This is the third article in a series based on our latest research series, Catalysts: How to Build an Adaptable Organization That Thrives During Uncertainty. In the previous article, Catalysts: Transform Purpose From Catchy Slogan to Growth Engine, we explored how the most adaptive companies use their purpose to drive compelling business strategies.  

A culture of experimentation is essential for innovation and growth. And while virtually every business leader knows that’s true, at least in theory, relatively few companies know how to build that culture. Through our research, we uncovered plenty of reasons organizations resist experimentation. Fear and short-term thinking top the list.  

Today’s economic uncertainty makes many organizations even more timid about investing in experimentation. “Since the Great Depression, there have been nine bear markets,” says Mark Jamison, former Global Head of Design and Innovation and currently Head of Global Accounts for Visa. “Humans are not designed to take a longer view. They tend to be reactive, particularly in times of stress. Leaders need the fortitude and the foresight to step back and ask, `What strategies might we put in place to go after opportunities this uncertainty has created?’ You can then use this foresight to focus the organization’s energy on delivering outsized impact while competitors are inwardly focused.”  

But too often, organizations shut down that scientific spirit. Experiments often fail, and that scares people. A 2020 Gallup survey found fewer than one in ten respondents strongly agreed with the statement, “I take risks at my job that could lead to new products or solutions.”  

Ironically, the same leaders who struggle with encouraging experimentation are often the same ones lauding data-driven decisions. To foster an organization that effectively uses iterative experimentation, leaders must promote the discipline of regularly testing hypotheses. And, like any scientist, they have to learn to view every outcome, failure or success, as progress. Only then can innovation flourish.  

Encouraging an A/B Ethos 

Firms born in the digital era, such as Amazon and Netflix have repeatedly demonstrated that experimentation through A/B testing can help identify how to generate more value.  

Amazon, for instance, discovered that making a mobile game called Air Patriots easier unexpectedly increased the enjoyment of its end users, leading to more revenue. Netflix runs constant experiments to determine how best to personalize artwork so that each customer sees images with actors and genres they like best.  

Ghost kitchens have given rise to new levels of innovation for many large restaurant groups over the last three years. These kitchens are used to test new menu items, new restaurant concepts and even branding. They provide an efficient way to offer food delivery, of course. But these kitchens have also proven to be ideal testing labs. Since many have no visible connection to their existing brands, companies can measure market demand and consider how to scale winning concepts with relatively little risk. 

Increasing Organizational Experimentation 

There are specific actions organizations can take to lower the costs of experimentation and increase innovation. At Prophet, we use our Human-Centered Transformation Model. to think holistically about an organization. We view the organization as a macrocosm of the individual, with four distinct components. 

DNA: Define the Strategic Destination 

A company’s DNA is its purpose and core beliefs, which should inform all decisions and strategies. If innovation is part of these core corporate values and most companies recognize that new ideas are essential to survival, make sure the definition of innovation includes the idea of experimentation. Innovation often becomes synonymous with “new,” neglecting the disciplined experimentation required to hatch ideas. 

Mind: Enable Employees With the Necessary Skills and Knowledge   

Leaders must also examine the skills and competencies needed to encourage test-and-learn thinking. Knowledge, capabilities and skills compose the mind of an organization. Our research finds that the most innovative companies are reinforcing employee learning in multiple ways, including:  

• Invest in bringing in knowledge from outside the organization, including secondments with other companies, university relationships, entrepreneurs-in-residence and speaker programs. 
• Build experimentation into the performance review for every role. Embedding innovation into the reward and performance structure is vital. 

• Make agile methods, design thinking and innovation skills standard training across functions.  

Body: Provide Structure and Governance to Deliver the Strategy 

Leaders may also reconsider organizational structure. Companies need to be designed in ways that facilitate experimentation. Not only does that differ from company to company, but it also calls for various operating models within each enterprise. Groups working on near-term innovation likely require different teams, funding, processes and incentives than those working on long-term horizons. And organizations need ways to astutely assess the risks and rewards of each flavor of innovation.  

“We use the concept of one-way and two-way door decisions,” says Gabriel Mas, chief marketing officer at Amazon Mexico. “A one-way door decision is almost impossible to reverse. A two-way door decision is easy to reverse. For one-way door decisions, more analysis, discussion and senior leader input are provided. If a decision is a two-way door, people closer to the decision are empowered to move quickly and execute, and we have mechanisms in place to learn from each decision, good or bad.” 

Soul: Motivate and Ignite Belief in the Strategy  

Finally, the organization’s soul must celebrate experimentation, especially when an exciting hypothesis is disproved. That means developing traditions, symbols and rituals that make people feel safe. They must be encouraged to test ideas, even when their work results in negative data. It’s easy for a company to say it sees failure as a learning opportunity. But genuinely living that conviction is difficult.  

Leaders need to model and promote the scientist’s mindset, releasing any attachment to the positive outcomes of experiments in their organizations. They need to demonstrate that all experiments deliver valuable information. 

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How do you gain market share and attract the best talent in a market that looks like a sea of sameness? Where clients, partners, and talent see you and your competitors as interchangeable? Asset managers have long operated with this mindset when it comes to brand positioning.   Compounding this challenge in recent years is the need to navigate challenges that include fee compression, market volatility, shifting regulatory environments and talent friction.  

Consequently, asset managers have rapidly expanded their areas of focus: taking on a new tension around focused expertise vs. expanding the set of offers to serve investors (e.g., new industries, specialties, alternative investments, ESG investing, real estate, digital assets, etc.). Many have used expanded offers to deepen their relationships with clients and successfully compete but at the price of sometimes murky associations around specialization. Such go-to-market strategies have made it confusing for new investors to confidently invest and, at times, for asset managers to confidently sell a broader set of investments and capabilities.  

Facing New Opposition  

Rising interest rates, inflation, inverted yield curves, disruptive technologies (AI, digital assets), and rising global tension have shrunken available Assets Under Management (AUM), which has only increased investor trepidation as they conserve cash at a time when access to capital is more costly.  

Automation and AI are also shifting the paradigm for acquiring AUM, and there could be a semi-industry rotation. The sales and client engagement processes are also evolving as a consequence of technology. It’s less about being “close” to investors for AUM and more about being “ubiquitous” and/or “famous” for something.  

The theme of 2021 was a world of too much money chasing too few assets. The theme of 2023 is too little AUM for too many asset managers and their expansive sets of offers. 

Consolidation is the next imminent frontier we are seeing. Franklin Templeton’s $1bn+ purchase of rival Putnam Investments and Lansdowne Partners’ plan to acquire UK equity investment manager Crux Asset Management are only the beginning.  

The Asset Management Brand-Demand Challenge  

While consolidation will make newly combined entities more competitive and allow them to capture efficiencies, it will not solve the two underlying challenges present in the asset management space:  

1. A need to establish or regain slipping relevance: Every asset management brand covered in Prophet’s Brand Relevance Index (BRI) saw a decline in relevance from 2021 to 2022, and all but one declined in relevance versus other brands from 2022 to 2023. Relevance, which directly relates to the bottom line, is noteworthy to all stakeholders. It creates importance to investors but also attracts and retains premier talent in a tighter AUM environment and bigger asset management ecosystem—building both brand and demand for the business.
2. A need to create coherence: As entities combine and grow, it is critical to ensure that not just the company but also its offers and capabilities are well-articulated, organized and understood—making it easier for investors to buy and asset managers to sell.  

5 Actions for Building a Winning Asset Management Strategy  

1. Acknowledge and understand your unique audience motivations.

Asset managers need to manage a range of stakeholders and monitor the emerging patterns in behaviors. For example:   

• Investors: Institutional and individuals are typically seeking risk-adjusted returns that outpace the other options available in the capital structure.   
• Portfolio Companies: Seeking sustainable growth through capital and expertise, but also looking for purpose and values alignment.  
• Capital Allocators: Seeking value creation, preservation of capital, and risk management for both the firm and its clients.  They also need the best talent to convey expertise, broaden access to capital, and drive outsized performance. 
• Talent: Looking to build unique career knowledge, gain experience, and get rewarded by working with the smartest people at asset management firms with the strongest cultures.  

2. Establish a clear brand purpose.

Asset management brands tend to place too great of an emphasis on what they do (alternatives, quant, fixed income) vs. answering bigger questions on how they do it (resources, ecosystem, talent) or, even further, why they align their purpose, promise, and principles to a particular vision. Brands that can’t get past what are likely to simply float along in a sea of sameness. Many asset management positionings have migrated to being ‘safe’ through a few primary lenses: looking towards tomorrow, spotlighting integrity and/or trust, and a focus on driving long-term value.  

We believe many of the declines in brand relevance for asset managers can be attributed, in part, to a decline in various key client sentiment heart factors as outlined by Prophet’s BRI. Heart factors encapsulate the emotional connections that the audiences will forge with brands, e.g., ‘connects with me emotionally’, ‘makes me feel inspired’ and ‘engages with me in new and creative ways’. The erosion of these heart factors vs. more rational head factors which have remained stable, e.g., ‘know I can depend on’, ‘delivers on a consistent experience’, and ‘makes my life easier’ reinforces the idea that asset managers have reached a perceived parity across products, services, and the overall brand.  Such underscores the likely importance of conveying a clear ‘how’ paired with a well-defined ‘why’ in the brand purpose with clients.    

A clear how may include things like:  

1. Your investment philosophy and approach 
2. Your organization’s talent, values, and principles  
3. Signature stories of lasting impact on employees, investors, companies, communities, and ecosystems 

A well-thought-out purpose is:  

1. Authentic – ties back to what you do 
2. Inspiring – connects with employees and customers emotionally 
3. Shared – creates connection and builds community 
4. Actionable – lived every day 

In Vice Chairman at Prophet David Aaker’s recent book The Future of Purpose-Driven Branding, he outlines the use of inspiring, and mission-driven signature social programs that deploy resources to address the most pressing societal challenges.  One shining example of this is State Street Global Advisors who commissioned the bronze sculpture Fearless Girl overlooking the New York Stock Exchange in anticipation of National Women’s Day.  This serves as a symbol of a part of the organization’s purpose to position on the gender equality gap and reinforces its position on taking an aggressive stance on its expectation that all portfolio companies hold at least one woman on its board.  The organization mentions it is prepared to cast proxy votes against board leaders when companies do not meet their diversity expectations.  

3. Power brand from within using a visible human-centered approach.

It’s hard enough to articulate a clear purpose in the crowded asset management space but even harder to ensure that brand purpose connects meaningfully to people and clients. The brands’ purpose needs to align with prospective talent and customers. Shaping a visible culture plays a critical role in attracting and retaining the best people which in turn garners the attention of clients. Bridgewater Associates famously pioneered a workplace culture relying on truthful and transparent communication dubbed “radical truth and radical transparency” as part of Ray Dalio’s principle-based approach. A human-centered approach involves bridging your brand purpose into a visible culture supported by a strong employee value proposition that:  

• Articulates what makes your company a strong place to work  
• Improves winning in the broad talent marketplace 
• Develops an enhanced foundation to support future and evolving talent needs  

Doing these three things requires building from the organization’s purpose but also driving careful consideration around the Employee Value Proposition and employee experience.  In some recent Prophet qualitative research in the asset management space, we found building a winning EVP requires deliberate care to the employee experience levers talent is looking for beyond compensation, such as:  

• Autonomy – giving employees the freedom to make decisions that matter to them 
• Mentorship – surrounding talent with leaders that inspire them 
• Clarity – on how the organization will value their performance and the capital available to them  
• Resources – being equipped with the right support to guide decisions and accomplish goals 
• Innovation – seeing their work and the work of the company evolving toward the future 

4. Revisit architecture, nomenclature, and value propositions.

Increasingly adding incremental investment products and services will raise organizational capabilities with impending M&A in the asset management space compounding that effect. But these new products, services, and areas of focus often get added to the existing array of capabilities that slowly stifle brand and portfolio coherence. Asset managers need to revisit the growing complexity of their investment focuses and develop an architecture and naming strategy that still complies with regulatory requirements but removes friction for both buying and selling offers designed to increase their AUM. Coupling this with strong value propositions that don’t just indicate what investments to provide but also how to pursue those investments in a way that serves to improve investor consideration and demand in addition to improving the ability for advisors to promote their services. The necessity for these services becomes evident when we consider a key finding from BRI, which reveals asset management brands fall short of advantageous relevance drivers that connect to aspects of having a strong brand architecture, use of nomenclature, and/or value propositions resonate with people in meaningful ways:  

• Emotional resonance (connects with me) 
• Value alignment (has a set of beliefs and values that align with my own) 
• Essentiality (I can’t imagine living without).   

5. Experiment to win with experience both internally and externally.

In an industry where both brand and culture follow predictable patterns and a substantial amount of investment follows critical business-as-usual actions around quality reporting, transparency, educational resources, technology, etc., it can be easy for marketing, business development/advisor activities, experience investments, and cultural investments to follow these patterns. Applying a portfolio construction theory to marketing, hiring, and culture investments to experiment with actions that set a brand’s purpose and culture apart can yield huge returns. Asset management company, Vanguard, is famous for owning the retirement space not just for investors but also employees whom they affectionately name their “crew”. The Vanguard Retirement Savings plan for this group offers 4% in matched contributions and an unheard-of 10% company contribution without limit.  

Acknowledgment: The authors would like to thank Prophet Partner Adam Tremblay for his input in creating this article. 

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Ask any marketer, and they’ll tell you that 2023 has been a year of budget cuts and canceled launches. According to Gartner’s CMO Spend and Strategy 2023 Survey, 75% of senior marketers reported being asked to do more with less. As budgets decrease, marketing expectations significantly increase, with 86% of surveyed senior marketers agreeing their organization must undergo significant changes in how they work to achieve their goals.   

Right now, that near-universal do more with less directive is an especially bitter pill. Marketers still have whiplash from the last few years, with some businesses seeing massive contraction during the pandemic and others experiencing dizzying growth, resulting in competing interests between brand and demand. Many hoped for at least a glimmer of normalcy.   

Between inflation and rising interest rates, the likelihood of a recession has become a daily odds-making game for economists. The risk is falling. Yet many, including CEOs, investors, legislators and consumers, are already entrenched in a `vibecession.’ They feel things are bad, even if economic indicators don’t support that view. In conjunction with the disruption of the last few years, it has become almost impossible for marketers to rely on historical planning processes and requires them to maximize flexibility, even as budgets and resources diminish.   

This uncertainty isn’t necessarily bad news for the creative and agile marketer. After all, disciplined belt-tightening can allow marketing leaders to reflect, establish new ways of working, and find creative ways to deliver maximum value with their current resources.   

As marketers look to close the year strong and head into 2024 planning, we’ve identified seven critical steps marketing organizations should take to strategically balance and blend brand and demand marketing agendas and inform next year’s planning efforts that are fast upon us. 

1. Translate Business Objectives Into Quantified Customer Goals  

The first and most important part of doing more with less is to remain diligent in driving business outcomes with a customer-focused lens. All activity should point directly at delivering business value for the short and long term. Ensuring you have customer-focused goals based on acquisition, retention, cross-sell and upsell and making your brand worth paying more for is the foundation to maximize resources.   

Once you have set your goals, you must regularly track and align your efforts to the business outcomes your organization expects marketing to influence or drive. To do this, we recommend developing a leading and lagging metrics ladder and establishing quarterly check-ins with your team. By doing so, you will know what is working in your marketing plan and feel more confident that every element of your marketing budget is maximized and driving ROI. And if you notice that marketing efforts are underperforming, you’ll be in a better position to quickly pivot your efforts.  

Learn more on how you can anchor your marketing activities and investments in business outcomes in our global research report, Brand and Demand: A Love Story.  

2. Do Fewer Things 

Peter Drucker famously wrote, “Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.” The same is true with marketers. Every dollar works as hard as possible, but the success of your budget is dependent on whether you invested those dollars appropriately, which is why marketing leaders need to prioritize growth opportunities and continuously analyze and optimize to ensure those efforts are practical and efficient.  

Obvious, right? But in a world where specialists and digital marketing skills are at a premium, many companies are overspending to build executional muscle in modern marketing tactics. But while they are actively improving their search and social skills, for example, they may lose focus on why they are in those channels in the first place. 

Companies can do more things right by doing fewer things and staying laser-focused on driving business outcomes and customer goals. Before greenlighting any initiative, even small ones, you must ensure they support those goals. When calculating the cost of your marketing efforts, measuring the cost in dollars and the resources and time your team needs to invest in executing is critical.   

Here are some key questions to help marketers prune the marketing calendar. If you’re feeling advanced, you can build a scoring system to help you prioritize.  

3. Prioritize Moments That Matter Most in Your Customer’s Journey 

As our Brand and Demand: A Love Story report noted, journey-based planning has become critical in the digitally driven marketers’ toolbox. However, as marketers adopt this concept, many need to work harder to make the most out of every moment in the journey, which spreads resources too thin and splinters impact.   

Studying the journey keeps organizations customer-centric and uncovers opportunities. But to maximize usefulness, marketers must decide on the most critical barriers to address and seize opportunities to build out the signature and memorable moments. 

Prioritizing the moments that matter the most in the customer journey calls for tough choices, especially when you need to do more with less. Marketing leaders prioritizing customer acquisition will likely lean toward awareness and consideration moments, while those focused on retention and loyalty will probably lean toward post-purchase moments. One thing to note when prioritizing these moments is to make a list of those that you are choosing to ignore now. Eventually, marketing budgets will increase again, and the moments you deprioritize can be revisited.   

Once you have prioritized your moments, you must ensure your teams leverage these moments for brand and demand opportunities. After all, doing more with less is sometimes doing two things simultaneously! By doing so, it will be easier for your team to make the right choices about the appropriate channels, experiences and messages you need to serve your customers and, at the right time, to drive results for your organization. 

4. Sharpen Your Value Propositions- Superiority That Matters 

To stay relentlessly relevant and earn customer respect and loyalty, strong brands must deliver meaningful, purposeful connections that appeal to people’s emotions with distinctive brand Purpose, Promise and Principles. At this point, many brands clearly understand why they exist and what they do. Still, in this low-spending climate, where every dollar counts, brands should revisit how they think about functional benefits, quality and superiority claims.  

When budgets and resources are constrained, it is a best practice to revise and sharpen your demand-based value proposition at the umbrella brand and product level, ensuring that product-level promises are crisp, compelling and competitive.  And, even more than that, based on things that your target audience can experience. Superiority in the lab or around the margins is one thing, but superiority that people can see and feel, that makes a real difference is another thing. Weaving those promises to reinforce and inform the brand story, and vice versa and ensuring that they are reflected across all in-market executions can boost short-term revenues, even as they support long-term brand health.   

Revisiting your value proposition may mean returning to tried and true basics while challenging assumptions within your organization. It can also result in your team reconsidering old-fashioned benefits and features to sharpen your customer value story, which should evolve and grow as your customer needs change. 

As you do so you should think through these critical questions: 

1. What are the specific tensions, meaningful benefit pillars and proof points that are critical to deliver on the brand promise?  
2. Do these need to change for different customer audiences?  
3. How can we uniquely deliver superiority that matters to customers?  
4. Are our proof points ownable and tangible?
5. Are the brand and demand value stories tightly interwoven? 
6. How can you test and learn before market scaling? 

5. Give Your Creative Assets a Make-over  

In recent years, much of the focus for marketers has been on where and how communications are delivered. It’s impressive how far many have come as they build expertise in performance marketing, owned and earned media, SEO and SEM.   

But many people forget that data shows the success of a campaign is dependent on the quality of the creative. Brilliant campaign ideas and breakthrough experiences are a must-have. Creative work at every point in the journey needs to be branded and rooted in demand-based product truths. It’s not enough to love an asset on the drawing board. It has to stand out in the specific context in which people will discover it. 

During times when you need to do more with less, it’s a good step to build upon your basics. Below is a sampling of a few ways you can do this: 

• Add more demand marketing strategies to your top-of-funnel efforts. 
• Dial up your brand messaging during the purchasing stage of your customer’s journey.  
• Sweat your call to action (CTA). You should vet and optimize your CTAs, even if you’ve used them a million times.  
• Ensure every experience and touchpoint leads your customers to the next milestone in their journey and propels them to the conversion and loyalty stages.  

On a side note, many marketers are integrating AI into their creative process to drive efficiency in their process and execution. We will touch on this more below. 

6. Leverage AI to Do More With Less

AI and machine learning, have played a critical role for marketers for several years. After all, both power programmatic buying, personalized messaging, predictive analytics, buy-now recommendations and chatbots.   

But, with the recent rise of ChatGPT and generative AI tools, businesses have begun experimenting with new ways to increase productivity and effectiveness. It’s becoming clear that the marketing teams that leverage AI tools can magically add more hours to their days.   

While we are at the beginning stages of this new evolution of generative AI, we have identified four key areas of AI that can help support your marketing efforts and teams today. 

AI is evolving fast, and marketers must remember that what they learned last week is outdated. Yet even in its infancy, it has the potential to save money, free up hundreds of hours and improve effectiveness. 

7. Elevate Scenario Planning  

It sometimes feels like we are working in patchy fog. Will the “vibecession” give way to a real one? Will do more with less be the bumper sticker for just a few more quarters or the foreseeable future? No one knows. But, effective scenario planning can mean the difference between simply surviving unexpected curveballs or thriving because of them. It’s the difference between mourning and moving.  

People often think of scenario planning as dealing with the long-term future for outcomes that are years away. But why not use it for the near term to proactively address scenarios that may jeopardize the ability to reach any prioritized goal? It can even be used at the level of an individual initiative to ensure quick response to in-market performance.  

Think of scenario planning as a game. A game board like the one below can be used to help with thinking ahead on owned-asset performance. We recommend building a cross-disciplinary team to scenario plan for your next launch, campaign or initiative. You can use this gameboard to strategize how you might react to potential scenarios, such as shifting media spending, changing messaging or revisiting content and social strategies.   

From there, teams can think about how best to codify and socialize the contingency plans, including the owners of levers. 

The job isn’t over when the game board is completed. Identifying when, how and who is responsible for tracking and implementing is critical. Additional cross-functional planning sessions can allow follow-up on hot topics and assign owners to chosen levers.   

Learn more about scenario planning in our recent AMA article. 

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Amy Scissons is the Chief Marketing and Communications officer at Russell Reynolds Associates, overseeing global marketing and communications for the leading executive search and leadership advisory firm.  

Scissons previously was at Mercer, where she served as Chief Marketing Officer and led marketing operations in more than 100 cities and 41 countries for the global human resources consulting firm. She brings over 20 years of experience across several industries and global markets. Scissons specializes in integrated marketing, demand generation, customer-centric digital and data-driven marketing and leading high-performance teams.  

Mat Zucker: Given the disruption of the last few years, marketers are often being asked to take on greater accountability to demonstrate immediate impact and ROI of marketing investment while creating tighter alignment with the business outcomes. Has that been your experience? If so, how have you shifted your strategy to show impact? 

Amy Scissons: The expectations around marketing delivered ROI have evolved since taking the role. Previously, this role was focused on communications and driving colleague engagement, but now it’s shifted to driving topline growth for the firm while carving out greater differentiation within the market. In particular, professional services and leadership advisory is a relatively homogeneous marketplace as we deliver similar services to our competitors. Differentiation is key to ensuring we continue to win in the market.  

To measure our impact, we look at marketing-attributed revenue, particularly inbound leads driven by digital or other channels. We also look at how effectively we sell differentiated service bundles tied to our client needs. To measure the success of our business development enablement, we look at win rates and the service portfolio’s overall growth.  

MZ: Within your organization, how do you partner with other internal business units and teams to unlock new opportunities for driving growth? Has this evolved in recent years?   

AS: Growth opportunities are a shared responsibility among business development, strategy and marketing. For example, our strategy team will identify organic growth opportunities. At the same time, our client-facing colleagues will highlight new business challenges our clients face, while marketing will use data and digital to identify new growth opportunities based on engagement. We collectively evaluate them as an organization and action them accordingly.  

MZ: Last year, we published a report, “Brand and Demand Marketing: A Love Story,” which speaks to the tensions between brand and demand marketing and why working in silos harms performance. Both are critical functions that need to work together to enable success. How do you balance brand and demand within your marketing organization?  

AS: Within our marketing and communications organization, we made a significant shift to our operating model and chose to build out more specialized roles within the team. This shift has changed how we can execute and the speed at which we can deliver. As a result, we are becoming much more creative in presenting our insights and data, which gives executives ways to interact with our insights and take them to the boardroom. For example, we may not always win the thought leadership topic game, but we can win on how we deliver our thought leadership. By shifting how the team is structured, we’ve become more agile, allowing us to do some brand, demand, and business development enablement work.  

 MZ: Now that you have this new operating model in place, are people still wired in the old way, hybrid, or have they fully embraced this new way of working? 

AS: Yes, we have adapted nicely to the new way of working, though it took time to map out workflows and ensure team members trust one another to deliver their part of the work. The briefing process is key every time we take on a new project. We establish the “why” of our project and challenge ourselves to think of creative ways to deliver the work.   

MZ: What kind of feedback do you get from your people regarding their careers and where they are in their journey? 

AS: We are a relatively new team. We are in our second full year as a fully formed marketing leadership team. We are all excited about the work we are doing. I give my team a lot of autonomy and space to innovate. Some of them are interested in AI, so they have dedicated time to play around with these tools. With AI, I’ve told them first to find a really small way to use it so that they can show the organization that we are thinking about it. The team quickly came up with the idea to build screensavers with our logo using AI, and now our consultants have this up on their desktops. Little things like that help build energy around innovation and move the organization forward, which excites the team. It feels like a small thing, but it gives people permission to experiment.  

MZ: Our research found that experimentation and a test-and-learn mindset are not nice to have but a must-have because if you only use benchmarks to measure success, you will fail. How does this concept sit with you? 

AS: I 100% agree. We do things we would never think to invest in as experiments and are always surprised to see the growth and opportunities that emerge. For instance, our Redefiners  podcast has been incredibly successful, but we did not predict that would be the case. I never thought we would see 25,000 downloads per episode in the first or third season. And because of this test, our podcast has become a successful investment in the Russell Reynolds Associates brand and is now a fully operational demand-generation tool.  

Test and learn is built into how we work. Some tests did not perform that well. For example, we thought this really cool digital pitch tool would completely change our win rate, but it didn’t, so we pivoted and killed it quickly.  

MZ: What big takeaway do you want to share with other CMOs and marketing leaders?  

AS: Creating an environment and a team that can be very agile is incredibly important, but you need to make sure you also have the right technology to support it. After all, much of your budget goes to your marketing technology stack. Having the right operating model is also important. You need to create a model that enables your marketers to work and act differently and not get stuck in the ways of working that are not working. It’s essential to challenge the organization, innovate, do things competitors aren’t doing and let ideas come from everywhere. Because my team is so agile, we can act on and respond to new ideas and bring them to market faster. 

MZ: What are the biggest challenges you believe other CMOs and marketing leaders face today and will continue to face in the next few years? 

AS: I am convinced that marketing is going through a massive disruption. AI will transform marketing, and the marketers who understand how to use AI, develop prompts and put them in workflows will see a lot of success. The challenge with the CMO role is that it is very broad and has high expectations. You only have a little time to think, transform, and drive change. But the CMOs and marketing leaders who figure out how to use AI in their workflows will be more productive and thrive.  

About Mat Zucker 

Mat is a senior partner and co-lead of Prophet’s Marketing and Sales practice. He helps clients transform digitally, finding new areas of growth in marketing, content and communications. Previously, Mat was the Global Executive Creative Director at Razorfish, served as Chief Creative Officer at OgilvyOne New York and held leadership roles at R/GA and Agency.com. In addition to helping clients creatively connect and engage with their customers, he hosts two podcasts, Cidiot and Rising.   

Are you interested in talking with Mat? You can contact him, here. 

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This article is the second in a series based on our latest research, Catalysts: How to Build an Adaptable Organization that Thrives During Uncertainty. In-depth conversations with senior executives across industries helped us define concrete steps organizations can take to ensure corporate purpose becomes a powerful growth engine. 

Having a mission, purpose or vision for an organization has been a business essential for more than a decade. In our interviews with senior leaders, purpose emerged as one of the five most important drivers for creating a culture of resilience. Yet the practical application of corporate purpose has fundamentally shifted in recent years, and it is fast becoming one of an organization’s highest priorities. 

It’s hard to overstate how fast the purpose train travels through the business landscape. In 2019, the Business Roundtable, a U.S.-based organization chockablock with globally influential companies, released a statement that distilled the new definition: Businesses can’t exist just to make money. They must also serve customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders.  

Months later, the global pandemic arrived. The crisis vaulted purpose-driven thinking into a new realm. COVID caused billions of people to re-examine their individual purposes. Businesses recognized that their workforce and society as a whole had begun to question their expectations about work. By early 2021, academics, economists and journalists began to record a dramatic reshuffling. Whether they called it the Big Quit or the Great Resignation, it all reflected a ferocious desire to prioritize life based on meaning.  

Companies responded in many ways, from increasing work/life balance initiatives to taking stronger stands on social issues. They sought more transparency and better corporate behavior. The number of companies striving for B Corp certification, which requires a full-scale commitment to purpose and higher ESG standards, has risen 38% since the pandemic’s start. 

Moving through 2023, people’s search for meaning through work continues. But economic uncertainty and large-scale layoffs have thrown new curves. People are still increasingly thoughtful about the brands they associate with as employees, consumers and investors. But, they’re more focused on job security and exhausted by bureaucratic inefficiency. 

Authentic Corporate Purposes Unlock Uncommon Growth 

An authentic corporate purpose can inspire and engage both employees and customers. For employees, purpose can inspire belief and cultivate hope for employees that their efforts will add up to something more significant. And for customers, purpose creates brand trust and signals they can and should believe in those brands. Customers and employees are much more loyal when a company’s product or service delivers on its promised value proposition and expressed purpose. 

Well-crafted purposes are durable and can help an organization navigate, particularly in tumultuous times. “Purpose becomes the bridge between us that allows us to be less physically connected but not less aligned,” says Kris Ahrend, chief executive officer of the Mechanical Licensing Collective, a nonprofit music rights administration company. “Purpose minimizes confusion and accommodates creativity. It is integral to maintaining that connectivity and alignment.” 

It’s also a lens for what comes next. “Our purpose is always at the root of our decisions for what to do next and why,” says an HR executive at a large financial company. “We never take our eyes off why we’re here as an organization.” 

A properly developed purpose is part of an overall management philosophy and allows continuous engagement with investors, employees and customers. Operationally, a well-framed corporate purpose is a tool for leadership alignment, a source of employee motivation, a criterion for business decisions and a natural foundation for the brand.  

Making Purpose Practical 

The most adaptive companies keep purpose alive rather than letting it become a platitude. They continually find new ways to use purpose as an engagement tool.  

Patagonia has long been known for its fierce environmental commitments. Over the years, that’s been expressed through supply-chain innovations, leading the re-commerce movement with Worn Wear, voter drives, and even suing the federal government to protect public lands. 

Recently, founder Yvon Chouinard made the most significant purpose-driven move ever, donating the entire $3 billion company to a foundation that will protect the planet. Earth is now Patagonia’s only shareholder. 

This bold move has made Patagonia the most relevant corporate voice in the environmental crisis. And it speaks directly to its adventure-loving and environmentally-conscious customers and employees. 

No other company has gone as far as Patagonia, but more are finding novel ways to express and expand their purpose in memorable and credible ways. Calm, made headlines when it volunteered to pay fines for tennis players like Naomi Osaka, who skip press events for their mental well-being. Chipotle, which has long stood for cultivating a better world, has made massive investments in fighting hunger and food insecurity through tech. 

Every organization can find ways to use purpose just as effectively. To help companies think more holistically about operationalizing a strong corporate purpose, Prophet uses its Human-Centered Transformation Model. Here are four actionable steps that can help companies turn purpose into a reality.   

DNA: Define the Strategic Destination 

For a company’s purpose to be compelling, it has to be right and in tune with its goals and objectives. That means it should be: 

• Inclusive: Corporate purpose needs to encompass every internal and external stakeholder. Without inclusive language, it inherently limits the spectrum of inspiration.
• Built into the employee value proposition: People must understand and reflect on the purpose, so it should be integrated into the hiring process. Hiring skeptics who keep a company honest is great. Hiring folks who might subvert its purpose and values is an unforced error. Dick’s Sporting Goods, for example, is devoted to promoting youth sports and goes out of its way to hire people passionate about athletics,  including Olympic hopefuls. 
• Monitored consistently: Ensuring that purpose is healthy is an ongoing activity. Does it still resonate with stakeholders? Do employees believe in the company’s future? How confident are they that the company is improving the world? 

Mind: Enable Employees With the Necessary Skills and Knowledge  

It is important to identify critical skills required to achieve the company purpose by each function, enabling organizations to understand the roles and responsibilities of each function and champion the skills that best support that purpose. 

3M, for instance, is using science to solve the world’s most challenging problems. That requires diverse thinking, which explains the company’s $50 million commitment to closing the racial gap in STEM and intense recruiting at historically Black colleges and universities. 

Body: Provide Structure and Governance to Deliver the Strategy 

Companies must ensure that employees have the decision rights to infuse purpose in day-to-day operations. For example, Ritz-Carlton operationalizes its purpose, to provide warm, comfortable experiences by delegating every employee that responsibility. Each is empowered to spend up to $2,000 to rescue a souring guest experience without a manager’s approval. 

Soul: Motivate and Ignite Belief in the Strategy 

This means leading by example, making sure leaders demonstrate how they live and celebrate the company’s purpose.  

• Make language purposeful: Include corporate purpose in the internal language, identifying employees as “one of us.” Pfizer employees, for instance, are encouraged to “zig-zag,” making non-linear career moves to bolster personal and organizational growth.  
• Infuse purpose into the everyday: Find “moments that matter” within the experience of both customers and employees. 
• Give employees a platform: Help employees share and celebrate their connection to the purpose by creating forums, social networks, and events. Alaska Airlines’ promise to “run our company with care” has taken on new meaning in the last 18 months, when passenger-facing travel roles have become especially grueling. They now host an annual day-long retreat focused entirely on mental well-being. 

 A company’s purpose must be holistic, permeating all aspects of the organization. That’s what builds adaptability. “Resilience is about understanding your organization’s strengths and areas of focus and aligning people to pursue these things as a collective,” says Danielle Clark, eBay’s vice president of talent. “An adaptive business model or value proposition isn’t enough to create resilience. You need purpose and people behind it.” 

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Amanda Nizzere: What do you do at Prophet and in what circumstances would I come to you for something?  

Scott Davis: At Prophet, I wear several different hats. As chief growth officer, I help lead our overall go-to-market position in the market: who we are, what we stand for, what we promise and why a client should choose Prophet as their partner of choice. A big part of my role is continuously making sure we are both anticipating and meeting the needs of the market and our clients and potential clients…helping them get to what we call uncommon growth – growth that is transformative, sustainable and – of course – profitable. I also wear hats tied to our non-profit work, our corporate marketing efforts, our growth accelerator efforts and am part of our Executive Committee. I also love developing our team and playing a role in building our culture…that is probably the best part of my job! 

I most often get called in by a client that has a brand-driven growth strategy issue; a brand repositioning issue; a brand portfolio and architecture issue; or needs help to create a new brand for a company or an M&A opportunity they are navigating. If any of those are the issues you are facing, I’m your guy. My 30-year arc has been all around helping clients figure out how to maximize the asset value of both the brands’ companies build and the marketing efforts leaders deploy. I have written a few books about both.  

AN:  How did you start your career and what brought you to Prophet?  

SD: I started my career at Procter and Gamble, where I was fortunate to learn about the wonderful world of packaged soap – from Tide and Joy to Dawn and Ariel – I was the “clean-up” guy. All kidding aside, I helped launch liquid Cascade and, in doing that, I learned the art of shaping customer perceptions, attitudes and behaviors; and the ability to influence the choices they make when choosing one product over another, even when they are highly commoditized. In a world where there was very little differentiation, brands often became the consumer’s final arbiter, often regardless of price.   

After P&G, I went to graduate school at Kellogg, and even though I had my heart set on Wall Street, I went to our “job fair” during my first year. At the time, I knew very little about consulting, but I visited the tables of the Big Five firms out of curiosity. I was amazed that you could build a career helping companies figure out how to solve problems, across industries, with a focus on learning and growth. I took my summer internship in consulting between my first and second year at Kellogg – and never looked back, which ultimately led me to Prophet. 

AN: Is there anyone who has influenced the way you approach your work?  

SD: Yes, I was fortunate enough to meet a mentor early in my career. Carl was a senior partner at Booz Allen and worked with me at my first job. He taught me what consulting was: this idea of helping companies solve problems, and get to whatever’s next for them, in a way they couldn’t get to on their own. Carl also taught me that the best consultants help teach their clients along the project journey, leaving them fully ready to take on activating whatever recommendations we put forward, on their own. I find that part of the job to be so fulfilling and empowering.   

Carl also taught me the idea that there are two kinds of consultants: hunters and farmers. The hunters are those that bring in new business. The farmers are those that land an account and stay on that account forever. Both are absolutely required in consulting and it’s good to figure out which you want to invest in as you grow your career.   

Finally, Carl planted the seed of an idea about me building my personal brand in consulting. He said it could have been as simple as becoming really strong in one area, like brand, and being asked to be on projects, or it could go as far as becoming well known externally for having a point of view on something — writing about it, speaking on the topic, teaching others inside and outside of my organization and becoming sought out by others that were looking for help. For me, that topic was brand, and at the time, there were only a few people famous on the topic of brand, my colleague and friend David Aaker being the gold standard. I thought that if I could do 5% of what Dave was doing, I might actually have a shot at a career. Carl and I carved out a 5-year plan and journey for me to become a brand. It could have totally bombed, but luckily it worked out okay and culminated with me writing my first book called Brand Asset Management. This also led me to work with David Aaker and join Prophet. 

AN: What is your go-to productivity hack?   

SD: A few things. My first is not a tool, but a person. My assistant, Tracy, is key to my productivity. She reviews my calendar at least four days, four weeks and four months out, as well as every single day to prioritize and work out conflicts. Together we block out four to five hours a week – just for work time. I find it challenging to get actual work done in a world where we’re all in back-to-back meetings, so those work blocks every week are critical.   

The next hack might seem small, but for me, it has a big impact. Every half-hour meeting – I believe – can be 25 minutes and every one-hour meeting, 50. It gives everyone breathing space between meetings to recharge and do whatever they need to do. This hack allows me, personally, to switch gears quickly because whoever I’m talking to in my next meeting expects me to be fully prepared to engage, as they should.  

AN: If you could snap your fingers and become an expert in something, what would it be?  

SD: Many of my close friends are doctors, so I would want to be in the inner circles of those leading the study of how the brain works – neurologists. Alzheimer’s and Dementia are in my family, and I don’t understand it to the level I want to. In a world where you live to solve problems for others, this one seems unsolvable. I’ve watched loved ones suffer and it causes so much pain all around. If I could understand it better, maybe I could at least help my loved ones navigate it more successfully. The second answer to your question would be to run a professional sports organization, ideally the Chicago Cubs, but that is for another time!  

AN: What’s one thing people don’t know about you?  

SD: I have white water rafted every major river across the US. I have been to over 500 concerts. The most memorable was Queen in a small town about an hour and a half outside of Nice, France. They performed in an outdoor arena that only held about 10,000 people. It turns out, this was a concert on their last tour. I also had a three-hour lunch, one on one, with Julia Child, just the two of us in a “closed for the day” restaurant in Boston.  

AN: What’s the one thing you’re trying to make a habit?   

SD: I don’t know if you can call this a habit, but I decided a while back, that it was important to talk to my mom (and dad) every single day. It could be 30 seconds or 20 minutes, but just a just quick hello check-in and an I love you. I didn’t think about this much when I was younger and often took our relationships for granted. As I got older and life started to happen, I realized I needed to prioritize the things in life that are true priorities, my family being number one. 

These are Scott’s answers to my new “Rapid Fire” questions. The interviewee did not see these in advance and had only a few seconds to think about their responses. Enjoy! 

Rapid Fire

• How are you uncommon? I haven’t had a french fry since 2012. Tied to this, my grandfather was one “yes” decision away from opening up the second McDonald’s franchise and being Ray Croc’s second partner. I don’t think we would have this conversation if that had gone down.  
• What’s your favorite day of the year, and why? Thanksgiving. It’s a day where I’m guaranteed to see all the people I love in one place and I can count on it every year.  
• What’s your favorite place in the world? I have so many favorites but at the top would have to be Grand Cayman. We go every year and it’s as much about how beautiful the island and Seven Mile Beach are as it is about knowing that I will have precious time with my family for a couple of uninterrupted weeks a year, in our home away from home. 
• What is one thing in business that no one is talking about, but should? AI and machine learning and the profound impact it will have on every business. I believe it’s going to disrupt everything in our marketing and brand world in ways we can’t even imagine, as have already seen with Chat GPT. We need to get smarter, get ahead of the curve, and start understanding how it can be a friend as opposed to this fear and anxiety and force of evil that many people think it could be. I really think it could take things to the next level in a positive way.  
• What charitable organizations or initiatives do you support? I am passionate about ending hunger, and all the systemic issues that cause somebody to find themselves in a position of not knowing where their next meal is going to come from. One in six people go to bed every night not knowing where their next meal is going to come from…how can that happen in the richest country on our planet? Putting food on somebody’s table is a fundamental right but understanding the root causes of how someone got there—most often through no fault of their own—is the real job. I was in Springfield in May, advocating with legislators to pass several crucial bills, tied to education, jobs, meals in schools, working more closely with farmers, etc. all in the spirit of trying to tackle the hunger crisis in Illinois. I’m an optimist and truly believe that we will solve this seemingly unsolvable puzzle, sooner than you think. 

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Financial services companies are at a crossroads, facing an unprecedented risk of relinquishing their dominance. The unique financial services landscape in Southeast Asia (SEA) has paved the way for disruptive fintech companies to emerge as agile and visionary players, causing significant disruptions in the sector. To stay ahead of the game, traditional and international banks must enhance their innovation capabilities and embrace a progressive mindset as business models have changed and more disruptive fintech companies establish themselves in the industry.  

The Unique Financial Services Market in Southeast Asia  

One of SEA’s unique characteristics lies in its strong demand for convenient and accessible financial services, driven by a relatively large underbanked population. The Global Fintech Report estimates that over 70% of the Southeast Asian population remains unbanked or underbanked, with Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia having the highest combined rates. Coupled with a large population of young and digitally savvy consumers, SEA’s digital economy has enormous growth potential. It is also worth noting that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are huge driving forces of the SEA economy but most of them face difficulty in securing bank loans as they are unable to meet the eligibility criteria.  

Moreover, the regulatory environment in SEA has made the region a fertile ground for fintech innovation. Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia are now dominant players in the regional fintech scene, establishing a supportive regulatory environment that has driven the rise of virtual banks and encourages innovation and collaboration between fintech startups and traditional financial institutions. 

The uneven financial services landscape in SEA has given birth to virtual banks and led digital native startups to venture into developing accessible and inclusive financial solutions for underserved populations in the region. With a strong culture of innovation, fintech companies and neo-banks in the region have been able to reach the underserved micro-segments that incumbent banks were unable to fulfill. 

A Dynamic Landscape of Fintech Disruptors 

Among the disruptors, Chinese powerhouses Ant Financial and Tencent have emerged as formidable players, shaking up the local financial services scene by introducing e-payment solutions for tourists and partnering with local players. For instance, Ant Financial has invested in Ascend Money in Thailand, and Mynt in the Philippines, while WeChat Pay partnered with PT Bank CIMB Niaga Tbk to enter the Indonesian market. These disruptive business models in China have influenced SEA markets to accelerate innovation. Agile players like Singapore’s Grab and Indonesia’s Gojek have since expanded into the financial products, digital payment and e-wallet ecosystem. Each country has witnessed the rise of strong fintech players providing e-wallet services – Momo in Vietnam, PayMongo in the Philippines, Boost in Malaysia, GoPay and OVO in Indonesia, and GrabPay in Singapore. Not to be outdone, telecommunication companies are now diving headfirst into the fintech realm, forging strategic partnerships to expand their offerings far beyond their traditional core services. 

Furthermore, we are seeing increasing collaboration between incumbent banks and fintech companies in the region. For example, Siam Commercial Bank’s fintech subsidiary, SCBX, has announced its readiness to apply for a virtual banking license in partnership with South Korea’s largest digital bank, KakaoBank. By offering digital banking services in Thailand, SCBX aims to enhance competition and address the challenges faced by underserved individuals in the country. Similar collaborations have occurred in Singapore and Malaysia, where joint ventures between super apps like Grab and telco brands like SingTel have given rise to virtual digital banks. Notably, AirAsia’s fintech unit BigPay and Malaysian telco giant Axiata have also partnered with lender RHB Group to drive innovation in the financial services sector. 

As such, the ongoing fintech revolution in SEA is transforming the way financial services are provided and consumed, bringing financial inclusion and innovation to the forefront.  

Rising Challenge for Traditional Banks 

With dynamic fintech companies being laser-focused on addressing the needs of underserved segments, fintech’s impact in SEA is undeniable, pressurizing incumbent banks to innovate and transform.  

Several traditional banks have demonstrated a strong capacity to withstand fintech incursions and even turn the tide in their favor. An example is MB Bank, one of the largest financial groups in Vietnam that embarked on a digital transformation journey in partnership with Prophet. Through a customer-centric digital transformation and a new innovative growth hack business model, MB Bank successfully reimagined its business, products and experiences, acquiring some 20 million new customers in just 3 years with its new tech-like banking platform unlike any in the region. Gaining leadership as the No.1 digital bank and recognized as the most valuable brand in Vietnam by Brand Finance, MB Bank is now proudly listed as one of The Forbes Global 2000 list of the world’s largest firms.  

​​​MB Bank’s remarkable disruption of legacy banking and admirable achievements serve as an inspiration for other traditional financial institutions seeking continued success in the digital era. 

Leveraging the Innovation Maturity Model for Traditional Financial Services 

To help financial services companies rethink and review their innovation strategies, Prophet’s financial services experts developed the Innovation Maturity Model to offer a definitive roadmap for organizations to outperform disruptive fintech firms. The model provides a systematic blueprint, with a focus on essential pillars such as strategy, organization, insights, culture, and education, to ensure effective performance. By leveraging these pillars, organizations can make well-informed strategic decisions and cultivate a culture driven by innovation, empowering them to seize growth opportunities. 

Importantly, traditional financial services companies must foster a culture of disciplined and rigorous innovation to gain an edge over the pervasive threat posed by fintech disruptors. The five pillars of the Innovation Maturity Model offer guidance and ammunition. By adopting this model, companies are able to inspect five dimensions of the business that are critical to enabling innovation. 

1. Strategy and Vision 

The key to successful innovations lies in a focused strategy that aligns closely with customer truths and relevance. By developing future-proof solutions rooted in a profound understanding of current and future customer needs, financial services companies can navigate the dynamic industry landscape and remain competitive in the long run. 

Take inspiration from MB Bank, which gained a deep understanding of the pain points faced by Vietnamese consumers when it comes to banking. It had thus defined a clear strategic vision for its transformation to be a customer-centric and digital-first bank of the future, unlocking a series of innovative digital experiences for its young and underbanked audience. 

 
2. Organization and Mechanics 

It is crucial to embed innovation throughout the organization to efficiently deliver cutting-edge products and services. This involves fostering internal collaboration across different functions and tapping on external perspectives and knowledge, including that of fintech companies. 

A notable example is Standard Chartered’s collaboration on Mox (in partnership with HKT, PCCW and Trip.com) and Trust Bank (collaboration with Singapore’s leading retailer Fairprice), which enabled them to leverage the latter’s advanced huge customer base, technological infrastructures and cloud-native features. The consequential improvements in Standard Chartered’s operational efficiency and customer experience highlight the advantages of collaboration even with unexpected partners in the financial sector. 

 
3. Insights and Measurements  

To stay attuned to customer expectations, financial services companies must facilitate the integration of predictive and prescriptive capabilities. By harnessing the power of data analysis and insights, financial services companies can anticipate future needs and make informed decisions.  

MB Bank for example greatly stepped up its data analytics with its enterprise transformation, boosting insights with real-time dashboards across critical customer touchpoints as well as investing in Martech to better understand customers and improve customer experiences.  

It is imperative for financial services companies to consistently monitor the relevance and effectiveness of their initiatives and be receptive to necessary changes. By doing so, they can react faster and sharper to ensure that their innovation and customer experience initiatives remain in sync with customer expectations, resolve pain points and stay ahead of the curve. 

 
4. Culture, Behaviour and Rituals

Fostering an innovative culture is also pivotal to achieving long-term success. Financial organizations must adopt a mindset of perpetual learning and refrain from assuming that past practices alone will be adequate in the future. This is especially so as fintech and Insurtech are two of the fastest growing in SEA where innovation is the bedrock of these disruptors.   

Apart from inculcating an innovation culture with ongoing initiatives, activities like hackathons widely used in tech firms are also effective approaches to fostering innovation as they promote learning, skill development and exposure to novel methodologies and ideas. Hackathons can also serve as powerful recruitment tools. DBS, for instance, strategically leverages programs like Hack2hire to identify and attract highly skilled individuals with expertise in cloud technologies, AI, Big Data, and analytics. By hosting such hackathons, DBS creates opportunities to engage with talented individuals and recruit them into their organization, ensuring a pipeline of top-notch talent in relevant domains. 

MB Bank’s HIVE innovation lab is another notable example where new ideas are incubated, with collaborations with start-ups, and internal growth hacks and product innovations are continuously tested and piloted.  

5. Education and Enablement

Financial services companies must also recognize the importance of education and enablement. Traditional providers should strike a balance between internal and external education, offering training and enablement programs to keep employees updated on emerging trends and agile solution-building.  

Both DBS and MB Bank exemplify dedication to continuous employee development through the establishment of DBS Academy and MB Academy respectively. Through a blend of formal training with communities-based learning, both banks aim to equip their workforce with the necessary tools and digital skills to thrive in dynamic business environments. 

Additionally, establishing strategic partnerships and providing educational content to ecosystem partners empowers them with the latest technological developments. 

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Chiaki Nishino: Given the disruption of the last few years, marketers are often asked to take on greater accountability to demonstrate immediate impact and ROI of marketing investment while creating tighter alignment with the business outcomes. Has that been your experience? If so, how have you shifted your strategy to show impact?  

Theresa McLaughlin: It is a very interesting time to be the global head of marketing especially when considering the evolution of digital transformation. When I was at TD Bank Group, the organization’s investment in third-party digital increased from 5% to 50%. Now it’s shifted to first-party digital investments.  

When the digital transformation first began, it wasn’t about brand storytelling but performance marketing. It quickly became a competition of performance marketing versus brand marketing. And that probably needed to swing in this direction to ensure there was a return with performance marketing investments.  

But when COVID hit, the proliferation of content in the media became intense, and organizations needed to shift to build more authenticity.  

Given all I have seen, I’m a big believer in brand and demand. I want to ensure that my budget in brand, individual business unit marketing and incremental campaign budgets are all looked at through an integrated model of brand and demand. Ultimately, I want to drive the brand into the product experience and the performance marketing strategy.  

CN: How have conversations with your C-suite and board changed as you take on new accountability in driving and proving business value?   

TM: There absolutely is pressure to demonstrate ROI, but as the global head of marketing, my job is to lean into storytelling. For example, we pull together the story and data in the right way, to show how we are influencing the full-funnel experience for our target audience and clients.   

When communicating the brand investment, I lean into classic upper and lower funnel brand metrics, but brand is about what clients say it is, not what we tell them. Therefore, metrics like NPS really matter when talking about the brand experience. I expect tough questions from across the executive team, so I lean into data to tell the story that proves marketing’s ROI. What got us here is not going to get us there, which is why we are making the case for brand investment. 

CN. How do you partner with other internal business units and teams to unlock new opportunities for driving growth, and how has this evolved in recent years?   

TM: T. Rowe Price is a global organization, so sitting within that global distribution organization is essential.   

When partnering with my sales organization, I’ll start by standing up with the sales management team and collaborating on initiatives such as lead management, product marketing and positioning, and RFP management as just a few examples. Cross-functional leadership is crucial not just for marketing but to deliver better business outcomes that truly meet the needs of our customers.  

CN: In our research, we found that effective marketers work to build modern marketing organizations and experiment to win. Do you have any examples you can share where you’ve been able to implement these two principles effectively?   

TM: At T. Rowe Price, every part of marketing is in a constant state of transformation, which is why the principle “experiment to win” resonates with me. We have many opportunities and playgrounds where we can test and learn new strategies and techniques, and our team’s new talent has upgraded our approach to experimentation.   

In terms of building a modern marketing organization, getting your operating model is critical. It is vital to take an integrated approach to the operating model. This is why it’s crucial to be a “T-shaped marketer” who can play a more fluid and integrated role within your organization. To build an integrated marketing org, about two-thirds of our team sit in the center, but a third sits in the business, so we avoid operating in silos and get greater connection points to move our marketing agenda forward with the buy-in from other functional leads.  

In my role, I often see myself as more than just the global head of marketing.  In addition to being responsible for marketing, I need to think about CX, talent, digital, sales, and lead generation – it’s true capital marketing. My role is often that of an integrator, and to do that successfully, I need to convince other functional leads – who aren’t marketers — to find points of collaboration. I often approach this like I would a marketing campaign. It’s all about creating seamless experiences that put the customer at the center of everything we do. 

About Chiaki Nishino  

Chiaki Nishino is Prophet’s president and a member of the organization’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors. In addition to leading Prophet’s North American business strategy, she oversees the organization’s global Women in Leadership and Diversity efforts. She brings extensive experience in growth strategy, customer experience, brand strategy and marketing. She’s led clients in financial services, communication and healthcare to new avenues of expansion. And she’s an industry leader in customer engagement and marketing accountability, having spoken at the Conference Board and the Association of National Advertisers. Before joining Prophet, Chiaki was a Partner at Lippincott Mercer, and worked at Mercer Management Consulting and Dell Computers. Are you interested in talking to Chiaki? You can contact her here.

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Amanda Nizzere:  What do you do at Prophet and in what circumstances would I come to you for something? 

Chiaki Jin Nishino:  I’m President of Prophet, and I think of my role as threefold. First is, running the North American business. People can come to me for anything on revenue, cost, talent, operational aspects of the business if it affects the way we work to deliver outcome, or if there are ways to enhance how we run the business. As President, what I feel most responsible for is not just tapping into my expertise, but connecting the dots across the expertise areas that we have within Prophet. Next, I do a lot of client service because my background is in customer-centric growth strategy. And finally, I sponsor the DEI effort at Prophet and that’s an important part of my role, both personally, in running the business, and with regard to my client work. All three aspects tie together in my mind. 

AN:  What energizes you with all of those different hats? 

CN: No question it’s the different teams that I get to interact with. I think the great thing about the way we’ve grown over the years at Prophet is that we’re very interdisciplinary. That wasn’t the case when I first joined the firm, and I don’t mean that just from the client-delivery side, but across the firm as well. We have so many people with different types of expertise, whether it’s on the operational or client service side.  

AN: What is your go-to productivity hack? 

CN: I don’t know if it’s a hack as it sounds so basic…!  But I keep a to-do list because it keeps me organized. If I’m feeling overwhelmed, I’ll bold the things that I know I must get done and then un-bold the ones where I know I have a little bit of time. Ticking off each of them makes me feel productive and gives me a sense of accomplishment. 

AN: Has anyone influenced you when it comes to how you approach your work or your working style? 

CN: There’s no one singular person who’s influenced me, and that might have to do with the fact that there weren’t a lot of female leaders as I was moving up in my career. I’ve had such great male bosses and people around me over the years that I’ve had the opportunity to pull different aspects of how they work and then integrate them into my own style. I learned how to engage clients from one set of people, and ways to engage with teams from others. I would say it’s an amalgamation of everyone that I worked with, from when I was an analyst, all the way up to my leaders and colleagues at Prophet.  

AN: Is there a specific way you start and end your day? 

CJN: My preference is to start my day at least a half hour before my meetings – look at the calendar and say, “Okay, what’s the most important thing I really need to make sure gets done today?” It helps me focus and gets me grounded for the day, and importantly with a cup of Earl Gray tea in hand.  Then I end the day, scanning the emails and Teams to make sure I haven’t missed urgent asks from teams or to-dos because the last thing I want to do is to be not responsive to team members I work with. 

AN: What mistake did you make early on in your career and what did you learn from it? 

CJN: When I was an analyst, I put my all into everything I did or whatever a partner asked me to do. I didn’t push back on things that I was asked to do or the hours that I was expected to work. At one point that almost drove me away from the consulting business because I was working long hours and holidays with a bad boss. I was so tired, and I didn’t deliver the output that I could have if I wasn’t so exhausted. I nearly quit, but my advisor asked me to do one more project so I could try to deliver my best before giving up on consulting. I’m glad he did because I wouldn’t be here today without that guidance.  

This wasn’t about putting extra hours in with partners who cared about teams – I didn’t mind at all and in fact, putting in that extra effort allowed me to learn and get good at this business. It was more about putting a sanity lens on whether what I was doing was adding value in the right way or if I was delivering the best work.  The experience helped me understand that it’s ok to pause if you think something isn’t feeling right and get advice from people around you to check your gut and see if you’re thinking about it the right way or not. Since then, I’ve always trusted people to go to and get that helpful outsider perspective. Have those go-to trusted people to get an objective perspective. 

AN: If you could snap your fingers to become an expert in anything, what would it be? 

CJN: I would learn to play the piano. Music isn’t something that my parents prioritized. My husband’s parents did, so both my kids started playing the piano when they were young. It’s such a wonderful skill to have.  

AN: Is there one thing people don’t know about you?  

CJN: I grew up doing origami as a way to make friends when I first came to the United States because I couldn’t speak English. As a third grader, the only way to make friends was to do something that would interest other kids because I couldn’t actually talk to them. My mom told me I should use origami to get to know people. Not only did it help me make friends, but it became a mode of relaxation for me as well.  I usually have a pack of origami paper on my desk or in my bag. 

Starting with this interview, I’m introducing a new series of Rapid Fire questions below. The interviewees did not see these in advance and had only a few seconds to think about their responses. Enjoy! 

Rapid Fire

• How are you uncommon? I love connecting with people and connecting people to each other.  
• What’s your favorite day of the year, and why? January 1 because it always feels like a fresh, new start. I’m usually in Japan every year at that time, so we go to a shrine, and we pray for a good year.  
• What’s your favorite place in the world? Wherever home is. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel and I could pick many locations that I’ve loved along the way, but I think it’s wherever home is. I’m a proud homebody. 
• What is one thing in business that no one is talking about, but should? Relationship building – especially in new hybrid environments.  I don’t know that we’re talking enough about the type of relationships that you should be building within and across levels and functions. It’s an important discussion in this new working reality we’re all trying to navigate.  
• What charitable organizations or initiatives do you support? I’ve spent a lot of time at a boys’ summer camp, Mowglis, in New Hampshire. My husband went there as a kid and both of my boys have gone. Initially, I had a hard time saying yes as it’s a seven-week sleepaway camp in New Hampshire, but my kids loved it so much, that they’ve gone every year since they were 7 years old.  I formed a mom’s group there years ago when my first son initially started in order to meet other moms and caretakers and answer questions they may have – that’s different from having an alumnus of the camp like my husband answer them. I still do that, so that’s been something that I’ve spent more time on outside of work.  
• What is one wish that you have for the future? That our kids can grow up in an environment that feels safe. It’s been so top of mind for me this year and with my oldest son away now at college. Safety for our children is #1.   

About the Series  

Throughout my career, I have been fascinated with the building blocks of leadership, from motivation, coaching and communication to mentorship, empathy, inspiration and more. Unraveling and understanding what makes a strong and impactful leader tick can help each of us implement new strategies to grow as individuals and leaders ourselves. Over the years, I’ve listened to podcasts, read books, attended conferences, and listened to TED Talks about various leadership topics, but some of the most impactful lessons and pieces of advice I’ve learned have been from those around me—my mentors, colleagues, and industry peers—which led me to create this interview series. I invite you to join me as I interview various leaders in my network to share new tools and wise advice from them that you may just want to add to your own leadership toolbox.   

See other Leaning Into Leadership articles here.

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During a recent assignment for a global automaker, a non-marketer on the client team pulled me aside. A little embarrassed, he asked, “What even is a brand and why does it matter?” Our side conversation spiraled. Is an NFT a brand? A religion? How about IP? Heck, can a person really be a brand? It took me a minute, but I finally got his deeper question: How does brand building lead to growth? 

It’s a question we all – consultants and clients alike – should consider more often. We know brands are valuable, if intangible, assets. While the value of a brand fluctuates by industry, there is no question that it has value. Brand value is calculated in the accounting of every merger and acquisition. While estimating these values is an industry unto itself, we know value derives from many elements – from the organization’s highest leaders to consumers’ interactions and experiences. Brands are valuable because they are a short-cut, a promise– representing a set of functional and emotional expectations. The value of the brand reflects complex understandings, strategies, symbols, and beliefs. 

Most companies understand brand value needs to be nurtured and protected. They are aware of what’s at risk. For most successful organizations, however, a brand is not just an asset. It’s also an engine of growth, powering the next horizon of success.  

For the past eight years, Prophet has surveyed thousands of consumers in our annual brand relevance study to understand which brands are most relevant to their lives. Our research has shown that the most relevant brands, have found ways to build customer loyalty, and ultimately drive more growth. The top-performing brands in our study, have outperformed the S&P 500 by 201% in the last five years.   

To quantify how brands build relevance, we used this research and our years of experience building brands to develop a Brand Engine Model which is powered by five critical components. It’s clear that brand is a critical driver of growth, and all organizations should be constantly building, nurturing and refining their brands or risk losing relevance with their customers. While marketing is often responsible for owning brand, it should not be overlooked across the C-suite as a crucial component towards supporting the business reach its revenue goals.  

Prophet’s Brand Engine Model
(See full-sized version in your browser)

Building a Powerful Brand Engine 

Ambition: Who are we?  

All engines start with a spark. For brands, that spark is ambition, defining the organizational purpose and role of the brand in value creation. Patagonia’s inimitable “Earth is our only shareholder” commitment sets a high bar. However, businesses as diverse as Nike, USAA and LEGO answer that question in ways that make people’s hearts soar. Every brand must have a well-defined purpose that sets it apart and gives all its stakeholders – customers, employees and shareholders – something to believe. 

Ambition supplies the instructions required to set the engine in motion. Without it, wheels spin, and brands lurch along, but with no velocity.  

Remember my client’s question about whether a person can be a brand? If that were true, that person would clarify ambition by asking, “What do I want to be when I grow up?”  

To set the agenda for ambition, companies need to ask:  

1. What is our core belief that guides and inspires our actions? 
2. What needs are we serving in people’s lives? 
3. What business are we in and how might the brand allow the business to execute on our corporate strategy? 

Ecosystem: Where do we exist?   

The Ecosystem does more than define a frame of reference. It requires a deep understanding of how the brand fits into people’s lives. For both B2B and B2C brands, the ecosystem helps define the competitive landscape. Having a well-articulated ecosystem not only creates a sandbox for brands to own and operate, it also provides an opportunity for strategic and innovative partnerships. Whether it’s Peloton moving into Hilton properties, Calm app paying mental-health fines for tennis players, Gucci partnering with Oura rings or a Spotify playlist following passengers into an Uber, the opportunity for productive partnerships often leads to new revenue streams. 

Ecosystems also function as powerful collaborative areas for companies to build on their employer brand, engaging employees in ways that keep them curious. Google, for example, has famously encouraged its people to devote 20% of their work time to projects in their personal areas of interest. That way, the brand constantly re-invites employees into its incubator-esque way of thinking. 

To set the context for ecosystem, companies need to ask:  

1. What is the context in which a consumer experiences a brand (e.g., depending on pre-existing biases, situational relevance, or physical environment)?  
2. How does the brand(s) fit into consumers’ lives, relative to the other brands that they regularly interact with?  
3. How should we organize our own architecture and relationships to optimize navigation, understanding, and brand equity building?  
4. What brands do we want to be associated with (e.g., deliberate partnerships or inadvertent association)? 

Expression: How do we show up?  

To many, this component is classic branding. It tells a powerful story through an authentic, cohesive look, sound and feel. It is a way to create excitement across touchpoints. And it includes all the more common things associated with branding, from logo to commercial to content. Of all the engine components, it is often the most closely bound to strategy. While Apple and BMW do many things right, they are routinely flawless in this dimension. 

While this component feels classic, its importance should not be overlooked. When heritage brands refresh their visual identities it’s big news. Consumers and employees find comfort and build attachments to brands they feel deep loyalty to. From UGG to JetBlue, we’ve seen brands maneuver expression both expertly and not so expertly.   

To align a path forward for expression, companies need to ask:  

1. How do we use our visual identity, voice, messaging strategy, and other signature stories to tap into the underlying human truths/emotions from our Ambition? 
2. How might we use our visual identity, voice & messaging, and other stories to drive awareness, interest, and engagement? 
3. How can, and should, we feel and sound distinct in-market to stand out from competitive brands and drive an ownable position? 

Experience: How do we engage?  

At every touchpoint, even if it’s beyond a company’s control, people form a perception of the brand. Experiences can deliver unique moments, using those perceptions to deepen relationships. 

Companies have come a long way in acknowledging the importance of experience but continue to under-invest in it. That neglect shows. One major study shows customer experience is plummeting, falling 20% last year. And one in five companies says they plan to eliminate CX.  

The best brands constantly think of both the owned and the un-owned touchpoints, curing problems and allowing the brand to flourish. UGG, for example, leans hard on diverse influencers with activations at music and film festivals. Lululemon creates thousands of store-as-community-hub events, partners with meditation organizations and hosts women-friendly road races. Jeep owners love the tradition of the `Jeep Wave,’ enthusiastically calculating their place in the ranking hierarchy before flashing the sign. 

To set the stage for experience, companies need to ask:  

1. How should the experiences that we design make our customers or users feel (e.g., de-cluttered, inspired, appreciated), in a way that ties back to our core human truths defined in Ambition? 
2. How can we make the lives of our customers/users easier? 
3. How might our set of experiences serve as a revenue platform through efficient, digital-first channels?  
4. How might these service channels drive long-term loyalty and stickiness? 

Intelligence and Measurement: Are we moving in the right direction?  

More than ever, marketers are being asked to prove their value and show business results. Applying intelligence and measurement allows for demonstrating success but it also enables quick optimizations to deliver better outcomes. It keeps the finger on the pulse of audiences. Virtually all marketers know this, yet many don’t yet have the tools and capabilities in place to harness their data to maximize output.  

Companies that spend the most on measurement and insights are among the world’s fastest-growing. Dove, for example, owned by Unilever, never stops mining its years of social-media success for insights about core users. Its latest hit is the #TurnYourBack campaign, encouraging people to shun TikTok’s unrealistic beauty standards, earning close to 800 million impressions. 

And McDonald’s extensive investments in ongoing customer research shape every menu tweak and new promotion, following people’s fast-changing perspectives on everything from which beef is healthiest, plant-based alternatives and Grimace’s return to glory. 

To set the limits for intelligence and measurement, companies need to ask:  

1. What equities does our brand have with audiences, and how have these shifted?  
2. How well are we serving their emotional and functional needs? 
3. How are different parts of our business performing and how might our brand better serve our engagement and customers? 

Ultimately, the quality of execution across all five components drives brand value, transformation and growth. But no two engines are the same. Some brands might invest more resources in expression, others in experience. Pepsi isn’t the same as Pinterest. But a carefully calibrated brand engine can change gears as context shifts and unforeseen events happen. And with equilibrium, brands grow into de-risked, agile engines of growth.  

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Since 2016, Prophet has released our annual report brand relevance report, The 2023 Relentlessly Relevant Brands report to understand how brands become indispensable and stand the test of time by being relentlessly relevant. This year, we surveyed 11,500 consumers and found that brand relevance has become more important than ever. For the first time since the pandemic, consumers are prioritizing “heart-hitting” attributes in brands and are more willing to engage with brands that offer meaningful connections. This is a notable shift from prioritizing attributes that appeal more to their “head”, such as functional factors and cost-effectiveness. Both categories remain important and the most relevant brands find ways to win with both.   

When helping clients strengthen their brand relevance, we often hear the question, “What role do ‘head’ and ‘heart’ attributes play in building brands across different industries? Are ‘heart’ attributes less important for B2B companies as they are not directly engaged with end consumers?” This is a common pitfall. Indeed when catering to different customers, companies should take tailored approaches to building brand relevance. However, both “head” and “heart” attributes should hold equal significance for all companies, regardless of whether they are B2B or B2C.  

In this article, we highlight a recent client story of how we helped to build a B2B brand to create relevance by appealing to both the “head” and the “heart.” 

G7 Connect: The Hidden Hero in Road Freight 

Today’s consumers are accustomed to the convenience of online shopping and modern logistics, thanks to the advancement of digital technologies. However, express delivery is just a small part of the logistics industry, of which every aspect has yet to be transformed digitally. “Sweat logistics” is a term often used to describe freight, the most conventional business model in the industry that still dominates the bottom of the logistics food chain. It is a sector burdened by overloaded trucks, sleep-deprived drivers and inefficient management and processes. Many freight operators lack a clear understanding of how digital technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and SaaS can benefit the logistics business. 

G7 Connect is a leader in IoT SaaS technologies for road freight in China. For 28 years, it has been committed to advancing China’s entire logistics industry through technological innovations based on IoT, big data and AI. As a B2B company, G7 Connect caters to a wide group of audiences with extremely different backgrounds and needs, from regular truckers to small-to-medium-sized freight operators and senior executives of key consignors. For truckers, their needs are quite simple – they hope to drive safely every day and be paid fairly for their work. For shipping companies and freight operators, they need to consider the safety of their people, vehicles and goods; they care about reducing costs and improving efficiency across each aspect and look forward to unleashing higher productivity through new technologies. For business leaders at consignors, they wish to strengthen their control over the logistics process like warehousing and freight. 

Rooted in “Head” and Inspired by “Heart” – Building Brand Relevance That Speaks to Diverse Audiences  

Our biggest challenge when developing the brand strategy for G7 Connect was balancing the expectations of its different audiences – it was crucial to highlight the value that IoT SaaS technologies can bring in a simplistic and intuitive way. In this regard, appealing to the “heart” is just as critical as the “head”. As G7 Connect’s customers come from different professions and backgrounds, they also have distinctively unique functional needs (“head” attributes). However, each customer is a human first and foremost – a living participant in the logistics industry. Therefore, it is easier for us to identify their shared emotional needs (“heart” attributes). 

Through a human-centered approach, the Prophet team conducted extensive interviews with G7 Connect’s different customer groups and its customer-facing employees to better understand their needs and expectations. Based on our findings, we developed a refreshed brand purpose to appeal to its customers’ hearts. We created an impactful brand tagline, “Beautiful change happens now” to encapsulate G7 Connect’s commitment to continuously creating positive changes for all industry participants through digital technology. Moreover, we further clarified the core competitive strengths of G7 Connect’s offerings and capabilities as brand principles, reinforcing its differentiated advantages through “head” attributes. 

G7 Connect officially launched its new brand strategy and identity in the spring of 2023. Since then, a range of brand implementation initiatives have been quickly put in place. For example, the company’s annual “advanced freight operator conference” was given a universally resonating theme, “Connecting the Beautiful”. The conference also focused on deepening the understanding of G7 Connect’s core functional strengths by highlighting many of its leading products, from visible processes, refined cost management and secure algorithms to external partnerships. Moreover, by showcasing warm, authentic client stories rich with photography and testimonials throughout its communications, G7 Connect has demonstrated how it is delivering “beautiful changes” to every industry participant through comprehensive digital logistics products and services. 

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For consumer brands, China remains one of the most attractive lands of opportunities, despite the disruption from the pandemic. The rise of a huge middle class with enormous spending power makes the market a must-win, but not necessarily an easy one. Different generations of consumers are developing vastly diverse lifestyles, needs and preferences, and competition between local and international, startup and traditional companies is increasingly intense. Regional differences require highly nuanced go-to-market strategies beyond adapting to the local digital ecosystems.   

To navigate this environment effectively, companies need to answer two fundamental questions: Where should they play to unlock growth? And how can they win with differentiated and relevant value propositions? These seemingly straightforward questions can be daunting as they require careful and holistic considerations regarding the entire business – how to structurally define consumer opportunities with so many forces and fast-moving trends at play? How to drive organizational alignment around key growth spaces? How to develop a high-level strategy with concrete actions across brand, product and channel execution? 

Introducing Demand-to-Growth Landscape 

At Prophet, we partner with leading consumer brands to answer these strategic questions through a comprehensive analytic method called the Demand-to-Growth Landscape. In a nutshell, Demand-to-Growth Landscape is a systematic study that examines the key dimensions (e.g., consumer segments, consumption occasions, etc.) influencing consumer demand for a certain category. By drawing a map with these dimensions, we define and synthesize consumer growth spaces, and thus blend value lenses and consumer lenses to decode each opportunity.   

There is no one universal formula for how companies should utilize the Demand-to-Growth Landscape. However, those that succeed often follow three best practices. 

1. Customize the map.

Although consumer segments and consumption occasions are commonly used, particularly by companies in the consumer packaged goods category as key dimensions to build the Demand-to-Growth Landscape, companies have to think through what works best for their category and the intended usage of the tool. For instance, price tier can be applied as a dimension for the fashion category as it’s often a key factor in consumers’ purchasing decisions. 

2. Enrich with human insights.

While the quantitative study is helpful for identifying and profiling growth spaces, companies will benefit from deep listening to gain a thorough understanding of their consumers’ motivations and experiences to inspire actions. 

3. Create and sustain competitive superiority.

Once companies have decided which growth spaces to focus on, they have to build a competitive advantage. They can learn from the Superiority Model, initially developed by P&G, to define the most critical levers for their category, and be diligent in applying the framework to guide actions and track results.   

Source: Proctor & Gamble

How Your Company Should Utilize the Demand-to-Growth Landscape for Different Strategic Objectives 

The Demand-to-Growth Landscape can help inform strategic decisions across portfolio, brand and product levels. Below, we outline three tried-and-true applications of the approach, each with a client story to illustrate how it can positively impact the business. 

Develop Brand Portfolio Strategy  

Demand-to-Growth Landscape provides foundational insights for developing a brand portfolio strategy. Leaders who oversee large portfolios should ask: 

• Which are the growth spaces to prioritize?  
• How many brands are required to win these spaces?  
• What is the role of each brand?  
• Is there any opportunity to rationalize the portfolio or tap into white space?  

Our work with sportswear and lifestyle group 

Our client is a global leader in sports and lifestyle products with a diverse range of apparel, footwear, accessories, and equipment. Its business needed to scale but was facing difficulty, as several of its brands were playing on top of each other.  

Source: Unsplash

Prophet was engaged to help the client gain a better understanding of its key global markets, including China and the US, and provide strategic recommendations for go-to-market actions. We started by uncovering eight consumer segments, which were prioritized based on spending power, category engagement and brand perceptions. We then built a Demand-to-Growth Landscape based on these consumer segments and occasions, highlighting growth spaces to expand the business with the current portfolio of brands. To tease apart the individual brands’ growth strategies, Prophet defined clear swim lanes on the landscape, aligning on “centers of gravity” for each brand to prioritize investment and brand building.  

Define Brand Target and Positioning 

Demand-to-Growth Landscape offers critical consumer insights to help inspire a unique brand positioning. CMOs seeking to elevate their brands should ask:  

• Who are the consumers in the target growth space?  
• What do these consumers need the most, and how can my brand connect with them?  
• What are the functional benefits required to support the emotional value?  

Our work with a leading CPG company 

Our client, a global food and beverage giant, sought our expertise to help reposition one of its key brands following a successful collaboration on its China brand portfolio strategy. In recent years, the brand has become staler, facing challenges in attracting young consumers.  

Source: Unsplash

To reinforce the brand strategy, we thoroughly examined the previously established Demand-to-Growth Landscape data in order to identify the most critical consumers within the brand’s target growth space. We delved into demographics, including age group and city tier, as well as their life motivations and category attitudes and behaviors. Additionally, we conducted deep listening research to capture micro-stories that brought the brand muse to life. Leveraging these insights, we identified a potent brand positioning territory that deeply resonated with the younger generation’s yearning for genuine connections, especially within the home environment following the pandemic. 

Identify Product Portfolio Opportunities 

By combining Demand-to-Growth Landscape with Superiority assessment, businesses can gain valuable insights to uncover product opportunities. Marketers who own a vast product portfolio should ask: 

• Where does the brand have potential product gaps on the demand landscape? 
• Where do the brand’s existing products fall short compared to competitors? 
• Where does the brand have competitive products but need to improve its messaging or product availability? 

Our work with a leading apparel company 

Prophet was appointed by a leading apparel and footwear company to accelerate its transformation from a product-driven to a consumer-centric approach to its brand strategy in China. The company had diverse products, each with functional benefits, however, they often overlapped and lacked a distinctive focus in messaging.  

Source: Unsplash

Through the Demand-to-Growth Landscape approach, we delineated each growth space based on opportunity size, price tier, consumer profile and goals, and desired product drivers. Subsequently, we collaborated with the client’s product experts to objectively map their product portfolio and those of key competitors onto the landscape, conducting a thorough Superiority assessment. This exercise enabled the client’s senior leadership team to achieve alignment and make commitments to a series of product growth initiatives, bringing confidence to revitalize their growth momentum. 

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