to maximize their platform as a career. Creators love these platforms because they allow them to monetize their personal brands and connect directly with their audiences in ways that were never possible before. 

Ranked 13th on “Heart” and 21st most relevant brand overall, Etsy helped connect makers with products they needed and wanted during the pandemic. Etsy reported in 2021 that they had sold an astounding $346 million dollars just in reusable face masks. These products not only fulfilled a need but also felt special and infused with the maker’s craft and love. 

Making Us Feel Special

While still stuck at home during the pandemic with nowhere to go, the 2022 Index shows that we embrace brands that make us feel alive and special, even when they are impractical to our current needs.  Some of our highest performing magic makers were luxury brands: Tesla, Gucci, Sephora and Mercedes-Benz were beloved by consumers and rounded out our top 20 for “Makes me feel inspired.” In the last year, luxury brands rebounded faster than many expected. In times of uncertainty, enduring status and quality symbols can feel reassuring.

Luxury brands have seen record levels of growth coming out of the pandemic. “Revenge shopping” or the phenomenon of those with means spending on luxury goods to fill a void left by canceled social and cultural events may explain the quick comeback of high-end brands. Luxury items aren’t just objects—they deliver a transportive experience that activates their brand. Luxury may not solve problems, but in a time when we sacrificed so much, it delivers the fulfilling indulgence that only a wildly expensive, exquisitely designed object or experience can.

What Can Heart Brands Teach Us?

To go from a commodity to relentlessly relevant, brands need to connect with our hearts. Top heart brands have found ways to connect with consumers’ emotions by:

  • Targeting micro-communities of fans who are obsessed with the same sports team or TV show. Instead of trying to appeal to everybody, narrow in on the people who are most likely to connect with the product or service offered.
  • Bringing together commerce and community. The best brands create loyal followers who look for every new product drop and turn up to every store experience: turn consumers into brand evangelists.
  • Delivering on personalization and quality, whether that’s highlighting the stories of artisans and innovators who design products or offering a customized experience through an algorithm or brand design, makes every person who walks through the doors feel special and loved. Magic.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

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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Prophet Impact: Earth Month Recap

Embarking on Prophet’s Sustainability Journey

In 2020, Prophet embarked on a sustainability journey to assess our climate choices and identify steps we can take towards a greener future. We partnered with South Pole to understand our current environmental impacts, see how we stack up against peers and identify potential areas for improvement. Over the last year, we have gone through piles of data and reports from our enterprise-wide audit across global offices to understand Prophet’s carbon emissions and climate change risks.

SBT’s. GHG. CO2te. Net-Zero. Scopes 1-3. What does this all mean? How does a circular design affect the way we look at our economy? How do we interpret the results of our GHG emission report to guide climate actions? How do we inspire our people to act and have a tangible impact on our clients and in our communities? These are just some of the questions we’ve been asking since we began our sustainability journey and Earth Month presented an opportunity to pose these questions to our larger community at Prophet. We knew it was critical to engage Propheteers to share Prophet’s progress in our sustainability journey and be a part of the conversation.

Earth Month Recap

One day is simply not enough to immerse in conservation and celebrate this beautiful planet we call home. So, with Earth Day on April 22nd, the Prophet Impact Sustainability Team took Propheteers on a month-long sustainability journey. This April, we spotlighted Mother Earth through a variety of programming to spark learning, conversation and action around sustainability across the firm.

Our first event was an inspiring start to Earth Month and exposed Propheteers to the different actors that are working together to slow down the negative impacts of climate change. Special guest panelists, Marc O’Brien, Co-founder of Climate Designers, Rosalia Lugo, Environmental Health Activist, Austin Whitman, Founder and CEO of Climate Neutral, and our very own Tosson El Noshokaty, Founding Partner and Advisor for Good Carbon and Oceans2050, shared their perspectives on the climate crisis and how they are leading a more sustainable future across sectors.

Our second educational event was all about circular design. Propheteers learned about shifting to a circular economy and key design principles to create more sustainable products, services and solutions. Propheteers had a chance to break out into small groups and ideate around a real-life design challenge to apply these circular design principles and learn how these concepts might play into our lives and work at Prophet. We also shared some of the client stories that put sustainability at the center: from working with a nonprofit to protect biodiversity in Vietnam, to partnering with a high growth organization focused on building a sustainable and productive food system, to envisioning a fast-food brand’s future kitchen where material and energy waste is designed out.

Our final event looked internally and provided Propheteers with an overview of our sustainability journey from the South Pole team. Propheteers gained insight into key climate terms like Scope 1-2-3 emissions, carbon credits, and net-zero. In addition to sharing Prophet’s GHG footprint from 2019 and 2020, we also began to explore what actions we might take to start reducing our carbon footprint such as setting a science-based target, leveraging renewable energy, and investing in climate credits.

“We know that our own sustainability journey can always be enhanced and Prophet and our clients can continue to do better for our planet.”

Alongside these educational events, we held an Earth Day Every Day photo challenge, where Propheteers were invited to submit photos in three categories: #Act Now, #Natural Beauty and #Nature Selfie. From photos of a glacier park in Iceland to the mighty Iguazu Falls, Propheteers captured the scenic wonders of our Planet. There were also photos of trash piling up in Hawai’i and an overflowing makeshift trash can that highlighted the urgent need to take action now to build a greener future together. Propheteers across the firm also gathered with their local office teammates in person and virtually to celebrate Earth Day. There was fun to be had- from panting succulents to enjoying a plant-based meal together, to participating in a sustainability-themed trivia.

Prophet’s Next Steps

So where are going from here?

At the individual level, we hope that Earth Month inspired Propheteers around what it means to live more sustainably. Many have committed to making more sustainable choices daily and volunteering their time to participate in sustainability-focused activities during our upcoming Prophet Impact Day.

At the firm level, Prophet will be continuing to partner with South Pole to declare a greenhouse gas reduction goal (e.g., Net Zero), and subsequently develop sustainability strategies and a roadmap to reduce our carbon footprint. On the client-side, Prophet has dedicated resources to building a suite of ESG offers to help business leaders apply a systems thinking mindset that involves the planet and elevates sustainability in their organizations. ESG efforts will be critical to making sustainability more “real” across the business world.

Finally, at the global level, we will continue to spotlight and drive action for more sustainable practices, both within our firm, to our clients and to our networks. We know that our own sustainability journey can always be enhanced and Prophet and our clients can continue to do better for our planet.

FINAL THOUGHTS

While Earth Month at Prophet may have ended, the conversations around climate and sustainability continue. We know it will take a coordinated effort between governments, institutions, businesses and people all over the world to build a more sustainable future. At Prophet, we are proud to be taking steps in our own sustainability journey.

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Four Critical Shifts for Tech Brands Today

Technological advancement has long been a driving force moving society forward. From underlying network advancements to ongoing software and hardware innovations, many of today’s biggest companies have achieved success by being at the forefront of technology.

But when considering what matters to consumers, what does it really take to become a technology leader in this modern era?

In this year’s Prophet Brand Relevance Index®, we once again saw technology’s rising impact in building brands that are relentlessly relevant in consumers’ lives. Major tech companies like Apple, Spotify, Bose and Android have continued to dominate the top five and fast-rising tech brands also captured people’s heads and hearts in an unprecedented way.

While the fundamental principles that define a leading brand stay true, our findings emphasize that the way in which these principles are delivered needs to evolve in order for brands to stay at the technology forefront.

1. Ruthlessly Pragmatic: From Economics and Efficiency to Consistency and Dependability

For many, pre-pandemic living demanded efficiency, productivity and outcomes – and technologies enable that. Tech leaders compete on superior specs, technical ability and cost-effectiveness, especially in Asia. But, one of the likely lasting trends resulting from the pandemic is a shift towards a slower, simpler life. With consumers looking for quality over speed, superior performance is now increasingly defined by a dependable, reliable and consistent experience.

Dyson believes in the value of engineering perfection in daily chores, as opposed to “get it done quickly.” Its strong emphasis on prototyping and refinement to achieve the art of precision is evident across product categories. Consumers trust Dyson for how consistently dependable their products are – no matter if it’s a vacuum or a hairdryer. They can rely on Dyson to accomplish their tasks, without dreading any mishaps when using.

The shift: As we emerge from the pandemic the definition of pragmatism is no longer surface-level results. Brands must use technology in a way that delivers long-term, dependable performance.

2. Pervasively Innovative: From Bigger and Better to Designing with Care

Great technological leaps have been made in the past few decades. Tech brands have focused their innovation story on “bigger, thinner, faster, stronger” to claim leadership. But with a renewed focus on what really matters in life, consumers are more interested in how technology can enable and empower – rather than disrupt – their lives. Innovation is less about “best in the world”, and more about human-centered design that delivers incremental but consequential progress.

Samsung has always been a leader in the TV category. It used to focus on innovations such as OLED and its curve feature but its latest flagship, The Serif, presents a shift – it isn’t the most innovative choice when it comes to the specs (size, thinness, etc.) but it is able to chime into the ambiance of users’ life and become an integral part of their lifestyle.

“Many of today’s biggest companies have achieved success by being at the forefront of technology.”

Peloton also rises fast in the post-pandemic era. It focuses less on hardware advancement but on content creation, offering curated and fresh home exercising experiences that give the brand a unique edge as a user-centric innovator.

The shift: As technology is increasingly democratized, technology leadership can no longer be defined by groundbreaking patents as the only tickets to entry. Instead, innovation can be achieved by zeroing in on customer pain points and leveraging technology in meaningful ways to solve them.

3. Customer Obsessed: From Connected Devices to a Connected World

IoT and smart living aim to create a more seamless life but not all ecosystems today have consumers at their center – some were developed to expand portfolios and create switch barriers. As consumers mature and the future of Web 3.0 fundamentally changes how people connect, the role of technology also needs to move from connecting devices for an easier life to enabling human feelings and interactions, with people’s inner selves, their surroundings and the world at large.

As DJI expands its portfolio, its marriage with Hasselblad wasn’t only about building an ecosystem but also about helping creators experience it differently. Fusing Hasselblad technology onto the consumer drones allows creators to capture extraordinary color and granularity, heighten their senses and strengthen their connection with the world.

The shift: Technology is no longer an end in itself; true customer obsession means using technology as a means to enable and empower meaningful human connections.

4. Distinctively Inspired: From What I Like to What I Believe

The “early adopters” are critical for technology companies and therefore many brands focused on building “newness, imagination or adventure” to mirror their attitudes. But true advocates for a technology leader are people that follow the brand through generations of innovations and upgrades. More than ever, consumers are demanding brands that align with their core beliefs and values and connect them with like-minded individuals.

Where brands normally compete against each other on technicality and performance to win the hearts of consumers, Tesla leads with a core belief to accelerate a sustainable future. It has inspired a like-minded group to follow the brand since its inception. Their unwavering advocacy has become a major driver of Tesla’s exponential growth around the world.

Grab, Southeast Asia’s dominant player, originally in transportation and delivery services, has the mission of driving the region forward by creating economic empowerment for everyone. This belief guides the brand whenever it expands its business horizons. For example, its latest financial products include micro-loans and microinsurance to serve historically underbanked populations.

The shift: Technology is progressive and pervasive. Brands need to go beyond mirroring attitudes and personality expression and must instead lead with core beliefs and shared values that move people and society forward.

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To be a leader in technology today means delivering consistent experiences, improving lives through purposeful innovations, enabling meaningful connections and driving societal progress.

As we emerge from the pandemic, we are reentering a world where technology has – and will – continue to play a dominant role in shaping our lives and our collective future. A shift to Web 3.0 will demand brands to pay more attention than ever to how they stay relevant as underlying technologies and consumer expectations continue to evolve.

Download the 2022 Brand Relevance Index® today for more insights on how companies can establish technology leadership to build a more relentlessly relevant brand.

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Meet the Prophet Board 

Learn about the esteemed behind-the-scenes advisors who play an active role in shaping Prophet’s business.

We are lucky to have a diverse set of leaders at Prophet who bring unparalleled expertise and experience to their roles – advancing our firm’s transformation and grooming rising stars in our community, all while showing up as thought partners and allies to clients and peers. Day in and day out we see them lead by example and help propel Prophet’s growth.  

There is also a set of esteemed behind-the-scenes advisors that play an active role in Prophet’s business trajectory, providing nuanced POVs to help us make big strategic decisions.  

Introducing… Prophet’s Board of Directors 

We asked members of the board about their experience working with the firm – and some of their favorite stories from having a seat at the board table.  

If I was a fly on the wall during a Prophet board meeting, what would I see and hear? 

David Aaker: “It should first be known that when you have a well-run and well-managed company at the top like Prophet, it says a lot about what the board will do and what their role is. It’s painful to be on a board that lacks good leadership. It’s a joy to be on a board of a company with a strong CEO and staff. Given we have that, the composition of the board is exceptional. Many have been on the board for a long time, with our newest members now having been on for a couple of years now. During Prophet board meetings you hear experts with relevant backgrounds that are reinforcing and providing input into the strategies that are leading the company in the right direction. The meetings are supportive and encouraging, using their experience and expertise to guide, lead and provide suggestions to the strategies that are being pursued or influencing new strategies to try. They are also encouraged to be critical, as its an open and respectful environment.”

Niels Nielsen: “It’s very similar to what you see and hear on client teams in the company: Sincere and sometimes heated discussions with a commitment to substantive outcomes. More questions and suggestions than statements. A tonality of no mercy, no malice. Some bantering and teasing. Lots of laughter and good humor.” 

Chan Suh: “If I were to take the question literally, I’d say a bunch of people crammed into a room – or sometimes Zoom – and, as the hours go by, you will see people wilt a little bit over time. The table gets messier and there’s usually plenty of sugar and calories. There’s always seriousness to the questions we are asking, but not about ourselves. There’s good humor, which is remarkable and makes the time together light-hearted and fun. While we spend a lot of time as a core board, we also spend plenty of hours talking and exchanging information with different leaders and peers. Any given board meeting there could be five to seven different teams of people coming in and out and participating in the discussion.” 

William Dean Donovan: “I always thought that the best consultants are experts at the art of supportive confrontation.  You would find a fair amount of that at one of our board meetings.  The Prophet team works hard to put high-quality ideas in front of the board and asks us to challenge their thinking to help make the best decision and create understanding among everyone on the team.” 

Michelle Bottomley: “You would see a great deal of camaraderie and genuine appreciation for the vision/strategy/work and strong results being delivered by the operating team with an appreciation for the respective strengths and perspectives around the table. You would hear a good combination of laughing and lightheartedness with robust discussion/debate on key strategic topics. Our board has a healthy blend of outside and insight board directors with diverse perspectives and professional experiences that complement each other and brings strength to the Prophet strategy.” 

What is one thing you’ve learned since serving on the Prophet board? What is one thing you’ve taught other members?  

Chiaki Nishino: “As a Board member who is also an operating executive at Prophet, managing the day-to-day of our business, it’s been valuable to deliberately put on an external shareholder lens on top of the client and employee lens I always have on. It helps me take a step back to evaluate Prophet from a long-term value creation perspective on a quarterly basis. Our board members come from very different backgrounds, so the questions asked in the board room are just as valuable as the discussions we have.” 

Niels Nielsen: “Out of the more than 35 boards, on which I serve/have served, Prophet is one of the few that have excelled in the sense that building a company is much more than growing its business. It makes me proud to be part of a company that is a consistently successful business, but which is successful because it is a company that grows its people; grows through its people, and consistently strives to do right.” 

David Aaker: “As a Board member who is also still putting out thought leadership into the market, I periodically I bring my books and IP to the meetings. Both to maximize reach and get thoughts and opinions on it. During the meetings, I share my expertise on the strategies we are discussing. In general, it’s a joy and fun to be around such interesting and capable people.”

Gian Fulgoni: “I’ve learned that the Prophet team is second to none in addressing the wide range of business issues that Prophet solves for its clients around the world. I’m confident in saying that because I’ve been able to experience first-hand as a board member and also on the client side.”   

Michael Dunn: “Management teams can sometimes see the board in an adversarial way, spending more time “packaging” information for board consumption than digging into the real issues the company is facing. But I really view it as a space for enrichment and exploration. That mindset has allowed us to really guide and steward the firm into a much more authentic place. We are so lucky to have such a strong group of collaborators with diverse experiences and expertise. I’ve learned that the more open and transparent the key questions we are wrestling with, the more we gain from our time together. If we are vulnerable about our challenges and shortcomings, we are able to get into the rigorous discussions that lead to better thinking and an increased probability that our solutions will be successful.”  

Chan Suh: “I’ve learned the different decision-making and execution. The board alternates: So sometimes the board sets direction and other times the board absorbs the direction that the firm has taken and helps to advance it. I’ve been on different boards for nonprofits and I’ve led my own board for an enterprise before. But as a board member at Prophet, I’ve learned more about how to balance the two. In terms of teaching, I’ve brought energy around trying and starting new things – and bringing them to either success or failure quickly. That’s always been a part of my DNA and I’ve certainly shared it with the board.” 

What excites you the most about Prophet’s transformation and growth trajectory?  

Gian Fulgoni: “It’s always exciting to be associated with a successful and fast-growing transformation of a business – I’ve been fortunate to see it happen both inside Prophet itself and on the client side. It’s also exciting to realize that digital transformations today not only mean transforming companies that weren’t digital but also transforming companies that were already digital, but which hadn’t kept up with the pace of change.”     

William Dean Donovan: “Prophet is at the intersection of analytics, design, brand and marketing strategy.  Those are threads that can create an enormous impact if woven together properly.  Prophet’s interdisciplinary approach stitches the pieces in a unique way.  That creates unique thinking and big impact.”   

Michelle Bottomley: “Prophet has built upon our strong foundation in research, insights and branding as a platform for business transformation to deliver practical solutions using modern tools to generate demand, brand engagement and brand delivery by employees. This combination of strong insights-based strategy with the ability to implement programs that drive differentiation and growth is something I wish I tapped into while a CMO myself. Secondly, I am enormously impressed with the talented leadership team — who are world-class pioneers in their respective areas – and our leader’s ability to stand up new practices that help clients succeed where they need Prophet to extend the brand most.” 

Chan Suh: “Transformation and growth is the ultimate destination of a marketing, brand, organizational, experience consulting. Externally, the world needs this in a way that we have now been able to formulate. I really feel like we’ve hit the nail on the head in terms of relevance and need. Internally, what excites me most is that it’s a big tent. And as long as we keep it a big tent, we will be able to welcome a lot of skill sets that we don’t yet have and we will be able to grow the expertise and stay ahead of the competition.” 

David Aaker: “It’s amazing that we’ve come this far as a firm and have worked with the caliber of clients we are and have driven the impact we have for our impressive roster of clients. The problem, of course, is to get credit for it in the market and to be known for it. We do so much beyond brand that the world doesn’t yet know. For now, we are our client’s biggest, best-kept secret and I see that changing soon.”

What Prophet value resonates with you the most?  

Chiaki Nishino: “Share Joy – we constantly discuss at the board how we partner not only with our clients but with each other as team members in a way that’s incredibly unique and authentic. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and take the time to connect as teammates and people. I strongly believe that our success comes from not only the capabilities we bring to bear for our clients, but the way in which our people team and relate with each other.”

Chan Suh: “Give and Grow is a value that we exercise, demonstrate and live every day. It is visible in how we work and how we operate the business. We are constantly trying to create one team by investing in the personal and professional growth of our people and our clients. We do so by being a coach, a sounding board or a cheering section. And while we all have unique needs and goals, we all have a shared understanding that we’re in this together—and by offering our time, empathy and brainpower to support the collective potential of our teams, clients and communities, we flourish together. We may work in different areas and have different skillsets or expertise, but we believe in something central that is greater than the sum of its little subgroups.”

Michael Dunn: “It’s a toss-up between Create with Courage & Open Minds. Our Create with Courage value focuses on the entrepreneurial spirit that is foundational to Prophet. When something could be better, we don’t settle—we lean in and create. We help clients push boundaries when they are tackling their biggest challenges in order to drive growth and impact. When we put our heart into our work while applying intellect, creativity and rigor to execute, we can push boundaries. I am quite fond of Open Minds because Propheteers are unmistakable—we’re upfront about who we are. We’re united, but different, which allows us and our clients to achieve more together. It’s in our nature to seek diverse voices and embrace all backgrounds and lived experiences. We feel that by showing up honestly and openly with each other and clients, we discover new paths for connection and creativity. It’s a culture we’ve built that we are incredibly proud of.”

To learn more or be connected with one of Prophet’s leaders, reach out today.  

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We are grateful for the tremendous support from this all-star group of leaders – individuals who have led powerful careers and are committed to paying it forward. As our firm continues to grow, we thank the Board of Directors for pushing the direction of our firm and advising us throughout our transformation.  

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Elevating Wellbeing Can Inspire Change in Healthcare Organizations

Since the onset of the pandemic, mental health and burnout have become more common topics of conversation in the healthcare space and within the broader culture. The use of #MentalHealthAwareness in more than four million Tweets in 2021 alone, for example, shows just how common conversations about mental health have become.

Increased consciousness of behavioral health and wellbeing was one of the driving forces behind the Great Reshuffle, which significantly hit the healthcare industry. It’s estimated that almost 20 percent of healthcare workers quit during the pandemic. And because behavioral health is very much on the minds of workers, it’s an urgent topic for employers too, in healthcare and nearly every other industry.

Forward-looking organizations are leaning into the critical issue by seeking ways to facilitate more productive conversations and provide additional behavioral health support.

Why Employers Should Support the Health of Healthcare Workers

Today, wellbeing in the workplace has evolved to become more holistic, including both physical and behavioral health. As we highlight in our POV on employee wellbeing, Prophet believes a balance of flexibility and connection is key to promoting wellbeing among employees across industries; empathetic leadership and emotional support also play important roles. This can help workers feel free to bring their authentic selves to the workplace and have candid conversations about sensitive topics, including mental health.

“Employers can enable a sense of belonging, where workers see how their own values align with the organization.”

By talking about the health of healthcare workers and creating space for conversations on wellbeing broadly, organizations send the message that their people are not alone in navigating stress, anxiety and fatigue. In proactively helping healthcare workers live their best lives both on the job and outside of work, employers can enable a sense of belonging, where workers see how their own values align with the organization.

How to Prioritize and Boost Wellbeing Across Healthcare Organizations

Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model focuses on four elements key to organizational health and success: DNA, Mind, Body, and Soul. By changing the way wellbeing is talked about in the workplace, each element contributes to a healthier workday and more effective employee retention.

The ‘DNA’ is the Heart of Wellbeing

Wellbeing can – and should – be a part of an organization’s purpose and employee value proposition. Whether an organization has long provided behavioral health benefits or is just now considering doing so, supporting ongoing conversations around wellbeing can provide deep and authentic connections. This is especially important at a time when healthcare workers are prioritizing wellbeing in their workday and are more likely to move on if those expectations are not met.

The ‘Mind’ is How to Enable Wellbeing

Drive change across the healthcare workforce by actively promoting greater wellbeing. The organizational mind can be shaped by educating workers on the importance of behavioral health, providing useful resources, and building awareness of these offerings. Across industries, many companies are offering subscriptions to mental health platforms and meditation apps (e.g., Calm Business and Headspace for Work), which offer exercises and tips to stay focused and mindful throughout the day.

The ‘Body’ is How to Act on Change

To help healthcare workers feel equipped in prioritizing their wellbeing, organizations can change their operating model by putting in place processes and systems that support greater behavioral health and continuously measure their effectiveness. While workers navigate implementing wellbeing tools, organizations can encourage workers to share what is and is not working so that the types of resources being provided can simultaneously evolve.

The ‘Soul’ is How to Ignite Belief

These are the mindsets, behaviors, and rituals that continually demonstrate that wellbeing is an organizational priority. For instance, when leaders in the healthcare space open up and share their own stories on behavioral health and wellbeing, people get the message that it’s an important consideration. By furthering the dialogue on behavioral health and creating a sense of belonging, organizations will have happier, healthier workers.

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While healthcare organizations are limited in their ability to provide the flexibility (e.g., remote working) that some workers want, there is an opportunity in the healthcare space for organizations to support their employees’ behavioral health deeply and authentically.

As talk about behavioral health becomes the norm in the workplace, companies are seeking to build more genuine connections with their employees. Removing the stigma of talking about mental health is a great first step to creating lasting change. Robust behavioral health programs will become standard features of benefits for those organizations that want to stand out as “employers of choice.”

Get in touch with our Healthcare specialists and our Organization & Culture experts if you would like to learn more.

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A Six Step Guide to Digital Product Creation

Launching successful digital products is extremely difficult. In fact, 95% of products that are introduced each year fail. The digital product landscape has become much more complex and specialized – from grocery delivery apps to customer service chatbots – digital products shape the way we live, connect and do business.

However, it takes more than a killer novel idea to make it rich and successful. The process of bringing the digital product to life, from an idea on paper to practical reality, with development, testing and refinement is daunting and where many fail. While you can never guarantee success (who knows when a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic will dramatically change the world and markets), you can greatly reduce the risk of product failure by taking a methodical and intentional approach to how you build digital products.

While each product is different, successful digital product creation requires an intentional chain of steps to validate. Through our tried, tested and validated iterative approach, we collaborate with clients across industries and verticals to define, launch and scale successful digital products in-market at pace. A digital product is not simply a mobile application or a website. We think of a digital product as having these four components:

(1) A clear user value proposition, that is (2) delivered through a value-generating business model and is (3) supported by an operational model that optimizes consistent delivery of services, which (4) customers and/or employees interact with through digital interface(s).

As you can see there is a lot necessary to get right in building digital products. So, where do you start?

The Six Stages of Digital Product Creation

At Prophet, we take an agile, insights-driven approach to helping our clients develop valuable and successful new products. As quickly as possible we move from assumptions to concrete knowledge fueled by market evidence around every element of the potential product. Our approach breaks the process into six specific stages:

  1. Opportunity Definition
  2. Rapid Experience Design
  3. Alpha
  4. Beta
  5. Core
  6. Retirement

Let’s dig into how these phases work in sequence to reduce risk and increase chances of success.

Stage One: Opportunity Definition

The opportunity stage is one of the most critical phases of digital product creation. Before even beginning to sketch a design or write a line of code, it all starts with defining a valuable opportunity asking, ‘what is the problem that needs to be solved, is it worth solving and does it match the strategic goals for the company?’  Often, businesses think they already understand the problem, and this is precisely why many new products fail.

Prophet’s Experience and Innovation experts bring a human-centered design approach to the process of defining and designing these opportunities. It will often start by uncovering and designing a compelling experience strategy for how a company can distinguish and deliver value for its customers in desirable ways across the entire customer journey. This perspective, along with our deep expertise in service design and business design, defines initial concepts and objectives that formalize compelling product opportunities aligned to our client’s business strategies.

Questions we focus on answering in this phase are: 

  • Can we find valuable opportunities that match the strategic goals?
  • Who is the target audience, and do they have a large enough problem in line with the client’s aspirations?

Stage Two: Rapid Experience Design

The goal of this next stage is to iteratively validate and refine the opportunity and assumptions with target customers to gain essential evidence, deep dive into their unmet needs and embed decisive learnings. This level of fast-paced evidence-driven learning can be eye-opening for clients used to longer bureaucratic cycles of decision making and analysis paralysis.

Through this rapid process, we quickly arrive at a minimum viable concept (MVC). There are many steps to get to a fully finessed product, but we need to start with a concept from which we can get quick iterative end-user feedback so that we can best understand the opportunity and a possible solution. In this way, the MVC lets us quickly and cheaply test while we are iteratively improving our understanding of the opportunity.

Questions we focus on answering in this phase are: 

  • Can we design a solution for the target audience’s needs?
  • Does our evidence indicate the solution can deliver on the target audience’s unmet or underserved needs?
  • Can we define the functional capabilities necessary to deliver the solution?

Stage Three: Alpha

Armed with the best probable solution to the problem, the alpha phase is focused on the design, build and testing of the components of the product offering. Technical functionality, customer support, business models, content and data requirements enabled by strategic organizational coordination all become the levers we nimbly adjust to build the product offering. This requires frequent and consistent testing with target customers to refine every element of the product offering. Ultimately, the goal of this phase is to deliver the minimum functionality necessary to achieve product/market fit.

Questions we focus on answering in this phase are: 

  • Is this a sustainable product people will consistently reuse and/or pay for?
  • Does the evidence indicate that this solution would deliver differentiation and is there a viable business model?
  • Is there the will/skill/bandwidth to deliver this minimal viable product (MVP)?
  • Have the necessary people/process/data/capabilities been identified to deliver this solution at scale?

Stage Four: Beta

At the beta stage, the mythical product/market fit has been reached and now it’s about proving active customers would use the product consistently through a valuable business model. Groups that may have lightly engaged previously across marketing, sales, corporate development, legal, compliance, operations and others, now become fundamental to the success of the product and its go-to-market strategy. This is when we actively pursue approaches to grow the audience, reduce operational and customer acquisition costs and build new functionality to attract new customers without losing existing customers. It is an artful dance requiring sizeable bets to be placed on people, process, data and technology all while taking a measurable outcome-based focus on how to grow the business.

Questions we focus on answering in this phase are: 

  • Can we build scalable and profitable business value?
  • Does our evidence identify a scalable business model with a route to profitability?
  • What is the go-to-market strategy for scaled commercialization?

Stage Five: Core

This fifth phase is the promised land, where all the work has paid off and we have a validated product in the market, delivering customer and business value.  At this stage, we no longer need proxy metrics for product success but can move to standard business accounting and processes to support sustained growth in the enterprise – the scaling phase.

Despite the effort that has been expended up until this point, this is still a very common point of failure for products as they transition from incubating a new product to delivering through existing business metrics and accounting. This is part of why it is important to bring the company along on this incubation process to avoid organ rejection and yet keep enough distance to give novel and innovative ideas the space to grow. This product can be sustained either through an existing business unit within the company or by creating a wholly new business unit.  Either direction will require the product team to adopt a new set of goals, focus and investment to scale in a competitive market while consistently delivering value for customers.

Questions we focus on answering in this phase are: 

  • How do we structure the functional and operational capabilities within the company to scale this product successfully?
  • Which capabilities require partnership with outside companies, where might new capabilities need to be built or companies acquired to fuel growth?

Stage Six: Retirement

All products and services companies deliver will, at some point, outlive their value to the business and/or their customers. The ability to objectively evaluate which products and business lines to employ focus and resources is critical to the longevity and stability of the company.  In this way, we need to understand not only when it has outlived its use, but how impactful it will be to sunset the product line to the brand, the bottom line, the current customers and the larger market.  Through these lenses, we can begin to understand whether we will need to plan a migration of customers to another product offering, spinoff or sell this product to remove it from the brand and company responsibility, or simply turn off the lights.

It is very difficult to deprecate something that has been such a part of your company’s history, but being a resilient business requires tough choices about capital and resource allocation for sustained growth.

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No digital product development will be identical. However, by planning for each of these six stages you can set your product up for success. As a growth and transformation consultancy, it is central to our ways of operating to help our clients navigate all stages of the product lifecycle, particularly as they look to embed new capabilities, grow their audiences and differentiate themselves in volatile and competitive marketplaces.

From proposition to product, Prophet’s Experience & Innovation experts can uncover valuable insights, validate innovative ideas and design intuitive and engaging digital products and services to help your business achieve and maintain a competitive advantage.

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Nine Brand Building Lessons for Marketing in Web3

Blockchains and the tokenization of assets allow marketers to unlock new forms of community development and value exchange with consumers. In this article, we outline how marketers will need to re-evaluate brand building in Web3 based on nine observations. To do this, we’re drawing perspectives from the recent launch of Moonbirds, a non-fungible token (NFT) developed by PROOF Holdings.

While many likely don’t know Moonbirds as a brand, we’re using it as a case because we admire the brand-building mechanics this project is demonstrating within new Web3 possibilities. Moonbirds is an Ethereum-based collection of 10,000 unique Profile Pictures (PFPs). Each token doubles as membership of sorts, granting owners access to an exclusive Discord (a server where owners chat and hang out) along with unique in-real-life (IRL) events and digital membership benefits. The brand mirrors and further builds on proven tactics leveraged by NFTs like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) from Yuga Labs.

For context, Moonbirds launched on April 16, 2022, raising $66 Million in a matter of hours. In just 48 hours from its launch, it became the top traded NFT by volume, created more than $210 million in additional secondary sales and had a floor price of $62,000 (the cheapest bird available for purchase). Additionally, Moonbirds is already pushing into popular culture. Celebrities like Jimmy Fallon have even changed their verified NFT profile pictures on Twitter.

Though it’s the early days of brand building in Web3 with Budweiser, Taco Bell, Campbell’s, Adidas, Twitter, Gucci and countless others having launched NFTs, we can see why many of these big brands have been comparatively less successful in adopting some of the new rules of brand building.

Let’s use Moonbirds to illustrate nine brand-building lessons for Web3.

People are at the Heart of a Brand’s Reason to Believe (RTB)

Moonbirds was built out of PROOF Holdings which had already successfully launched PROOF Collective, a proven NFT community. The belief in the team – Kevin Rose (Revision3, Digg), Ryan Carson (founder of Treehouse), and Justin Mezzell, an experienced artist, illustrator, and product designer – is the core of why there is a demand for this project. At Prophet, we talk a lot about human-centered transformation. So, much of a brand’s success in Web3 will be built around having strong people committed to building the brand in addition to driving demand, engagement and the overall experience.

Leaders that Drive Brand Content Development and Community Engagement

Content and community for Moonbirds have been largely driven by its founders. Kevin is an avid podcaster (Proof, Modern Finance) and Ryan is one of the more prolific people on Discord and Twitter. Ahead of the launch, they’ve been on a roadshow translating the brand’s vision and building demand and understanding of the project. Web3 brand building will require a greater emphasis on leaders’ ability to be the marketers building demand for their brands vs. the legacy approach of the most junior or outsourced teams managing customer relationships, content creation and communications.

Evolved Monetization Strategies Pushing Perpetual Brand Building

Moonbirds is committed to reinvesting all raised funds in delivering for the community. This means that token holders are delivered value ahead of the brand capturing it. Over time, Moonbirds allows PROOF Holdings to build valuable infrastructure like new technologies, a strong team, community and much more which can be monetized in the future. Tokenizing these assets broadly contradicts the “create demand and sell” model of traditional commerce in favor of developing an always-on, brand-demand flywheel – one that creates ongoing value for a community of token holders. Web3 will push business model design to create sustained demand that engages communities gated by tokens. This will allow brands to collect perpetual royalties in a brand-demand flywheel.

Influencers Become a Rising Channel for Brand Building

Moonbirds unlocked a host of ecosystem partners beyond PROOF’s 1,000-member community to grow the brand. This includes some of the most influential bloggers, vloggers, podcasters, social posters and other Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in the space. As media is becoming increasingly decentralized, brands will need to partner and engage KOLs to play a very important role through longer-form audio, video and visual content.

Community Shares in Brand Marketing and Brand IP Ownership

Moonbirds (and other Web3 projects) violate a long-held brand-building belief on Intellectual Property (IP) rights being sacred to the brand. Every owl in the Moonbirds collection is owned by the community member that buys it. These owners have unique rights that unlock new possibilities; from making it their digital identity to designing clothing, to creating a gin brand featuring their unique owl. Some creators go as far as putting brand-built IP for owners into full creative commons (CC0).

“Prophet sees the next wave of brand building in Web3 where marketers rethink IP ownership and its value exchange with their communities.”

While this won’t happen in all industries, Prophet sees the next wave of brand building in Web3 where marketers rethink IP ownership and its value exchange with their communities. These communities will play a powerful role in the brand’s marketing army, sharing in the monetary reward, and helping the brand unlock uncommon growth.

Disruptive Design and Brand Visual Identity Systems

On the surface, Moonbirds design is basic pixelated art. That choice was deliberate so the art itself can live fully on the blockchain. What’s innovative about each bird is a design system that stretches the visual identity of the Moonbirds parent brand into unique community expressions of the owl for each community member. This flexible design system allows for many permutations. The process for building these also involves greater inclusion using a panel of diverse team members to inform design decisions. While not all Web3 brand building will result in individual NFTs, the design will stretch brands into more flexible, disruptive, inclusive, and adaptive visual systems that allow the brand to be more self-expressive, community-minded, and unique.

Continuous Brand Feedback Loops

Moonbirds leverages the 1,000 members of PROOF Holding’s PROOF Collective community to build the brand. These members became an idea engine and feedback loop that drove continued innovation for the Moonbirds launch. Decisions large and small were sourced to make the project more exciting and successful. We see a future of brand building in Web3 that doesn’t purely rely on smart product teams and strategists building brands, but also on open-sourced innovation and rapid, continuous feedback loops from brand communities that shape a number of brand-based decisions and capabilities.

Brand Roadmaps with an Ongoing Sequence of Innovative Activations

Moonbirds’ day-one announcement included a set of innovative experiences and activations they had planned for the communities. These included community meetups along with other IRL events, exclusive merchandise and access to a new version of the Metaverse called Project Highrise. Many legacy brands that have launched NFTs have fallen short by not thinking through such ongoing engagement and gamification or play with their communities. The best brand building in Web3 will solve the Brand-Demand equation by using a series of unique, ongoing and inspiring activations that will propel the brand and communities forward.

Moats Build From a Brand’s Unique Capabilities

Well-known personalities such as Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit), Tim Ferriss (best-selling author), Gary Vaynerchuk (entrepreneur), along with artists like Snowfro (also ArtBlocks founder), Xcopy, Larva Labs and Justin Aversano make up a partial list of the powerful network built by the founders of Moonbirds. This network allows the team to drive unique relationships and brand activations that can’t be achieved by others. One such signal for Moonbirds was the development of birds with unique space helmets, possibly getting special private tours of the SpaceX facility. We believe the future of brand building will rely on connecting tokenized goods like an NFT into gated access passes to both digital and physical products and experiences that only your brand can uniquely provide. These sources of value will be the true moats for brand building in Web3.

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NFTs provide a clear long-term value proposition for consumers that is hard to ignore: verifiable ownership, sharing in a brand’s value and near-frictionless sale and transfer of unique digital goods. This technology will inevitably disrupt nearly every industry (e.g., ticketing, membership, deeds for physical property, all forms of media, etc.).

With NFTs, it is fair to acknowledge some speculation around profile pictures (PFPs) and other art being created as a Ponzi scheme or a way to “get rich quick.” However, adoption continues at an exponential rate and what we see emerging early on, is that these types of NFTs are serving a fundamental physiological function that mirrors luxury goods in terms of belonging and self-esteem. That, coupled with strong communities and different practical use cases (meetups, physical spaces, exclusive access to events) are still being developed.

As brands continue to enter the proverbial build a presence in Web3, much will evolve and marketers should continue to watch the space and learn from projects like Moonbirds.

Want to learn more about partnering with Prophet on driving growth? Contact us today.

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How We Connect in a Hybrid and Remote Work Environment

Working in a hybrid environment for the past two years has shifted our approach to how we build and sustain our culture at Prophet. With 14 global offices and 600+ Propheteers, finding opportunities to connect and create a stronger community is important to the health and vitality of our firm. Our culture has always been a distinct reason people join and stay at Prophet and after two-plus years of being virtual, we knew we needed to reinvigorate how we connect and build relationships with each other.

In addition, we also wanted to recognize our talent and show them our appreciation for all the ways they contribute to Prophet’s success. How do we achieve this? Our answer – Prophet Connects. Focusing on our three key pillars of what makes a strong culture–connection, inspiration and appreciation–our Culture & Engagement Team created curated moments throughout the month of March to bring our employees together and create more personal and meaningful connections with Propheteers globally.

Inspired by the amazing talent within Prophet, we aimed to create a space that allowed us to learn more about each other and understand the different journeys and experiences of our teammates, to bring in outside inspiration and external speakers to share their stories, and to show our appreciation for our teams, leaders, and out people.

Week One: Connection

To respect the diverse time zones of our global team, we used a regional approach for week one. With 30 minutes on the calendars, Propheteers in each region were invited to join a call with very limited information about the event. Would these calls be exciting? Nerve-racking? Thrilling? The answer was yes to all of the above!

Small groups of Propheteers were placed in breakout rooms and tasked with two items. The first task was to answer the question: “What’s your connection?” Each group had several minutes to figure out what they had in common. Many found they all love camping, others discovered that everyone in their group enjoys the beach and some had travel dreams of visiting Paris. Once groups found their connection, they were then asked to create or find a meme and/or GIF that captured the spirit of their commonality. And boy did they deliver!

Propheteers who participated in this first event had two opportunities to walk away winners. However, just by showing up to the activity, they had the opportunity to win a truly special prize–connecting with their peers. This first event proved to be a great success. Not only did we make personal connections within the breakout teams, but we also provided an escape from the reality of everyday work, a moment to laugh together and simply an opportunity to have fun with one another while connecting with our people.

Week Two: Inspiration

Building culture and connections in a hybrid/remote world is hard. We miss the days of being in the office, sharing lunch or a cup of coffee together and catching up on each other’s lives. Our people wanted the opportunity to have smaller, more intimate connections on topics outside of current projects and work-related tasks. Inspired by TED talks, Prophet Talks emerged. Prophet Talks was all about inspiring our teammates. Over the course of three days, we had a line-up of 21 speakers on diverse topics. Space was limited in each talk as we wanted to keep the groups small for a more personal experience.

“Not only did we make personal connections within the breakout teams, but we also provided an escape from the reality of everyday work.”

Day one focused on finding purpose. We had regional, external speakers, like Culture and Innovative Curator Andy Stefanovich, share stories of how they found a sense of purpose in their work and personal lives. Prophet alums, Blums Pineda, MD and global head of internet and tech investment at banking for Standard Chartered Bank, and Wisdom Mak, a strategist for Chanel’s regional fashion team, shared their experiences of being leaders in a virtual environment, what it takes to keep your team engaged in a hybrid environment, and how you can be a strong thought leader in your career.

“Don’t stop me now” was the theme for day two of Prophet Talks. We highlighted Propheteers from all types of roles and areas of expertise and had them share their stories of success. Chiaki Nishino shared her journey from engagement manager to senior partner and president of North America. While another Prophet leader, Jeff Abbott, shared his process of writing over 20 novels in the last 20 years.

Day three’s theme was “all about the why”. Why is creativity at Prophet so awesome? Why is Dave Aaker so important? Why do we offer design services at Prophet? Digital? Healthcare? Social impact? Those were just some of the topics that were covered by our own Prophet experts. For example, London office Creative Director and Partner Gregg Finlay shared and inspired us with his passion for design and creativity. Also, from our Berlin office, Partner Layla Keramat explored the world of X&I and motivated us to think from different perspectives.

Week Three: Appreciation

Our people are what matter and what makes Prophet such a great organization to be a part of. We took this opportunity to recognize our people for the amazing work they do every day. From a slow reveal poem highlighting each class-to-class playlist to internal kudos and shout-outs, our team introduced something new each day to our fellow Propheteers. The finale of our three-week event was a class assignment where we asked each Prophet class what makes them the best. Teams were tasked to create 60-second videos answering the question, putting their creative minds and humor to the test. The activity wrapped up with a viewing of all the videos and participants voting on a favorite.

We won’t tell you the winner, but they have bragging rights and some pretty cool swage headed their way.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Why We Loved Prophet Connects

Those who participated in Prophet Connects felt more connected, inspired and appreciated by this experience. We set out three primary goals for this event. One–to help build stronger connections across regions. Two–to bring smaller, intimate groups together to bond over shared interests and passions. Three–to show our appreciation and gratitude to our people through sincerity and fun interactions.

We achieved all our goals and more. We made new friends, learned about each other and had a ton of fun along the way. Our event provided Propheteers the jolt of connecting energy they needed to kickstart the year. What we loved most about Prophet Connects? It sparked ideas across the firm and at a local level, inspiring Propheteers to make their own journey, bringing people together and building those important relationships. Looking to the future, we are excited to find new ways to connect, inspire and appreciate each other. Stay tuned…

Interested in learning more about Prophet culture? Visit our Life at Prophet page.

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Growing Sustainable Fashion: Inspiring Brand Moves for DTC Companies

Although the fashion industry traditionally follows seasonal trends, sustainability is proving to be a year-round wardrobe staple among DTC brands and their customers. Recycled materials, circular fashion and ethical supply chains are capturing headlines as brands depart from a legacy of wasteful production processes and find new ways to revolutionize the fashion industry’s carbon footprint.

Despite the ongoing buzz and urgency, among both customers and brands, to address such issues, the sustainable fashion market remains a fraction of overall fashion sales. Additionally, consumers’ intentions do not yet match their purchase habits. As documented by ecological certification company Oeko-Tex, 69% of millennials report an interest in purchasing sustainable fashion, however only 37% purchase sustainable fashion. This points to a meaningful opportunity to convert that interest into a purchase.

As DTC fashion companies look to expand the ethical and sustainable share of the overall fashion market, they must consider the factors that are hindering consumers from purchasing more sustainable garments. The high price point of sustainable clothing, low awareness of the environmental impact and lack of trust in sustainability claims have been clear limiting factors.

Brand loyalty stands out as a key strategic move that DTC companies can immediately pursue to increase their share of the sustainable fashion market and help grow the industry overall. Brand loyalty can help DTC companies increase their relevance amongst consumers and break down some of their hesitations about sustainable fashion.

To increase brand loyalty in fashion sustainability, successful DTC brands often focus on one, or both, of the following:

  1. Brand message
  2. Brand inspiration

These levers are powerful ways to shape consumer perceptions and drive enduring loyalty.

1. Building Loyalty Through Pervasively Innovative Brand Messaging

DTC fashion brands that are truly pushing sustainability forward and not resorting to greenwashing are building lasting brand relevance and loyalty. Some consumers are wary of brands that talk about sustainability without the innovations in the supply chain, or a business model to back up the claims. DTC fashion brands that create innovative messaging on sustainability have a chance to win in the market.

The LA-based sustainable clothing brand Reformation offers a powerful example of a profitable DTC fashion retailer that has managed to combine growth with genuine innovation in sustainability. Reformation has made understanding sustainability more accessible for consumers, by publishing environmental impact data and content for each individual item on its website. Its sustainability report from 2020 also highlights how it works with supply chain partners to utilize clean chemicals and ensure that 75% of its fibers meet its two highest standards for sustainability.

Reformation has also been a pioneer in making sustainability content feel approachable through clever taglines like “Carbon is canceled” and “Being naked is the #1 most sustainable option, we’re #2.” All in all, its commitment to building a community of loyal and environmentally conscious customers through DTC brand practices has shown great success.

2. Building Loyalty Through Distinctive Brand Identity

While important, innovation in sustainability messaging isn’t the only tactic necessary to drive DTC brand loyalty. DTC fashion companies must have distinctive, inspired products and a brand identity to match. The Business of Fashion’s profile of the divergent paths of DTC brands Vuori and Entireworld offers a cautionary tale of what happens when companies are not distinctly inspired. Vuori is a clothing brand that sells activewear and athletic clothing, while Entireworld was a leisurewear brand.

In October, Vuori secured hundreds of millions in investment to expand its activewear brand, while Entireworld shuttered. In addition to profitability, much of Entireworld’s failure was due to its undifferentiated product. Vuori launched new segments like men’s activewear and surf apparel, whereas Entireworld struggled to compete solely on its sweatsuits. Without new inspired apparel pieces and adjacent products, Entireworld failed to stand out in the marketplace.

“The high price point of sustainable clothing, low awareness of the environmental impact and lack of trust in sustainability claims have been clear limiting factors.”

Distinct inspiration has also allowed emerging fashion brands like Ahluwalia to gain an obsessive customer following. Ahluwalia’s designer Priya Ahluwalia has built her collection around repurposed vintage pieces. This signature look is gaining attention for breaking the mold and Priya has received industry-wide recognition winning the prestigious 2020 LVMH award amongst others. Ahluwalia’s pieces stand far outside the fashion norms that retailers like Zara and H&M adhere to, and this has built a small but loyal following for the brand.

However, the pressure doesn’t stop with consumer demand and creative competition, recent legislative pushes, like the Fashion Act in New York state, could require companies to “map at least 50% of their supply chains and disclose impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions, water footprint and chemical use.” This development indicates that the mandate for a more sustainable fashion industry will not diminish anytime soon.

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Reformation, Vuori and Ahluwalia demonstrate that on the path towards sustainability, DTC fashion brands are far from uniform. However, at their core, these brands share a drive to grow through innovation and inspiration that sets them apart from competitors. Most importantly, sustainability is at the heart of their brand story.

Prophet’s Vice Chairman, David Aaker says “The concept of a signature story – an intriguing, authentic, involving narrative – applies the power of stories to strategic messaging.”

Learning to create and leverage signature stories has truly become a “must-have” management competence. Companies that focus on brand loyalty through innovative brand storytelling and an inspired identity have an opportunity to grow market share now and in the future in the sustainable fashion market.

Prophet is working with leading DTC companies in fashion and across industries on brand strategy, growth strategy and performance marketing. Interested in finding out more? Contact us today. 

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