2024 came in like a lion, with optimism and a return-to-growth mandate across sectors despite interest rate uncertainty and global unrest. After a challenging 2022 and 2023, consumers and companies resumed spending. Markets bounced back. In fact, in our 2024 summary, “Year of Resilience,” companies researched saw a 85% year-over-year net income increase across all the companies and sectors analyzed.

With new policies and a more favorable M&A environment, companies saw promise for 2025. And so did we as we analyzed year-end earnings reports of more than 50 of the world’s largest, fastest-growing and most relevant companies.

Our goal was straightforward: understand how leaders experienced the highs and lows of 2024 and uncover implications for 2025. As we listened and researched, most companies still see growth opportunities but CEOs and CFOs understand the need to remain vigilant—cautiously monitoring hypercomplex economic challenges in real time.

With that in mind, first, we’ll look back at the 2024 cross-company and industry drivers of growth as well as a few of the issues that kept leaders up at night. Then, we’ll look at what that might mean for 2025.

A Relentless Drive to Unlock Uncommon Growth 

Last year, companies around the globe made confident and at times uncommon growth moves. Some invested in new customers. Netflix, for example, gained 19 million paying users by cracking down on subscription sharing and Airbnb invested $250 million to expand its core app usage. Others explored new territories. AB InBev poured millions of dollars into nonalcoholic brewing technology and Uber and Waymo expanded their autonomous ride-hailing offerings to more cities. In sustainable growth, Hyundai launched its “HTWO” brand to represent its world-leading hydrogen fuel cell system. The commitment to innovation reflects a broader mindset, well expressed by Ford CEO Jim Farley: “Our relentless focus on executing the Ford+ plan has delivered strong results, positioning us well for continued growth in 2025 and beyond.”

Transitioning to M&A, although it was a more muted landscape in 2024, we saw several strategic deals that signaled uncommon growth opportunities, including Exxon Mobil’s acquisition of Pioneer, Capital One’s pending acquisition of Discover that aims to redefine its role in the financial ecosystem and Verizon’s acquisition of Frontier Fiber, the largest pure-play fiber internet provider in the U.S.

As we move through 2025, leaders appear to be swinging big in innovation, market expansion and M&A as many expect their competitors will be quieter due to market uncertainty. Relative to M&A, exciting times are ahead with an estimated global deal value reaching $3.5 trillion. According to Morgan Stanley CFO Sharon Yeshaya, “This will not just be a blip on the radar, as M&A pipelines remain healthy and diversified.”

A Pivot to Leveraging AI as a Commercial Building Block 

From “talking about AI” to “scaling AI” to “AI as a commercial driver of success,” the evolution of artificial intelligence since the early 2020s is striking. Beyond boosting efficiency, AI is being harnessed as a business engine. Tech giants, as expected, are broadcasting the generative AI enhancement of their product lines, providing relevant and tangible benefits—Apple Intelligence, Meta Glasses, Amazon’s Alexa+ and Tesla FSD cars, to name just a few. Google CEO Sundar Pichai stayed true to this trend, stating, “Scaling Gemini on the consumer side will be our biggest focus next year.”

Beyond the tech sector, other market leaders are also pushing AI-driven innovation. Chevron is utilizing its novel FaultAssist program to forecast disaster prevention. Pfizer is propelling AI-powered drug discovery and optimization of its back-end processes, enabling faster medication deployment. Lyft is using AI for driver support and troubleshooting, estimating a total of 28,000 hours saved in support time.

Amid the widespread and ongoing AI acceleration to date, leaders are anxious to push their AI agendas forward in 2025 while recognizing the need to clarify what their businesses truly need—both operationally and commercially. For instance, Delta CEO Ed Bastian is taking a more deliberate approach, ensuring alignment between core operations and the brand’s overall promise: “[Our] focus on AI is to learn, and to listen, and to make certain that we’re ready before we jump in with both feet.”

An Obsession with Being Market Back and Customer-Centered 

Consumers are focusing on simplicity and speed. Fueled by what Accenture calls the “impatience economy,” they are siding with brands that are quick to market and bespoke in their offerings. From the fastest shipping to fast fashion, brands like Amazon and Zara are first in line. Fortive CEO James Lico shared, “The reason for [their] five-year track record of success is a commitment to their Fortive Business System … [which] helps identify unmet customer needs, develop new products and get them to market faster.”

But speed has its costs such as sustainability. A key focus of last year’s report, sustainability appears to have become more of a nice-to-have than a differentiator for 2025. Instead, consumers are prioritizing other areas and companies are following suit. For one, getting healthier, as personal health brands like Hims & Hers and Novo Nordisk are expanding with GLP-1 weight loss medications. Second, consumers continue to seek out unique experiences. Brands like Travel + Leisure and Mastercard are already benefiting from increased interest in tourism and more cross-border payments (up 24% year over year for the credit card company) and Marriott is growing its room count, adding 123,000 rooms in 2024.

Moving forward into 2025, we expect to see more innovation in the name of speed—from production to shipping to service models—as well as an effort to leverage customer data and feedback to further tailor offerings to meet unmet needs. Across offerings we also see an opportunity for more industries to get in on the health and overall self-betterment craze. As we touched on with AB InBev’s shift to nonalcoholic, we believe there’s room to succeed outside the obvious health-centric sectors.

A Desire to get the Employee Value Exchange Right 

Today, companies’ policies around remote work continue to evolve. Firms with competitive hiring practices like JPMorgan are more comfortable taking a firm stance on return-to-office mandates while tech giants Apple and Microsoft have remained committed to hybrid policies. And in places where the industry is split, unhappy employees are speaking out. For example, when AT&T adopted a strict return-to-office policy, it sparked employee backlash on social media allowing Verizon to capitalize by recruiting AT&T employees with hybrid and remote offers.

The ongoing discourse around DEI in the workplace has further complicated the employer-employee value exchange, as has the perceived role AI will play in the workplace, tied to job displacement and uncertainties about adapting and pushback against AI adoption.

As highlighted in our research, these debates only intensify tension in the job market as talent shortages persist across industries. As the population ages, CEOs are expecting labor market shifts, with a large population of skilled laborers beginning to retire, leaving a void of qualified talent. In health care, CVS is making strides to address pharmacist shortages. In the aviation industry, American Airlines and United both paused hiring due to the high cost of training and aircraft shortages, in part due to Boeing’s departing engineers. On the positive side, Delta celebrated its profit-sharing day, distributing $1.4 billion to its employees promoting corporate culture.

A quarter into 2025, it’s clear that companies need to take a fresh look at their employee value proposition, their employee experience and what it will take to recruit and retain top talent.

A Strong Belief that Resiliency and Agility are now Operational Cornerstones 

On a macro level, the global economy’s resilience has continued to be put to the test: interest rate debates, high inflation and geopolitical conditions created uncertainty, yet unemployment remained low and consumer spending persisted.

2024 proved to be a period of optimistic resilience. Eastman Chemical was hit by weak end-market demand, fluctuation in raw material prices and regulatory pressure. Yet, through innovation and the adoption of advanced technologies, it found ways to reach its earnings goals. Lockheed Martin faced supply chain disruptions and high material costs but expanded its engineering manufacturing facilities to meet rising demand. On the other hand, Exxon Mobil and Boeing felt the squeeze of fluctuating demand and material prices, leading to dips in net income—a reminder that even industry titans must continuously adapt.

Now, in 2025, some companies are demonstrating the importance of adaptability under the policies of the new administration to drive success. Apple plans to invest $500 billion to move a manufacturing facility from Mexico to Texas, avoiding the effects of cross-border tariffs. Amazon similarly continues to invest in data centers across the U.S.

With shifting economic policies, evolving regulatory landscapes and global market fluctuations, the true impact of these bold investments remains uncertain. As companies navigate this unpredictable environment, their ability to showcase cautious resilience will define their success in 2025 and beyond.

Acknowledgments: Bridget Mitchell, Hannah Anderson, Mary Kovacs and Samuel Pinchback.

---

Empowered, informed and demanding customers. Relentless tech advancement and disruption. Unmanageable data volumes. Geopolitical conflict and macroeconomic volatility. Shifting competitive vectors and intensifying regulatory oversight.  

Welcome to the new normal – about which there is nothing normal. 

But for all the change, there’s one constant for business leaders: intense pressure to deliver growth, quarter after quarter, year after year. Given today’s extraordinary challenges and complexities, however, these business leaders now recognize that yesterday’s best practices no longer apply. In other words, uncommon times require uncommon approaches to drive uncommon growth.  

So, what do we mean by uncommon growth? First and foremost, it’s high-impact growth that’s faster, smarter, more sustainable and more actionable. Breakthrough product innovations – whether from start-ups or well-established brands – are perhaps the most visible examples of uncommon growth. But these are exceedingly rare. Similarly, bold acquisitions can drive uncommon growth, but relatively few firms have the capital to pursue this option.  

In mature industries with tight margins, uncommon growth can mean outpacing the competition by a point or two. Or grabbing market share via smarter marketing, more attractive offers, better experiences or new sales channels. Or reshaping a brand or core value proposition for increased relevance to changing customer behaviors. To some extent, uncommon growth is a function of boosting returns on investments in transformation and innovation programs.   

Uncommon growth takes many forms. Consider how a leading drug store chain (CVS) transcended its successful retail heritage through a disruptive new home care business, with existing brand equity energizing its entry into an adjacent sector with a brighter growth outlook.  

A legacy entertainment brand, PENN Entertainment, shifted to an omnichannel business model to engage more customers across a fragmented media landscape. A software provider remixed its portfolio of 100+ products for delivery via a cloud-based platform for the future. There is no singular path towards uncommon growth but despite varied success, all companies need to find ways to unlock uncommon growth today and in the future.  

The Action Plan for Uncommon Growth

Unlocking uncommon growth can be as much about the “how” as the “what.” The combination of building new capabilities, securing organizational alignment and developing muscle memory can power companies to launch new products, services and experiences, devise new business models, and execute growth strategies faster and more repeatably than in the past. The priorities include: 

Increasing Organizational Velocity

Uncommon growth typically starts with speed. That means shortening the time from insights to decisions and from execution to impact. And accelerating go-to-market timelines, with faster design-build-test cycles and a quicker pace for launching MVPs and releasing updates. It’s a huge leadership challenge because most businesses today simply aren’t built to keep up with rapidly shifting market demands or seize opportunities that come and go faster than many firms can act.  

Taking the Holistic View

There are multiple levers leaders can adjust in pursuit of uncommon growth – and they should explore them all. Product and service offerings will be priorities, but product bundles and subscription models may move the needle. Refreshed customer experiences, with personalization and customization features, can drive significant value, too. New technology may be deployed to unlock new distribution channels or enhance specific touchpoints (e.g., Generative AI tools for tailoring recommendations and offers).   

Energizing the Culture to Promote Risk-Taking and Experimentation

For many organizations, that means making collaboration and co-creation (with partners and customers and across functions) the norm, rather than an exception for special projects. Similarly, innovation must be operationalized as a business-as-usual process and function (like finance and HR). These are not easy changes to enact, but they’re necessary to remove internal and cultural barriers to growth.   

---

This article was originally published on Chief Marketer.

Listening to the media speculate over what’s hindered corporate growth in recent years can feel a bit like a game of Clue. Was it the Fed in D.C. with the high interest rates? The many geopolitical conflicts? The techies in Silicon Valley with the never-ending disruption? Or just fickle customers with their constantly shifting preferences?

But in conversations with senior leaders across industries, it’s become clear that the real threat is far more insidious—and it’s coming from inside the house. A structural bias against bringing innovations to market quickly, coupled with a lack of clarity and confidence from the C-suite, is preventing companies from generating and sustaining growth.

The reality is that most businesses today simply aren’t built to meet the rapidly shifting demands of the marketplace. With leaders under constant pressure to show quarterly gains, organizations are incentivized to emphasize the short-term. Moreover, in a post-pandemic world, market opportunities are coming and going faster than companies can shift to meet them, leaving CEOs discouraged and unsure of the path ahead, while long-term strategies go obsolete before they can be acted upon.

This reality is borne out in our own research: 34% of business leaders told us their firms overemphasize short-term results, and 37% said their organization has no long-term planning process. “You’re constantly in this space of change,” one executive told us. “Plans are abandoned almost as soon as they are made. There’s no real plan because things just sort of happen.”

However, organizations that possess a few key capabilities and cultural attributes can build the muscle memory to launch new products, services and experiences, devise new business models, and execute other types of growth strategies in a timely, repeatable way. At the heart of this approach are five key capabilities that businesses must develop to unlock and sustain growth in today’s volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous marketplace.

1. Form Cross-Functional Go-to-Market (GTM) Teams for Speed to Market

Many organizations assign growth initiatives to specific departments, such as marketing or product development (“Go invent me something new!”). This approach can slow down the process, leading to missed opportunities and delayed market entry. Instead, companies must form cross-functional GTM teams that build speed and agility into the process end-to-end: Speed to insight, speed to strategy, speed to impact, and speed to capability.

This team should include members from finance, HR, technology, design and strategy. Empower these teams to launch new products quickly, with a clear mandate to deliver specific, measurable results. Because all relevant functions are represented from the start, all critical factors are addressed earlier—so products launch faster and more successfully.

Real-world example:

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Chick-fil-A continued to innovate drive through and home delivery at the speed of light. It required partnership of multiple teams across strategy, store operations, marketing, digital, HR and finance—even working virtually. One big learning: in the face of disruption, how powerful it was to have all of the functions working together seamlessly to solve a major business issue. It’s a learning that has carried forward propelling Chick-fil-A’s growth and innovation.  

2. Build a Coalition of Stakeholders for Informed Decision-Making

Effective growth execution requires more than just speed; it requires informed decision-making. This can be challenging in large organizations where decision rights are often unclear and political dynamics can delay progress. To overcome these obstacles, build a coalition of stakeholders across the organization. Align them on the growth strategy and their interdependent roles in delivering it. Their clarity and shared vision will set them up to collaborate. You’ll get faster, more informed decision-making.

Real-world example: 

T-Mobile’s game-changing transformation to save (and turn around) a business included tough decisions such as eliminating contracts along with a rolling thunder of other moves. The change required C-suite collaboration around a shared set of data-driven inputs and a scenario-driven business and marketing plan.

3. Make GTM Innovation Business as Usual

To be ready to respond to new market opportunities that keep coming faster, innovation needs to become a core business capability. This means that the processes and competencies necessary for launching, operating and scaling new products need to be integrated into the organization’s everyday operations. It also means senior leaders need to cultivate a culture of risk tolerance, so the impulses for growth and organizational resilience stay in balance.

Real-world example: 

Amazon is continually experimenting with GTM innovation, from its inception through the present day, including the acquisition of Whole Foods and its physical retail experiments with Five Star stores and Amazon Fresh. All are designed to take advantage of consumers’ constantly shifting needs.

4. Move at the Speed of Markets

The companies best poised to capture growth opportunities ahead of competition will be faster in three interconnected phases: insight, strategy and market execution. They will prioritize deeper understanding of customer needs, rapid translation of insights into strategic priorities, and swifter implementation. The key is to build an organization that is agile, adaptable and capable of scaling its operations to meet growing demand.

Real-world example: 

Pfizer recently launched its ambitious “Pfizer for All” consumer-facing platform, a first for the company. There was roughly 15 months between the launch of an earlier idea in early 2023—vaccine-finder VaxAssist—and the launch of the far more ambitious platform, Pfizer for All, in August 2024. The approach helped test and learn before scale, working through what consumers, patients and channel partners want and need. It shows a commitment to going rapidly to market, learning fast from what works and what doesn’t, and doubling down on where there’s traction.

5. Embrace AI to Enhance Growth Capabilities

From tracking customer preferences to developing rapid prototypes, AI can help businesses move faster and more efficiently. Focus AI on improving existing capabilities and creating new opportunities in customer engagement and operational efficiency, as is the case with Walmart. The focus should be on how AI can be integrated into your company’s overall growth strategy to drive sustainable results.

See original article on Chief Marketer here.

---

The good news is that 2023, a very challenging year for businesses, is far in the rearview mirror. The bad news is that rest of 2024 into 2025 may have many of the same barriers to growth. That means senior leaders should think bigger (about go-to-market innovation and future-back strategies), bolder (about brand-led transformation and new business models) and more creatively (about driving organizational capacity for change).  

As we return to a period of potential growth, C-suites are being pressured by investors and capital markets to find new sources of revenue and new ways to increase customer loyalty. Every part of the business is charged with identifying new pathways to growth. At the same time, every dollar invested is being closely scrutinized for its impact on overall performance.  

For all the market uncertainty and competitive intensity, it’s worth remembering that disruption is born out of turbulent times. In that spirit, we offer five key ideas for unlocking growth in 2024 and beyond.  

Given customer expectations today, it’s no longer enough to have a great product or service. You must engage customers and demonstrate your relevance to their lives outside of simple, one-off transactions. Platforms have become critical because “Use journeys” have become more important than “Choose journeys,” as my colleague Ted Moser writes in his new book, Winning Through Platforms: 

“In the Choose journey, customers explore their needs and options, assess their final choices, and transact. In the Use journey, customers use the products and services they have accessed, then eventually decide whether to access them again – and if so, from whom.”  

Platforms are for the Use journey in the 2020s what websites were to the Choose journey in the early 2000s – the primary way companies engage with customers to deliver satisfying experiences and execute their growth strategies. They are powerful because they enable companies to carefully observe how customers use their products and explore other areas of interest. That creates momentum on the Use journey and provides data the company can use to add features, shape offers, and drive uptake. 

Platforms are known by many names – apps, super apps, hubs, portals, clouds, suites, exchanges. Whatever they’re called, the platforms convert functionality into valued customer experiences, which lead to renewed brand relevance and, ultimately, market leadership. They also signal advantage to investors and prepare a company for convergent competition.  

Platforms are no longer purely for tech giants or ambitious, well-funded start-ups. Consider how pharmaceutical companies are creating hubs and communities for specific types of patients, with content and connections to help them manage their conditions and lead healthier lives  

Companies can no more “pass” on deploying platforms than they could “pass” on having a good website. And if they choose only one, it should be a platform. 

Today’s markets are too volatile to leave growth to traditional cycles, which are not nearly as consistent as they used to be. In fact, growth can accelerate and amplify at any turn. That’s good news because many companies that experienced declines in the last year can’t wait for the next naturally occurring growth cycle to occur organically. Firms that aren’t prepared for the next growth cycle, or are over-reliant on advice about the past, may miss their chance to accelerate growth.  

A future-back approach has helped many firms envision new growth trajectories. A leader in manufacturing recognized a pivotal shift: consumers were quickly adopting connected home technology. Given their product’s universal presence in homes, they identified a unique opportunity to become a cornerstone of the connected home ecosystem. By adopting a future-back approach, we helped them envision a future where their products not only fulfilled their primary function but also integrated seamlessly into the broader connected home environment. This strategic perspective allowed them to see beyond current market limitations and focus on long-term value creation. 

Firms that struggle to unlock growth or get leapfrogged by disruptive competitors often make the mistake of expecting patterns of past market behavior to repeat in the future. Obviously, senior leaders know markets keep moving, driven by shifting customer behaviors and evolving societal trends. That’s why companies must invest time and resources in figuring out what’s over the horizon. 

While it’s impossible to predict the future, firms can leverage deep customer insights and formalized approaches to exploration to identify probable developments and preferred outcomes. Our recent research found that a leading barrier to increasing innovation is the lack of a long-term planning process. Asking tough questions – Why hasn’t this innovation been tried before? Are we best positioned to deliver a new type of offering? What advantages and disadvantages do we have in the market? – is as important as generating new ideas. The answers to these questions will help define the key capabilities and innovative offers necessary to lead the next growth cycle. 

Unlocking breakthrough value often requires transformation in the form of rationalizing the portfolio, realigning the organization, or digitizing operations. The struggles to realize full value on transformation investments are well documented. Less appreciated is the unique power of brands to increase the odds of transformation success.  

As portfolios of products and services are redesigned and new experiences created, thoughtful branding can drive adoption and engagement, among both customers and employees. Used properly, brands can establish a new frame of reference and highlight a clear and compelling purpose. Internally, branding can inspire change by giving employees the motivation to contribute to important transformation initiatives.  

In accelerating growth through business transformation, senior leaders must ask what role their brand can – and should – play. Understanding how brands and a company’s purpose are perceived in the market is a vital first step. In some cases, brands may need a refresh to match updated offerings. In other situations, brand equities can extend effectively into new categories. In either case, careful planning and market insights can help senior leaders find the right way to put the brand to work. 

The regional casino operator formerly known as Penn National Gaming aimed to disrupt a sector undergoing great change. Facing an inflection point in its business – thanks to technology advancements, expansion of online gaming and rapid growth via acquisitions – the company set out a bold transformation agenda to lead the gaming and entertainment industry into a new era.  

Senior leadership decided it was time to redefine the corporate identity to reflect its growth beyond casinos into omnichannel entertainment. The rebrand created stronger connections with consumers, employees, investors and partners, which led to more support for the broader transformation effort.  

In seeking new pathways for growth, many companies default to product and service extensions rather than exploring entirely new ways to generate revenue and engage customers. We think the latter approach – the development of new business models – is the better option in 2024. Why? Because that’s where the uncommon results come from.  

Identifying new business models requires a deep understanding of the value chain – where and how money is being made today, where the biggest pain and friction points exist for customers and which assets can deliver more value. These insights point the way to value-added services that will resonate with customers, versus mere product wraparounds.  

A major US consumer products retailer not only remained relevant but delivered strong growth by expanding from basic tech support capabilities into a subscription-based total tech support for home entertainment and productivity, building on the strength of its expert service capability Customers love getting direction on the best system for their needs and investors love the margins of the higher-end services. 

Another example – acquisitions: The build, buy or partner question certainly applies to new business model development. Every firm should consider a wide range of options.  

Whatever lingering goodwill brands created during COVID is long gone. The loyalty bump from that era has been lost to rising prices, increasing competition and changing behaviors. Current market realities have placed a premium on the ability of companies to drive change effectively, repeatedly and in line with big-picture business objectives like growth.  

Because they know change and disruption are inevitable, companies must learn to disrupt themselves ­– building new offerings and experiences in line with changing customer needs, tearing down to refocus and then reinventing again.  

The legendary toymaker LEGO underwent a stunning transformation in the early 2000s to become the “Apple of Toys.” Facing bankruptcy, new leadership formalized its approach to innovation while remaining focused on its core product – the humble brick. The company encouraged customers (both kids and adults) to share feedback and ideas for innovation. Its adoption of “full-spectrum innovation” transcended individual product lines and revealed potential new markets.  Even in the age of immersive video games and pet robots, LEGO has delivered impressive results, in terms of both bottom-line metrics and customer engagement, even passion. 

In a turbulent, hyper-competitive environment, this capacity for reinvention needs to become a core competency and cultural attribute. Establishing a separate business reinvention capability will help cultivate a disruptive mindset and the necessary processes and skills, such as portfolio review, market analysis, and innovation labs. Self-disruption is never easy but it’s necessary for market leadership. To get ahead, most businesses need to step up their game in terms of reinvention.

---

Our new global research commissioned from Forrester Consulting has found that human-centric companies are more likely to see results from their business transformation efforts. In fact, human-centric organizations are 10 times more likely to achieve revenue growth rates of 20% or more.   

Forrester surveyed over 300 organizational growth and transformation decision-makers across geographies and industries to uncover how firms are using human-centricity to design and assess the effectiveness of their transformation initiatives. Our maturity model provides a comparative analysis that illustrates how human-centric firms are outperforming their peers when it comes to delivering transformative growth.  

In comparison to less human-centric organizations, respondents from human-centric organizations are more likely to achieve or expect these benefits:

Barriers to meeting transformation goals for initiatives that are less human-centric:

This study offers resources for decision-makers looking to transform their organizations to be more resilient, improve their culture and satisfy all stakeholders while setting themselves up for future business success.

Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Prophet, July 2023.

The CEO of a large financial-services organization recognized that their customers were defecting to fintech disruptors, ranging from SoFi to Acorns to Robinhood. The customer base was shrinking and revenue growth was stagnant. But while everyone constantly talked about customer-centricity, the executive team didn’t realize how unfocused they had become. This became clear when they couldn’t explain why some customers were leaving and which customers should be their future source of growth.

“How can we find our way back to growth when we don’t even know who our customer is,” the CEO asked.

The company realized it needed to undergo a transformation.

Most Companies Aren’t as Consumer-Centric as They Think

The pressure for reinvention feels more urgent than ever as organizations look to find their way past the turbulence of the pandemic. Customer behavior has shifted radically and with it, so have customer expectations. Markets are resizing. Supply chains are disrupted. Digital commerce is growing rapidly. Customer experiences are the new product.

Despite these changes, companies, theoretically, are 100% committed to customer-centricity. Unfortunately, all that noise has caused many to relax their true commitment to customers — even if they can’t quite see it. (Of course, some have never been customer-centric, despite years of lip service.)

In our transformation work, we’ve come to understand the root of this lack of focus. Companies missing customer-centricity often struggle with at least some of these internal barriers:

Failing To Connect the Dots

Customer-centricity requires a deep and connected view of the customer, supporting real-time, integrated customer insights. This constantly refreshed stream of data is a tool that all functions should use, and should be buttressed by meaningful, qualitative research including deep listening and active interrogation. The data helps spot the critical shifts in customer behaviors. Tools like ethnography are critical to getting at the why behind the trends in the data. Both ingredients are critical to customer-centric growth.

“Customer-centricity requires a deep and connected view of the customer, supporting real-time, integrated customer insights.”

Too often, companies invest in one-off research studies without thinking through how the insights can be operationalized, distributed, and refreshed over time. Or, they over-rely on data collection as the sole source of customer truth without delving into the why behind the behaviors they are seeing. Without the combination of data and insights, companies can easily lose their way.

Finally, different business units typically “own” these insights, which means they aren’t shared or connected across the organization. The result is that sales, marketing, product and service teams each see a different side of the customer, and no one is connecting the dots or able to see the bigger picture.

True customer-centricity flows from an ongoing and distributed source of new insights — this includes a combination of survey and perceptual data along with database and behavioral insights. Staying on top of what consumers want today and in the future will be crucial to identify the right products, services and experiences that lend themselves towards new opportunities for growth.

Unwillingness To Put Yourself Out of Business

Companies that pay lip service to customer-centricity build products and experiences to fit existing capabilities or business models and then optimize margins based on testing. They think about what they want and what’s good for their margins. They look at existing resources and say, “What can we build with what we have?”

Customer-centric organizations approach innovation and experience design differently. They are unencumbered by how things are done now. Instead, think about how to best meet customer needs today and in the future.

This is inherently risky. Nike’s 2017 decision to sell directly with consumers meant ditching large wholesale customers. To some, that seemed reckless.  Within a year of adopting a direct-to-consumer model, their revenue grew by nearly 6%, and Nike continues to be one of the world’s most fast-moving, beloved brands.

Fear of Going All-in

Companies that aren’t all-in on customer-centricity might think that engagement is a metric only the marketing team needs to focus on, or that managing Net Promoter Scores is a role for the servicing department. They may be willing to overhaul some areas or happy to tweak the existing business model. But complete reinvention? That’s often off the table.

However, there is no such thing as a partial transformation. Genuinely customer-centric organizations know that to accelerate growth, it takes alignment through the entire company. Whether in sales or HR, supply chain or R&D, these organizations set shared transformation goals around the relationships they seek to create with their customers, and they hold everyone to account. Hiring, compensation and operating models are linked to these customer relationship goals in ways that reinforce the right behaviors and business decisions.

---

Digital transformation doesn’t mean what it used to. In fact, the term, as it’s been used to describe so many corporate efforts over the last 20-plus years, means something different today: Building digital businesses. And that goal is very much alive.

Today, when companies talk about digital transformation, it’s because they want to find new ways to use technology to serve customers better. They hope to build business engines that continually reinvent themselves. They understand “transformation” isn’t an endpoint but a state of constant evolution.

Businesses also know that the need is urgent. Research from Altimeter, a Prophet company, finds that 92% of leaders believe their current business model won’t remain viable if digitization continues at current rates. However, many companies are conflicted about how to transform.

It doesn’t help that digital transformation conjures images of expensive failures. According to a 2019 study, companies like General Electric, Ford, Procter & Gamble and others have sunk up to $1.3 trillion in digital transformation efforts, and about 70%–roughly $900 billion–was wasted.

But the consequence of not pursuing digital transformation is worse. Almost every recent notable bankruptcy–from Toys R Us to Hertz to Frontier Communications–is linked to failure to transform.

Typically, efforts fail because those in charge keep insisting that digital transformation is rooted in technology. That’s where people get it wrong: digital transformation is based on people and enabled by technology. More specifically, initiatives collapse because leaders don’t approach their strategy with the right mindset. In the race to find easy wins and weak consensus, they focus on tech-driven tools and tactics rather than what these tools are in service of.  They also skip the three most important conversations required for successful transformation:

What Are Our Goals?

For the many companies that lurch from one quarter to the next, articulating a bold vision is difficult. And even for those skilled in adaptive business strategies, following customers in wholly new directions is daunting.

But it’s essential. Transformation can only succeed when leadership sets a clear, measurable vision for how digital will transform the business. Further, executives must do more than simply state their transformation agenda. They must champion the initiative and hold everyone accountable for their part in creating the necessary capabilities, products and services to bring that vision to life. Transformation cannot happen in silos. It must reach across the entire business and be embedded in all functions for real change to happen.

This is inherently risky. Nike’s 2017 decision to use digital muscle to connect directly with consumers meant ditching large wholesale customers. To some, that seemed reckless. But it paid off: its share price has nearly tripled since, and Nike continues to be one of the most fast-moving, beloved brands in the world.

Goals should be specific, and they must acknowledge the need to move at two speeds, with short-term optimization and long-term iterative capability building.

“Digital transformation is based on people and enabled by technology.”

Electrolux, for example, knew consumers wanted every aspect of their home to be connected. It not only included the appliances they use but the way they shop for them. So, the company set goals to make digital integral to every phase of the customer journey. This required a dedicated cross-functional executive team, including marketing, product, sales, IT and critical markets.

These solutions are, of course, tech-enabled. By developing marketing mix guidelines that optimized spending by brand, product and channel, Electrolux improved its operating margins by nearly 20% in just one year.  But these changes grew from a deep understanding of people’s preferences and the explicit goal of transforming a manufacturing business into a consumer marketing-driven company. Like Nike, Electrolux has become a more people-focused enterprise that’s turned it into a relevance-seeking machine, always in motion and constantly evolving.

How Do We Find the Capabilities To Get There?

A new digital business requires new capabilities. Companies must confront the question of how they will obtain these new skills. Will they build them? Buy them? Partner with another company?

Consumers think of Starbucks as a coffee shop. However, Starbucks has long known that it can only fulfill its purpose if it puts the right technology in the hands of both customers and baristas. Consistent investment in loyalty and payment systems has paid off in a digital universe that now powers 50% of U.S. sales. with a quarter of sales from mobile devices. For Starbucks, building that proprietary technology was the right path. Tech has even become a revenue source on its own, with the company now licensing systems to international franchisees.

Acquisition is another route, sometimes chosen by some of the most innovative companies. That includes Apple, which recently bought Mobeewave, a payments company based on nearfield communication, rather than build its own. Even digital natives need help given the pace of change in customer expectations.

All three approaches may make sense, depending on an organization’s near-term goals and long-term ambitions. Deciding among these options requires a candid assessment of current organizational capabilities and what it will take to achieve them.

What Do Our People Need To Take Us There?

Organizational change is always tough and managing for digital transformation is even harder. If companies want people to work and think differently to transform the business, they can’t expect them to do it on demand. Behavior and mindset are emergent. Organizations need to enable the workforce with the right skills to create value, whether through upskilling or temporary support.

This requires evolved governance and tools that make it easy for them to do the right thing for the new strategy, and in the right way. Incentives must be realigned to give people space for experimentation, so they can navigate the ambiguity that comes along with almost all transformation strategies.

To do this right, most companies will require a complex revaluation of their capabilities, governance systems, talent mix and employee value proposition. They need new recruiting, retention and incentive practices as they prepare for the future and must enlist a diversity of talent that is new to them. They need short-term innovators and long-range thinkers, fast movers and patient tinkerers. Transformation requires a cultural revolution, hiring new types of people and skillsets, and then leading them differently.

At Prophet, we talk about the “body, mind and soul” of an organization; and that to digitally transform, a business needs to address all these elements. In Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model, an organization first determines what it wants its DNA to be – its purpose, its brand proposition and its strategic plan to win. Next, it goes to work on the “mind” (its talent, capabilities, and skills), the “body” (governance, process and tools) and the “soul” (its values, behaviors and rituals).

All are necessary for the digital transformation to have its full impact.

---

Companies are aggressively pursuing business transformation to drive top and bottom-line growth and establish a more effective business model for the future. The pressure for reinvention feels increasingly urgent as organizations look to find their way past the turbulence of the pandemic. Markets are fluid, technology is shifting and people are demanding more digital solutions than ever before.

Companies that settle for incremental progress simply won’t be able to keep up with fast-moving customers.  Companies that embrace this new landscape, however, can achieve uncommon growth – purposeful, profitable, transformative and sustainable. With agile and adaptive approaches to transformation, they can uncover new sources of revenue and relevance in record time.

“When a company’s purpose is clear, that North Star illuminates everything they do. It informs an approach that bridges corporate purpose with its promise to customers.”

Business transformation for growth isn’t easy and companies, especially ones burdened by unsuccessful transformation efforts, are justifiably reluctant to try again. Another common barrier is knowing where to focus and how to start. Too often, leadership gets derailed by decisions about technology. However, all transformation efforts – even ones undertaken as digital transformation – aren’t about tech. They’re based on people.

Taking a human-centered approach to transformation, and working with a variety of organizations in multiple industries, has shown us that no matter what the goals are, companies must follow these three rules of transformation to achieve sustainable growth.

Three Ways To Approach Business Transformation

1. The Customer Is Everything

Companies have been giving customer-centricity lip service for years, but they often fail to appreciate its transformative potential. When organizations put this objective arbiter – the customer – at the center of all decisions, it provides clarity and focus.

This requires an organizational obsession with customers and potential customers. What makes these people happy? What ruins their day? What can your organization do to help their lives run more smoothly? What makes them trust you? What inspires them?

As this customer focus permeates an organization, it gets easier to stop thinking about just selling products and shifts the focus to serving holistic customer needs.

Using this lens, companies can analyze demand opportunities and create a customer value matrix, complete with specific, measurable, time-bound goals. This allows them to identify, prioritize and activate initiatives that deliver on this strategy.

Customer-centric companies don’t spend much time fixing potholes in a customer journey. They don’t have to. Instead, they’re looking for ways to leapfrog expectations. And they also become more adept at changing course, quickly abandoning areas that no longer serve customers.

2. Be a Digital-First Company. But This Time, Do It Right.

All transformation is digital, and companies have known that for decades. But even as businesses invest trillions in digital transformation, they still fail more than they succeed. In our view, that’s because they fall into the trap of thinking technology is the answer. It’s become clear, that tech alone isn’t the answer. The goal is to become a digitally built business, which requires people who use digital-first thinking.

Digital transformation can only succeed when it focuses on people. To be effective, they must transform value drivers that impact others, including both external experiences and internal ways of working.

Companies can begin by setting an overall digital vision that resonates with both customers and employees. That vision requires a clear understanding of which areas will drive the most business and value, complete with specific, measurable objectives validated by key results.

Of course, the technology involved is a critical element, but the bigger issue is about the people in an organization. Do they have the right skills? Are they led and incentivized in a way that allows them to be digital-first? How are they recruited and retained? How does the culture flex and evolve to position the organization for growth in this digital-first world?

With clarified digital goals, companies can begin to iteratively deliver new products, services and experiences. They can regularly re-evaluate strategy and tactics based on key results and customer input.

3. Build an Agile, Purpose-Driven Organization

Companies that know what they stand for are inherently better at customer obsession and building businesses digitally. When a company’s purpose is clear, that North Star illuminates everything they do. It informs an approach that bridges corporate purpose with its promise to customers. This commitment to the customer, with investments aligned to support it, is the growth lever. It creates greater relevance and impact in the market.

This past year has demonstrated just how critical it is to have a clear and authentic purpose. It must resonate with every stakeholder group – not just investors and employees but also customers and members of all its communities.

Today’s consumers, especially millennials and Gen Z, want to do business with companies that make the world a better place. They want to see companies commit to sustainability, diversity and fairness. And they’re demanding increasing transparency. Consumers can forgive brands that make and admit their mistakes. but as soon as they catch a company putting profits ahead of purpose, they’ll move on.

Achieving this agility and commitment to purpose often requires sweeping changes in a company’s culture, capabilities and organization.

Prophet believes human-centered transformations– purpose-driven, customer-focused and digital-first – are the best path to uncommon growth. We talk about the “mind, body and soul” of an organization; and that to transform, a business needs to address all these elements.

For instance, a large financial services company came to us with declining revenue as customers turned to newer fintech entrants. Our business transformation agenda helped guide the CEO, chief growth officer and leadership team to a new company purpose, making life easier for key customer segments. This digital-first strategy vastly improved its agility, so it could quickly pivot to meet people’s needs. Within a year, it increased new business revenue by 8% and drove a 20-fold increase in new leads.

---

Culture is being re-coded, and people expect very different relationships with brands: more human, immediate, seamless and responsive.

Across every category, from healthcare to household goods, auto to automation, B2B to B2C, the companies that are building the most cohesive businesses—through what we call “dynamic and digital brand experiences”—are expanding their relevance and are growing faster than competitors.

Dynamic brand experiences are the new standard. A company that can functionally integrate around the customer with regard to technology, data, marketing and the customer experience is delivering its product and service not simply as an offer, but as an experience ecosystem: a hyper-contextual, empathetic, cohesive and humanized experience that responds to, learns from and anticipates its customers’ next moves and needs.

What Is a Relentlessly Relevant Brand?

We call them relentlessly relevant brands because they understand that they must prove themselves every day, that they operate within an ecosystem of customers and other brands, and they adapt their behaviors in real-time based on context.

They have both a brain and a heart. They are strategic and emotive, contextual and aware. And they lead with data-informed stories. Customers love these experience ecosystems.

“A relentlessly relevant brand is continuously testing its approach and optimizing it in real-time.”

In the modern brand world, relevance trumps consistency; the brand shifts and adjusts in the quest for individual relevancy, explicitly at the expense of being consistent. A relentlessly relevant brand is continuously testing its approach and optimizing it in real-time.

Here’s a simple metaphor: An individual behaves differently with her spouse, her children, and her colleagues. Each expression is authentic but unique. We each have a personal “code” that allows us to behave differently in different settings but still makes us recognizable across all our relationships.

Key Characteristics of Relentlessly Relevant Brands

Relentlessly relevant brands are already flourishing around us. The easiest way to identify them is by looking for entities that are already exhibiting these key characteristics:

Relentlessly relevant brands are hyper-personalized.

The experiences that brands offer are driven by empathy and are designed to feel personalized to each individual. With a rich data set on returning users, TurboTax makes filing taxes a breeze—with prefilled data and explanations about why tax returns might be different from past years, based on personalized events such as moving, getting married, or having a baby.

Relentlessly relevant brands are contextual.

The brand shifts how it acts, feels, and looks according to the environment in which it operates. With the addition of separate kids, music, and gaming environments, YouTube adapts depending on a user’s context. The YouTube Kids interface, for instance, offers icons instead of text navigation and family-friendly content only.

Relentlessly relevant brands are intelligent.

These brands are in learning mode all the time and use this knowledge to inform how they think, act, and engage with consumers. Netflix learns from its users’ viewing habits not only to offer recommendations on what to binge-watch next, but to actually create original content. The company famously commissioned “House of Cards” because it knew a wealth of users had streamed “The Social Network,” which was directed by “House of Cards” producer/director David Fincher.

Relentlessly relevant brands are continuous.

Infused with a digital pulse, brands maintain ongoing conversations with customers. Marriott’s new Li Yu program helps Chinese tourists traveling outside of China feel at home wherever they go. Through a WeChat program, these tourists can engage with a local concierge who can assist in Chinese with anything from restaurant recommendations to in-room amenities requests.

How to Become a Relentlessly Relevant Brand

Where to start? There is no single journey to becoming a relentlessly relevant brand and engaging customers through dynamic and digital experiences, but there are important features that empower brands to succeed in today’s transforming world:

To make your brand more contextual:

Update brand guidelines and toolkits to support adaptive design elements, data-driven content, and personalized, persona-specific experiences. Wrap core products with value-added services and experiences.

To make your brand more intelligent:

Offer customers opportunities to exchange data for improved service levels. Leverage predictive analytics to create proactive offers. Embed AI and machine learning into your data environment and smart (data-enabled) solutions.

To make your brand more continuous:

Use APIs to create seamless connections with ecosystem partners. Integrate customer data records and provide customer single sign in. Embed product extensions or solution recommendations in customer service and digital assets. Create value-added service layers and platforms for customers to expand customer utility and reward loyalty.

---

Ever notice how some brands become part of our daily life so seamlessly that we don’t even think about them until something goes awry, like when Waze fails to detect massive roadwork, or Netflix suggests you might enjoy “Fuller House”?

At Prophet, we know that’s because these brands represent more than a product or service we buy–they’re an integral part of our lives: It’s what we call relentlessly relevant brands. Achieving this level of relevance is no easy feat given the current state of brand-building. For one thing, customers are more in control than ever, and their expectations of brands continue to rise. Technology, from mobile to wearables to Internet-embedded homes, further disrupt those expectations, allowing people to perceive and interact with brands in new ways. Brands that aren’t evolving get lost in the shuffle.

What are Relentlessly Relevant Brands?

Relentlessly relevant brands engage, surprise and connect. They are genuinely modern, finding new ways to delight and deliver. They push themselves to earn and re-earn customers’ loyalty—and they continually redefine what’s possible.

These brands have barreled through passive exposure to come to life, actively participating with customers. They use technology to be more human, creating new experiences to engage with people in ways that enrich their lives. Nike, for example, was once a brand built on bright products, colorful ads and legendary athletes. Today, it’s an ecosystem of dynamic ‘living’ experiences, like the Nike+ community, an ever-expanding universe that includes expert coaching from Nike pros, personal connections to millions of other athletes, training clubs, and valuable partnerships with the likes of Apple, Headspace and ClassPass.

The result is that Nike is one of the few brands with relevance that knows no boundaries, scoring high on our Prophet Brand Relevance Index^TM in every market we track.

How Do You Build Brand Relevance?

Building a relentlessly relevant brand starts with three essential commitments. First, brands must find a strategic purpose that creates shared value. It’s the only way to inspire people, both internally and externally. Next, companies need to engage customers through living brand experiences. And finally, brands need to be powered from the inside out through culture, capabilities, and engagement.

Let’s take a deeper look at the qualities relentlessly relevant brands have.

They Know Their Real Reason-To-Be

These brands know who they are, moving beyond positioning and into purpose. They are centered on a strategic purpose that creates shared value. This brand purpose is the fundamental binding agent between assets and aspirations of the business and customers’ motivations.

Starbucks, of course, sells coffee. But people love it for its bigger ambition, which is to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.

LEGO has long been a favorite of children for its delightfully consistent little bricks and has integrated those imaginative properties into physical retail, digital enterprises and full-length films. But all of its efforts speak to the purpose that provides so much value to parents: LEGO is inspiring and developing the builders of tomorrow.

It’s not that these brands don’t have a positioning. They do. But what gives them life is that instead of seeing positioning as a static definition of benefit, they understand purpose as fluid and participatory. They know that it’s the people drinking their coffee and building with their toys who make them what they are, and this shared purpose creates common ground. It gives customers and employees permission to build relationships that go beyond the next transaction.

That ignites innovation and growth, and also allows the company to inspire, attract and retain the best talent.

They Create Hyper-Personalized Experiences

Brands that are relentlessly relevant are those that enlarge the universe and engage customers in a living brand experience. That means constant, real-time engagement between customers and brand stewards, giving companies the ability to anticipate, adapt and respond in the context of customers’ lives. It’s what allows brands to create offers that are hyper-personalized, to leverage data in a way that extends experiences and relationships within customers’ lives and to combine human empathy with tech-enabled intelligence. As a result, every interaction delivers a greater business impact.

What makes these experiences so powerful is that they are based on the understanding that the days of either/or are behind us. These experiences are sprinting full speed into and/both. They understand that what they offer people needs to embrace the head and the heart, intelligence and emotion, data and story, and strategy and empathy.

Think of the way Disney keeps making visits to its properties more magical, by using technology to help guests unlock hotel rooms, make a playdate with Snow White, or even pay for a turkey leg. Or Spotify’s uncanny ability to follow you into an Uber, work with Tinder and Bumble to help you find better dates and cranks out playlists made up of songs you’ve never listened to but instantly love.

Customers are fiercely loyal to these experiences: When Samsung faced the massive recall of its Galaxy Note, pundits expected customers to defect in droves. The brand’s mobile phones have come back stronger than ever, precisely because people love the way they perform across devices, including smartwatches, tablets and increasingly, virtual reality.

They’re Powered From the Inside

Relentlessly relevant brands aren’t managed by a marketing team. They are powered through a company’s culture, capabilities and engagement. Because leadership is in alignment, they can catalyze change, motivate and empower employees throughout the organization to create a self-generating business, balancing customer needs and corporate goals.

Relentlessly relevant brands can drive change and quickly turn new ideas into reality. They empower the diversity of thought, customer centricity, collaboration and agility.

Chick-fil-A, for example, is a fast-growing chain of restaurants built around a culture devoted to delivering delicious food with grace, and it strives to have a positive impact on everyone it comes in contact with. It’s no surprise that on our Brand Relevance Index^TM, it scores high for trustworthiness, consistency and having a better product than competitors. From its innovative corporate test chefs, highly-engaged franchisees and hard-working hourly employees, heartfelt hospitality is as meaningful a menu item as its tasty chicken.

Southwest Airlines, the only airline to rank in the Top 50 of our U.S. Index, also recognizes that delivering outstanding customer experiences has to be a company-wide commitment. To deliver on its promise, which it sees as serving passengers with warmth, friendliness, individual pride and a sense of humor, starts with a commitment to treat its employees the same way. From ticket agents to baggage handlers to pilots, customers have come to expect a personal connection they don’t get from other carriers.

---

When brand executives come to us with what they think is a positioning problem these days, we typically have an entirely different diagnosis. Usually, it’s a purpose problem.

Positioning around a functional or emotional benefit isn’t enough anymore, with purpose instead emerging as the heartbeat of modern brands and as a key ingredient in what makes a brand become — and stay — relevant. Brands with purpose stand for something beyond their product or service, and consumers know it. These are brands that can always answer two questions: What do we believe? And why do we exist?

Purpose has become one of the best ways to inspire people, both internally and externally. And it’s essential to creating shared value. Brands with purpose don’t just transact with people; they deliver something more, an intangible element that becomes part of an ongoing relationship.

By The Numbers

Industry research backs this assertion up, including a recent study that found that brands with a strong sense of purpose grow at rate 2x that of those that don’t. Our own Prophet Brand Relevance Index shows time and time again that components connected to how consumers interpret brand purpose propel “meaningful” brands to the top, led by the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Apple. Brands like Pinterest are beloved, while others lacking a strategic purpose may be used but lack relevance. Facebook, for instance, doesn’t even crack the top 100 in our latest ranking.

Consumers can name many coffee brands, but they know Starbucks. When they lace up their sneakers or use Nike+ to track their morning run, they believe Nike is hoping to inspire the athlete inside them.

This sense of purpose isn’t just about winning with customers. It’s the No. 1 reason millennials choose to work for a given employer, studies have found — sometimes even trumping salary. It is then through a clear purpose that companies can attract and retain exceptional talent. It’s also essential to appeal to potential partners and is the foundation for creating a meaningful experience.

Of course, this is not to say that purpose is the only thing that builds relevance, or that it immediately translates to higher sales. Brands must do many things right to succeed. But it’s increasingly clear that the brands that fare the best and are the most differentiated from their competition are those with a crystallized strategic purpose.

How To Find True Purpose

It’s important to point out that brand purpose can, and often should, be different than a corporate mission. Unilever, for example, has staked its claim on sustainability and has supported that through its portfolio of brands. But Axe’s purpose is to help guys look, feel and smell their best, while Dove strives to turn beauty into a source of confidence, not anxiety.

Some brands are lucky enough to have been based on purpose from the very beginning. Parents can buy many types of toys, but their favorites are likely Fisher-Price because they share the belief that play is learning, or LEGO, which sees all children as the builders of tomorrow. Others, such as Ford, GE and Bank of America, have reshaped their purpose to hold more meaning for today’s audiences.

Centering your brand on a strategic purpose isn’t easy, but the intersection of a few lenses can put you well on your way to achieving this goal:

• Societal impact — where does the world need help and you can make a difference?
• Major capabilities — what are you good at beyond the products and services provided?
• Passion point — what is your organization most passionate about?

The first step when examining these issues is to ask the question that goes to the heart of a brand’s sense of itself: What do we believe? It’s the value closest to the center of an enterprise, one so fiercely held that it sets it apart from peers. Many companies believe in being good corporate citizens. Only State Farm believes in being a good neighbor.

Put in simpler terms, how does your brand see the world? What makes that viewpoint different?

Examining Tough Questions

The second question marketers need to answer is harder: Why does our brand exist?

This comes bundled with a few other points, such as what tensions do we want to do address? What experiences do our customers love or couldn’t live without? What do our employees think we do best? A purpose is only valid if it’s known, shared and prized by everyone within and around the enterprise — from potential employees to core customers to investors.

Answering this second question is a logical leap from the first. Bank of America, for example, believes in the power of meaningful connections. Its reason for existing is connecting individuals, families and businesses to make their financial lives better. GE’s core belief is that with imagination, anything is possible. It exists to use that imagination to invent the next industrial era, one that will build, move, power and cure.

“How does your brand see the world? What makes that viewpoint different?”

Answering this second question also delves into the ways your organization delivers on promises. A commitment to purpose, once crystallized and communicated to all parts of the organization, is what inspires a steadily evolving array of services and products.

Following Through

Once the answers to those two questions have been synthesized and articulated into a clear and succinct brand purpose, that purpose needs to be infused in several ways throughout the organization. The smallest details matter, but so do high-level strategies. In 2014, CVS stunned many observers with its decision to stop selling tobacco products. It told customers it needed to do this to better deliver on its purpose of striving “to improve the quality of human life.”

In hindsight, the retailer had to make that call in order for employees, customers and business partners to take its commitment seriously.

Finally, it’s essential to continually validate your brand’s purpose. While purpose reflects deep and enduring values that shouldn’t change much over time, it’s still essential to track the purpose of competitors. Without finding new ways to engage customers through living brand experiences, competitors can hijack your purpose and take customers with them. Is the purpose still clear and evident in every way? Are there new ways it can be conveyed more meaningfully?

Preserving Relevance

By the same token, brands need to continually take the pulse of core consumers and stakeholders, monitoring shifts in the way they interpret purpose. Many concerns about sustainability, for example, have evolved to be as much about people as the planet, expanding the purpose to address issues of fair trade and human rights.

Great care must be paid to delivering on brand purpose. Ingredient scandals are destructive for all food brands, for example, but they’re crippling for those positioned as especially healthy. And while Volkswagen has bounced back from #dieselgate, the damage was precisely because the fraud involved faked emissions results, negating its purpose of environmentally-sound engines. Consumers virtually always dislike bad corporate behavior, but they’re especially fierce in punishing what they perceive as brand hypocrisy.

This article was originally published on marketingdive.com.

---