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

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

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

Brand Spending Makes a Comeback

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All Digital? Nope. Never

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

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

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

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

The Decline of the Mega Brand

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

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

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

Midlife Crises Spark Unicorn Reinvention

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

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

It’s no secret that many companies struggle with transformation. A recent survey from the Harvard Business Review reports that only 20% of executives believe their efforts are working. While there are complex reasons behind these expensive flameouts, an often-overlooked factor is brand. Leaving brand out of the transformation equation can be a crucial mistake when implementing a business transformation.

Thanks to Prophet’s ongoing research into brand relevance, we’ve seen what happens when businesses get it right. Companies as diverse as Costco, Peloton, LEGO and Apple use the strength of their brand not just to sell more products but as catalysts for change. Brand continually fuels revolutionary growth in every function of the organization.

Brand–is often a company’s most valuable asset – it can drive transformative growth. And when companies fail to weave brand into the entire transformation strategy, they make costly mistakes.

For brand to play a genuinely transformative role, it requires a fusion of an integrated brand and business strategy. Brand becomes accountable for growth and investment both inside and outside of the brand function. Brand strategy doesn’t just follow business decisions, it guides them at the highest levels of the organization. In these companies – the ones most beloved by their customers – brand always has a seat at the table.

Four Requirements for Brand-Powered Transformations

A brand-driven transformation is the intentional use of brand strategy to ignite tremendous change. To reach that level, companies need to make four critical shifts.

Brands must become purpose-led, rather than product-or offer-driven

Organizations must consider the impact they want to have on the world – not just shareholders, but customers, colleagues and the broader community. Companies based on a strategic brand purpose create shared value and resonate with key stakeholders. They know why they exist and the difference they are trying to make in the world. Most importantly, they know how to deliver on those promises.

Thrivent, a financial services company, recently redefined its purpose to become much more than a business that sells insurance policies or investments. Based on the conviction that humanity thrives when people make the most of what they’re given, its brand now stands for helping customers achieve financial clarity. Thrivent believes that money is a tool, not a goal that enables people to fill their lives with meaning and gratitude. And that’s led to massive changes in how the brand shows up for customers, especially in digital offerings.

Thrivent’s shift has opened the aperture of how it can engage customers, propelling growth that isn’t available to the hundreds of competitors that simply sell annuities or mutual funds.

Brand teams must become experiential leaders, not just a communication-oriented function

Messaging to customers alone isn’t enough. To build relevance, companies need to engage audiences through cohesive experiences, including the seamlessness of how a brand integrates products, services, communications and its culture. The most relevant brands create experience innovations that deliver on their positioning, ensuring impact with both employees and consumers. They can flex and change while still standing up for their purpose, promise and principles.

T-Mobile continues to be a favorite example. Customers hated everything about the cell phone industry, and T-Mobile knew it. The weakest player in a growing category, it needed a radical strategy. Working with Prophet, it transformed from an also-ran to the Un-Carrier, helping consumers break free of contracts and credit checks, adding the freedom of unlimited talk, text and data

“Brand strategy doesn’t just follow business decisions, it guides them at the highest levels of the organization.”

T-Mobile became the wireless carrier that didn’t act like one. With then-CEO John Legere as its highly visible trash-talking cheerleader, consumers flocked to its brash branding and the simplicity, fairness and value it provided. Well-orchestrated “rolling thunder” of activation efforts added 1.1 million new customers in the first quarter of the relaunch.

The brand must ignite the passion of employees to embrace and drive change

Businesses built just for customers, with little consideration for employees, struggle. Strong enterprises fuel growth from the inside through culture, capabilities and engagement. They work from the brand’s DNA, constantly articulating the “why” of the transformation to rally colleagues.

When Plantronics, the audio pioneer, acquired Polycom, with its secure video, voice and content solutions, for $2 billion, it needed a new identity to demonstrate its combined might–not just to investors but apprehensive employees. The new brand needed to reflect each legacy company’s heritage, aspirations and passion, while signaling a unified, modern technology product suite. The Poly brand needed a look and feel that conveyed ease-of-use and accessibility with input from top leadership, including teams from mergers and acquisitions, communications and finance.

While the merger came from outside forces, the reinvention – a global communications company that powers meaningful human connection and collaboration – came from within. It gave every employee a mantra to help build this new technology brand, already generating record sales.

Brands must develop cross-functional, full-funnel activation strategy, not just serve as an internal creative team

Instead of simply approving, protecting and managing the brand, it’s time to lay a brand foundation for the entire customer journey. The most relevant companies create signature brand moments in the most fertile opportunity areas.

Nike’s ongoing success in supporting the Black Lives Matter movement continues to be a powerful example. While Nike had long led the way among purpose-driven brands, it did the unthinkable in 2018, launching a full-scale marketing campaign starring Colin Kaepernick, perhaps the most polarizing figure in all of sports.

To some, the “Dream Crazy” campaign sounded just plain crazy, sparking boycotts and bonfires of Nike gear. But quickly, it built new brand strength. Moving beyond the campaign, it empowered its many Black athletes – as well as its passionate, young consumer base – to speak out for racial justice. The company’s stock hit new highs, and engagement broke records as it gained market share. It built unparalleled relevance.

It’s this kind of transformation that can only come from brand teams working closely with top leadership. “You can’t be afraid of offending people,” Phil Knight, Nike’s chairman emeritus, told Fast Company. “You can’t try and go down the middle of the road. You have to take a stand on something, which is ultimately I think why the Kaepernick ad worked.”

At Prophet, we believe the most powerful brands are those that are “Relentlessly Relevant.” We have measured relevance through Prophet’s proprietary Brand Relevance Index and know it is a predictor of long-term growth for brands. Effective leaders recognize the power of their brand assets to support ambitious growth goals and transformation efforts.

In today’s world, as technologies evolve and consumers seek more active relationships and connections with businesses, it’s becoming more challenging for brands to maintain relevance.

So how can brands stay a step ahead of consumers and their competition? They can start by asking three key questions:

1. How can brands reflect what matters to society, yet stay true to who they are?
2. How can brands deliver a brand experience that’s consistent, but also flexible and adaptive?
3. And most importantly, how can brands build momentum to sustain long-term brand relevance?

By making moves. Brand moves.

What exactly is a brand move?

Brand strategies offer companies a foundation on which to build their purpose, but alone, strategy doesn’t build relevance. To drive profitable growth and deliver tangible impact, strategy must be put into action.

Brand moves are actions businesses make to strengthen and sustain their brand. They can help activate a strategy (campaigns, events, etc.) or bring the strategy to life (products, services, experiences, etc.) with both consumers and employees.

Think of AT&T’s Thanks® program, which brings its customer-centric strategy to life through a loyalty program with exciting benefits and perks. Or AXA’s Equitable launch event that galvanized thousands of employees around the return of a 160-year-old legacy brand.

“To drive profitable growth and deliver tangible impact, strategy must be put into action.”

Oftentimes, growth-focused brand strategy moves become a signature trademark of the brand itself. Take for instance, Gatorade’s G Series product line, which fuels athletes from warm-up to recovery, delivering on their leadership in the sports fuel market. Or Amazon’s Prime Day, an annual event with deals for Prime members, delivering on its strategy of unparalleled and expedient service for its customers.

Given that today, only 5 percent of CMOs are highly confident in their ability to impact the overall direction of the business and to garner support for their initiatives among their peers, brand moves provide CMOs the opportunity to enhance their influence within the organization and demonstrate measurable outcomes. With brand moves, marketing leaders can drive a cross-functional team to deliver on high visibility programs delivering in-market impact.

What makes a brand move successful?

Whether it’s a business as established as Amazon or AT&T, or a startup in its beginning phases, all brands can adhere to four key principles to ensure their brand growth moves deliver effective and relevant outcomes:

1. Grounded in—and amplify—brand strategy. Brand moves should have a clear purpose rooted in shared human values that resonates with all stakeholders, including employees and consumers. Rather than replace a brand’s positioning, brand moves are complementary and play a critical role in putting purpose into practice. For example, American Express’ Small Business Saturdays is a brand move that embodies the company mission: helping customers and their communities thrive. While the purpose remains unchanged, it is brought to life in a way that appeals to small business merchants, their customers, and communities.
2. In-tune and in-touch with target consumers’ needs. Brand moves use insights defined as the brand constantly listens, senses and anticipates needs and expectations of the target audience, taking action that demonstrates empathy in return. For example, Spotify’s Discover Weekly feature introduces users to a playlist of 30 new songs each week, based on users’ past plays and preferences. With recommendation systems detecting their most-listened-to artists, songs and albums, Spotify keeps a pulse on what its users want more of—to keep them coming back week after week.
3. Consistent, yet adaptive. These brand moves are cohesive and seamless, adapting to current context, yet consistently delivering an ‘on-brand’ experience. Due to their dynamic nature, brand moves should also be able to sit alongside other offers, without competing or cannibalizing. Look at Nike’s flagship store: a first-in-kind omnichannel experience that blurs the lines between digital and physical retail experience. This move is unique to Nike and unlike anything else in its portfolio, yet still delivers a cohesive, consistent brand experience that’s recognizably Nike: a dynamic, active shopping environment as responsive as its digital NikePlus app and online platforms.
4. Continuous, inside and out. Brand moves provide a continuous, rolling thunder of action that influences both customers and employees. For example, T-Mobile’s “Un-carrier” campaign repositioned the telecom giant as different than traditional phone carriers. John Legere, its charismatic and quirky CEO, became known for sending out-of-the box tweets and gave motivational speeches that empowered employees to drive its success. Beyond a pure customer focus, brand moves fuel relevance from the inside out.

What is the impact of brand moves?

Brand growth moves that embody these four principles drive significant, positive impact on a global scale.

Since the launch of the G Series product line, Gatorade has seen increases of over $2B in franchise revenue and was the only brand in PepsiCo’s portfolio to see double-digit growth over five years. And in the last ten years of AmEx Small Business Saturdays, consumers reported spending an estimated total of over $120B at local small businesses, with seven out of ten adults aware of the (holi)day.

For years, companies told consumers what their brand stood for, shouting it from four-story billboards. Whether the company lived up to that purpose didn’t really matter – there wasn’t an easy way for consumers to see behind closed doors nor engage in dialogue. Then, technology transformed consumer expectations. Consumers demanded two-way interactions, constant sharing and ubiquitous connectivity. They were no longer willing to be talked at but rather wanted to be talked to. So, brands built long-term strategies around the voice of the consumer – ensuring their purpose and what they put into the market reflected what target consumers had told them. For a while, that was enough. But now, we are at another inflection point.

“Brands today must not only be vocal in tough conversations but also take action to push the causes they support forward.”

As the world, and more specifically, the United States grapples with the causes and effects of COVID-19, the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, political unrest, climate change, the wealth gap, and more, brands are now being asked to take a stance. Brands today must not only be vocal in tough conversations but also take action to push the causes they support forward.

Human Values are at the Core of Purpose-Led Brands

The Business Roundtable, a non-profit association of CEOs from major U.S. companies, recently asserted that “each of our stakeholders is essential” – including customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders and “we commit to deliver value for all of them.”

And yet, this idea of shared value will not be enough moving forward. Shared value implies something insular – engaging with and providing value to those already inside a brand’s bubble. At Prophet, we believe brands need, at their core, to have the shared human values that many global societies are striving toward in the twenty-first century: freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature, and shared responsibility.

A recent Prophet survey asked business leaders about how they define trust in times of crisis. Results demonstrate that consumers are at a tipping point – it is no longer acceptable for brands to only focus on shared value. Now successful brands must demonstrate a focus on these shared human values.

When asked in April, 58 percent of consumers said to earn or keep their trust, it was very-to-extremely important for a brand to offer a relevant set of beliefs and values. By June, this number had jumped to 69 percent. Consumers are no longer willing to trust brands that have fallen out of touch with society’s progress; in fact, 78 percent of consumers believe companies have a larger role to play in society than just looking after their self-interests. Employees feel similarly; in a McKinsey survey, employees said that contributing to society should be a top priority of their companies.

While a brand purpose is critical in providing a ‘North Star’ for an organization’s strategy and culture, it is not sufficient. Companies must ensure their purpose is broad-based and bold, not myopic or near-sighted. They must then authentically and holistically act against this purpose. Today, companies struggle to complete both, equally important, tasks. McKinsey’s study demonstrated that only 21 percent of purpose statements focus on contributing to society and only 42 percent of employees at US companies believe their company’s stated “purpose” had much effect.

Those that do not boldly demonstrate action related to their purpose are penalized– 53 percent of consumers who are disappointed with a brand’s words or actions on a societal issue complain about it, 47 percent walk away from the brand in frustration, and 17 percent never come back. On the other hand, those brands that demonstrate a continued focus through action are rewarded. Unilever’s “Sustainable Living” brands are growing 50 percent faster than the company’s other brands and delivering more than 60 percent of the company’s growth.

Four Ways to Rethink Brand Purpose

We believe brands that are willing to actively demonstrate their brand purpose can push society forward by:

1. Defining a human value(s) they stand behind. Brands must consider the societal context in which they exist and the human needs present in this context; they must define which of these needs they are willing to support and push forward.
2. Ensuring their brand purpose is based on that human value(s). Brands must use this understanding of societal context and human values to ensure their purpose encompasses them. Rather than focusing on what they believe they should deliver, companies must focus more holistically on what society needs them to deliver.
3. Continuously messaging and providing action to demonstrate commitment to their purpose. Brands must put their purpose into action, continuously speaking out and delivering relevant products, services, experiences, charitable giving, campaigns and events to market the human value they are trying to push forward.
4. Maintaining focus on this purpose internally. Business leaders must demonstrate to their employees and key stakeholders that a consistent focus on brand purpose is not only rewarded but required. Building an organization and culture around the brand purpose will empower employees to hold the organization accountable to its words.

How digital transformation and COVID-19 are forcing the luxury industry to accelerate its transformation efforts and shift toward a new set of values and behaviors.

Building Resilience in Luxury is Both a Marathon and a Sprint

Luxury brands have long been masterful in building strong customer loyalty – many have even built a legacy through loyalty – offering more than just products, the values they embody differentiate them from their competitors and help customers to identify more closely with them while also establishing that elusive emotional bond.

And with COVID-19 putting an abrupt halt on many non-essential sales, the luxury industry should prepare itself by anticipating the societal and economic shifts that may well affect consumer sentiment and behavior. Particularly, if customers start to favor more sustainable and responsible consumption.

Now, more than ever, a luxury icon – like any other brand – needs to adapt, stay curious and constantly be looking for ways to exceed the expectations of its customers. In order to steer that effort, we put together seven actions luxury brands should take now to protect and accelerate their growth:

1. Revisit the Core

How relevant is your core DNA? Does it still evoke the same desire it once did? Have you stayed true to it and ensured your purpose – your reason for being – still resonates and holds strong in the modern age? Think of the stories you are telling, the themes that you associate yourself with. After a longer period of success, a unique heritage often gets cluttered by opportunistic moves and messages. Focus on what makes you strong and let go of the unnecessary noise. And it is not about a new logo, go deeper, find your guiding star, the differentiating quality that guided your previous success.

2. Define and Listen to Your Audience

This should actually be pretty easy because it is by definition a very limited amount of people, right? Unfortunately, the importance of product and service design still sits higher than market insights for luxury brands, lagging behind the approach taken by the FMCG industry with leading brands like P&G and Unilever placing higher importance on qualitative and quantitative customer insights.

Remember, what you offer is exclusive yet attainable and attractive to your target audiences – a group of individuals with unique and specific needs and expectations. Imagine their dreams, think in their context. What is driving those individuals or cohorts? You might apply your very own micro-segmentation, leaving standard sociodemographic or maturity segmentations behind. Take regional specifics into account and make sure that it’s not just a gut feel, but rooted in evidence. When have you last discussed and agreed on two to three core personas to inform your actions? Be sure to install the right antenna for market developments. Do not only try to envision future needs, look left and right to learn from the best. In the end, it is the combination of creative potential and insights that leads to the new edge.

3. Think Direct to Consumer (DTC) First

Luxury brands cater to a select number of clients, so why leave the relationship to intermediaries? Even if those third parties are meticulously curated, you will never be able to collect the entire customer feedback if you are not dealing directly with those individuals. Only that direct response assures you have your finger on the pulse of the market, both to adapt the products but also the service that complements the overall experience. Of course, you want to increase reach, but new business models allow for direct interaction even from afar. Imagine what you can do with the increased intelligence. E-commerce still has a way to go in luxury having been discussed for years and implemented rather hesitantly because of concerns in translating the authentic luxury experience in the digital realm. But concepts and technologies are developing fast and the traditional role of partners and channels are blurring. Accept that going DTC is a joint endeavor and will not be perfect from the start.

The fastest-growing brands like Chrono24, Chronext (watch platforms) or Tesla and Polestar in the electric mobility space are eliminating the middle man. Richemont was pioneering e-commerce with NET-A-PORTER and MR PORTER and they learned their way through, now also partnering with Alibaba’s Luxury Pavilion –  further pushing its Asian exposure. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, even Patek Philippe has allowed their authorized dealers to offer their watches online. Watches & Wonders, the Geneva watch fair with a strong Richemont backing, swapped to a virtual-only conference in just a few weeks. Everybody accepted it wasn’t perfect, yet still, it was a blast.

4. Curate the Experience

To provide luxury at scale, you need to tell memorable stories and be able to duplicate experience standards. Selecting and developing the right context and platforms has become as important as curating the living ecosystem. Doing all that without clearly defined experience principles? Impossible. Navigating through the ever-increasing stack of platforms? Necessary! For example, the meticulously curated Las Vegas resort The Cosmopolitan seamlessly integrates stories, guests, platforms and social media to continuously learn and adapt to changing needs and trends. Also, the auction houses like Phillips and Sotheby’s are masters in curation. The sale of the Rolex Paul Newman Daytona was a benchmark example of curation, storytelling, partnership and as a result, was also a game-changer for the whole auction industry.

Pick your core relationship platform – this might very likely be your website – impart your DNA and focus on your audience by constantly refining the platform. Again, make sure you understand every single move of your audience. There are plenty of tools out there to help you understand and optimize. And remember, the most successful luxury brands are not necessarily the most advanced in digital technologies, but they learned to curate an exceptional experience across platforms and channels. They tell the best stories and those stories can live in all formats.

5. Combine Intuition with Hard Data

For centuries, those in the know were able to better serve the needs of the demanding. That has not changed. Nowadays, each and every individual is expecting nothing less than a perfect personalized experience. Data collection has gone way beyond retailers with transaction and credit card data. Loyalty programs and search behaviors are now used to complement the data set and social media is increasingly used to contextualize this data. Despite a reluctance or even allergic reaction, to giving away more intimate data, luxury clients expect you to understand and anticipate what they want, tailoring offers and solutions that will seduce them and lock them into your own proprietary ecosystem. Having the right data strategy in place to combine demographic, transactional and behavioral data has become as necessary as having a content strategy. Leveraging your expertise and intuition with a new set of quality data allows you to anticipate the upcoming moves and outmaneuver the competition.

“Having the right data strategy in place to combine demographic, transactional and behavioral data has become as necessary as having a content strategy.”

The hospitality and travel industry has a longstanding experience with their loyalty programs like Bonvoy by Marriott or Miles & More by Lufthansa. They combine guest insights with agile processes to come up with unique propositions that increase loyalty way beyond awards. Similar to the FMCG brands on customer insights, the luxury industry can learn a lot from the Amazons in the West and the Alibabas in the East when it comes to collecting and using data. Imagine where Rolex, Patek Philippe or Audemars Piguet could go if they leveraged their already rich data set that they collected with their product and client register by enhancing the data quality and using the insights to have a deeper, more direct interaction with their loyal following.

6. Grow with the Right Partners

Partnering along the brand experience has become another high-performance discipline. Originally something that goes back to the Fifties and Sixties, when luxury distributors like Asprey, Cairelli, Tiffany or Beyer were double signing with Rolex, Patek and the likes, new technologies and new consumer generations are supercharging partnerships. Dealers, ambassadors, authorities, celebrities, influencers, brand partners and many more specialized partners are involved to deliver that high-end curated experience. And it’s not just about the next transaction, it’s about creating stories and experiences that you would simply not be able to deliver on your own. It is now widely accepted to collaborate along any step of the experience chain, from comms to product to after-sales and, of course, also in the wider ecosystem of any brand experience. Your customers don’t care whether you do everything by yourself, they just expect the perfect experience from your brand. Lately, fueled by social media, the trend of co-branding has again proved to be a successful way to expand into new segments or reposition your core, like Louis Vuitton with Supreme, Caran d’Ache with Paul Smith or Rimowa with OFF-WHITE. Collaborate with the best.

7. Be bold, stay focused and stick to your plan

Your marketing budget is limited, so be focused. Stick to who you are and whom you are catering for. What is the content that inspires your demanding clientele? Where do they indulge, how do they escape and feel good? Where do you touch them, what are the right messages? Besides extreme value creation, it is also about the right voice and tone at the right time – always like ‘a first date’. Have a clear plan, stick to it, be creative, surprise! And remember, you got rid of a lot of clutter in the first place, do not add any unnecessary noise now. You cannot and you do not want to please everybody. Stay focused.

It was a brave decision by the Swiss watch brand Breitling to reposition and also to step out of the traditional watches & jewelry fairs. Investing more in its own innovative global experience platforms. Launching a new collection via webcasts was obviously also a lucky decision, now that everybody struggles to go virtual at high speed.

The car industry is struggling a bit here. New electric vehicle concepts for example are only very slowly getting traction. BMW, a bold inventor with the presentation of the i3 series concept at IAA in 2011 was not really able to sustain the momentum and stay ahead of the competition, Tesla was.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, becoming an impossibly larger crisis and creating huge uncertainty, brands must consider how to engage with consumers in a way that garners and protects brand trust. Though distinct in nature and breadth from COVID-19, previous crises offer a telling look into the importance of preserving consumer trust. During the 2008 financial crisis, it became clear that crises impact consumer trust. Banks, in particular, are still trying to regain consumer trust. A 2019 Gallup report reveals that only 30 percent of Americans have confidence in financial institutions today—a mere 9 percent above its record low reported in 2012. This remains the case today as 65 percent of consumers say that a brand’s response to a crisis would have a huge impact on their likelihood to purchase in the future. As the typical elements that drive trust—namely, brand purpose, competence, and integrity —become table-stakes during crisis, brands must deliver more to retain and grow consumers’ trust and ensure their own success in the long run. 

“65 percent of consumers say that a brand’s response to a crisis would have a huge impact on their likelihood to purchase in the future.”

Experts note that, in an era of stability, consumer trust is created and fostered through consumers’ direct, day-to-day experiences with brands over time. If a brand can consistently and reliably deliver on its purpose and promises competently and with integrity, it can generate trust that will have a long-lasting impact on its bottom line. Though these pillars of consumer trust account for trust in organizations such as Amazon, Google, and Chick-Fil-A (a few of the most trusted brands in 2020, according to a recent study from Morning Consult, a research and technology firm), we believe that they are not enough to continue to secure consumer trust during times of crisis.

The loss of trust in times of crisis is fed by a perceived erosion of social, communal and financial safety nets, contributing to an overall rise in consumers’ feelings of uncertainty, according to a World Health Organization study. We believe that as doubt grows consumers need more than brands’ overarching purpose, competence and integrity; they need brands to support them in reducing their uncertainty. Brands that fail to do so run the risk of losing consumer trust (and their revenue); brands that succeed can build trust amongst both current and new. Brands can do this by:

Being truthful and showing authentic concern. 

In times of crisis, consumers want brands to acknowledge and show true concern for them and their employees’ vulnerability. They also want brands to be humble, acknowledging the extent of their own vulnerability and uncertainty. Prophet’s Pulse Survey on Defining Trust in Times of Crisis finds that 73 percent of consumers felt it was very-to-extremely important for brands to be transparent about the steps it is taking to keep employees safe, 77 percent find it similarly important that a brand respects its employees’ needs, and 67 percent noted the importance of a brand making them feel safe and secure.

For example, Slack encouraged employees to take care of themselves above all else, allowing flexible and/or reduced hours to ensure that team members can take care of their mental health concerns. Employees were also given a $500 stipend to make their work-from-home arrangements comfortable and were not charged for sick days through April 15. Externally, Slack is supporting all nonprofits and other organizations carrying out critical relief efforts during this time with free access to a Slack paid plan for three months.

Working with agility to finetune its purpose to more specifically assuage consumer anxieties. 

According to Prophet’s Pulse Survey on Defining Trust in Times of Crisis conducted in April 2020,  63 percent of consumers felt it was very-to-extremely important for brands to commit to delivering on its beliefs and values – no matter what – during a time of crisis. Brands must recognize that consumers need stability from the brands they trust; as such, brands must continue to offer their key purpose, tweaking it for the situation at hand.

For example, the Time Out Group’s historical brand purpose has been to help consumers discover the best of the city, delivering on it by offering perspective on the best experiences and places to explore in major cities. As social distancing and shelter-in-place orders took hold, the Group temporarily refined its purpose to be about discovering the best of the city…in consumers’ own homes. It now offers recommendations on the best takeout, best virtual opportunities to explore cities (e.g., virtual museum tours, concert livestreams), and best ways to spend time in your own apartment.

Offering products, services and experiences that instill hope and confidence in the future. 

While economic and social forecasts remain uncertain, brands can offer hope for the future by providing products, services and experiences that aim to lighten consumers’ days. Prophet’s Pulse Survey noted that 61 percent of consumers felt it was very-to-extremely important for brands to inspire them to believe in an optimistic future. Moreover, 62 percent find it just as important that a brand seems like it is financially stable, revealing that consumers want to be reassured that brands will continue to deliver confidently, and well into the future. Consumers trust brands that look beyond this crisis in the products, services, and experiences that they offer.

For example,Delta Air Lines was the first among U.S. air carriers to extend travel vouchers, loyalty program status, and related benefits noting, “…as coronavirus continues to dramatically impact travel across the globe, you don’t have to worry about your benefits – they’ll be extended so you can enjoy them when you are ready to travel again.” United Airlines and American Airlines followed Delta’s lead in the weeks afterward.

• Our experience with Fortune 500 companies has shown that most have more brands than they need to effectively serve their customers. This is often a result of acquisitions, ingrained management beliefs and organizational silos that prevent the development of a comprehensive view of the business. Having too many brands in a portfolio means assets are underleveraged and under-resourced, leaving companies vulnerable to more focused competition. Does this sound familiar?

The solution is to identify and prioritize the most powerful brands in a portfolio, explore and select the optimal orientation for each and assign the roles and resources required for each brand to meet its objectives.

What is a Brand Portfolio Strategy?

A brand portfolio strategy is your roadmap for orchestrating multiple brands to create uncommon growth. Rather than managing brands in isolation, this framework transforms your collection of assets into a strategic advantage.

We help organizations define each brand’s unique role while establishing clear relationships through brand architecture. The goal isn’t just organization—it’s activation. When brands work together strategically, they maximize market coverage while eliminating internal competition and customer confusion.

This integrated approach turns scattered offerings into a cohesive system that serves distinct customer needs without cannibalizing growth. The result? A portfolio that delivers sustainable competitive advantage through strategic focus and creative execution.

Brands vs. Brand Offerings

Unfortunately, many companies confuse offerings with brands. Offerings have a minimal level of connection with customers and can sometimes be called brand extensions. Brands, in contrast, promote an emotional connection with customers and build associations and expectations around their offerings. Examples of brands that have effectively leveraged their relationships with customers to expand their offerings include Dove (Men+Care and Baby Dove) and Tide (Tide Spin).

Step 1: Identify the Most Powerful Brands in a Portfolio

So how should marketers begin prioritizing brands in a portfolio? By looking at the strategic intent and financial performance of each.

Revisit Strategic Intent

Strategic intent usually offers the greatest insights into the future of a brand. It allows you to identify which brands have a clear, strategic role in the portfolio today, or importantly, could have one in the future too. Key questions include: Which brands have a clear target segment? Which brands have the potential to extend into other categories or markets? Which brands play a key offensive or defensive role?

Evaluate Financial Performance

Then, identify the brands that are important contributors to financial performance. Revenue figures typically help tell the story and guide the prioritization of brands from a financial perspective. For example, in a recent engagement with a leading CPG company, we found that close to 70 percent of the company’s revenues were driven by 25 percent of the brands in the portfolio. While EBITDA figures shed additional light on brand performance, they also provide input about key financial roles of secondary brands within the portfolio.

Applying both these lenses will help you identify which brands should be prioritized in the portfolio (strong financial performance and clear strategic intent), which should be rationalized (weak financial performance and lack of strategic intent) and which ones require further analysis.

The “Gray Assets”

While identifying the strong and weak brands is relatively straightforward, the real opportunity is to determine what to do with “gray assets,” those that have strong financial performance but weak strategic intent or vice-versa. The best way to understand the potential of these brands is to look at them as part of the overall portfolio, rather than as individual assets. Often, the interdependencies with other brands and the resources allocated to them or their category can explain their current performance and/or delineate their potential future role in the portfolio.

Step 2: Define Brand Portfolio Solutions

Once the most relevant brands have been identified, the next step is to establish brand portfolio solutions that respond to the needs of target customers in the market. To create these solutions, ask yourself the following questions: How are the brands aligned with customer segments? Are there customer segments that are being underserved? Are there brands that are overlapping in terms of what they offer? Are there strong brands that could expand cross-category or regionally to drive growth?

It’s true that driving commercial impact is the silver bullet in identifying the winning brand portfolio strategy. But we have found that customer preference, purchase intent, and the ability to attract new customers or increase loyalty are also metrics that can be used to determine a brand’s potential.

When you evaluate your brands and offerings as a portfolio, you may identify the need to divest brands to meet your strategic and financial objectives. This has been a traditionally difficult decision for executives, who are always concerned about the impact of giving away brands to competitors.  But consider the following: marketing behemoths such as P&G have taken significant steps to reshape their portfolios in the quest for profitable growth.

Most recently, Newell Brands announced a decision to sell off assets equal to about 10% of its portfolio, which came to about $1.5 billion of total 2015 sales. “The combination of Newell Rubbermaid and Jarden has created a unique platform for transformative value creation and the actions we are taking to reshape the company will unlock this opportunity, bringing greater investment and growth to our highest potential categories like writing, home fragrance, baby, food storage & preparation, appliances and cookware, and outdoor and recreation,” Newell President Mark Tarchetti said in a statement.

Step 3: Establish a Brand Portfolio Roadmap

Once the portfolio solution has been defined, a brand portfolio roadmap must be established to clearly outline the roles and priorities of each brand during the transition. Which brands will be invested in? Which brands will fund the growth during the implementation? What impact does this change have on the organization, both internally and externally? How will marketing investments be realigned to support the strategy?

Answering these questions requires an overarching view of the portfolio and the commitment of management teams to potentially change traditional ways of going to market. Successful efforts are often led by an empowered CMO with enough influence in the organization to make the tough decisions, and generate buy-in of the resulting brand portfolio strategy.

Organizations often have too many brands to serve their customers. An opportunity exists to do more with less by reevaluating the brand portfolio strategy.