Our thinking is appearing in publications around the world

A perspective on how companies are adopting a brand-driven approach to business and experiencing not only a stronger brand, but a stronger business as well.

Despite its promise as a primary source of organic business growth, capitalizing on innovation’s potential is an elusive goal for many businesses. Our 2008 Best Practices Study, developed in collaboration with Play, reveals how “model” innovators do it — with approaches that point the way toward better innovation success for others.

Our 2009 study, conducted in partnership with the Association of National Advertisers, aimed to understand how marketers are shifting their roles from supporting business growth to being in the driver's seat and leading the growth agenda. Elevating marketing to a higher level requires both mindset and cultural shifts that start with, but are by no means limited to, marketing leadership. Our study uncovered that while marketers from all walks and at all levels understand the need to effect such shifts, they’re further away from its realization than they think.

Learn more about Prophet's European Corporate Reputation Study run in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland.

These are tough times for companies trying to build and maintain their reputations. Between the sluggish economy, business toe-stubbing (and worse), and a public with a long memory and an increasingly skeptical nature, recovering from the reputational hits that have hammered U.S. businesses in recent years is going to be a slow process.

Prophet’s third annual corporate reputation study reflected the confluence of these and other factors, as overall reputation scores fell across almost all industry sectors.

James Walker and Kevin O'Donnell share their takeaways from the recent Consumer Electronics Show Las Vegas.

Corporate board members have a long list of responsibilities and concerns: succession planning, executive compensation, regulatory compliance and business growth strategies -- not to mention shareholder interests and value.

One topic that gets less attention is brand, often because many senior marketers have not mastered the art of turning marketing-speak into the financial language that resonates with directors. If brand value and the benefits of brand-building investments are not translated into the language of numbers, marketing will always be at a disadvantage in winning over the board.

Chaos. If there’s a single word to encapsulate today’s digital environment, that one clinches it. The dizzying pace of change has been hard to keep up with (never mind get ahead of) from every perspective: Channels and platforms. Devices and tools. Customer behaviors…and expectations. For marketers, the challenge is to understand how to best manage the chaos, and that is a do-able proposition.

Andy Stefanovich outlines Prophet's 5M Model of Innovation and Prophet's LAMSTAIH [lam´sti] philosophy.

Prophet’s senior partner for Analytics James Walker has been leading a book project over the last few months looking at The Future Of Marketing Analytics. We’ve interviewed over 40 CMOs, analytics leaders, business school professors, and leaders of analytical-software vendors. The conclusions are coming together, and we should be ready to publish in the fall, but there are some early learnings around The 8 New Rules of Building A Marketing Analytics Capability.

A variety of factors – the rise of healthcare consumerism, healthcare reform and all its implications, and an increasingly informed public – are combining to force healthcare providers to take a hard look at something they once may have taken for granted: their “customers,” by which we mean their patients.

No marketing imperative today can be met without without the capabilities and insights of the provided by the organization's technologists. Marketing and IT need to bridge operational gaps to create a less executional and more strategic partnership.

Michael Dunn recently spoke to Consulting about The Marketing Accountability Imperative. This interview reviews the book's tools, metrics, and anecdotes designed to help marketers navigate through this new landscape by proving ROI and communicating their mission and results more effectively with the executives in the corner offices. 

What is a brand and when does it become an asset? In this article, we discuss the history of brand valuation.

David Aaker discusses concepts from his latest book, "Spanning Silos: The New CMO Imperative." He outlines a variety of ways to address silo-driven problems. *Please contact Prophet for a copy of this article. 

Brand extensions are often seen as a silver bullet to all that ails maturing brands and business categories. Succeed and you may be on the path to substantial organic growth. Fail, and you join the ranks of some 90% of all new market entrants that prove irrelevant to customers.

Restrictions on how the tobacco industry can market their product is a reflection of how the Spanish government feels, which can be summarized as “You must not smoke in Spain.” In this regard, people's right to buy a legal product is being threatened, and even worse, a double standard is being used on the industry, especially considering that ultimately the government is the biggest beneficiary in the commercialization of these products. *Please note, this article is in Spanish.

Nestlé's Nespresso brand dominates the fiercely competitive Swiss market for coffee capsules. But Migros is successfully challenging its powerful competitor with its own brand, Delizio –thanks to a new brand identity and a strong positioning. Success spawns imitators, and Nespresso’s success quickly led to the appearance of numerous competitors: Today nearly a dozen players compete in the portioned coffee market – a market that has seen double-digit growth for the past several years.

David Aaker and several other business gurus discuss key consumer trends and new strategic thinking for companies seeking world-beating brand behavior.

This article summarizes the speeches that given at the 2008 CMO Conference in Switzerland. It reflects the latest marketing thinking of branding gurus such as Jean-Claude Larréchés from INSEAD, and David Aaker, Vice Chairman of Prophet. *Please note, this article is in German.