10 Aug 2017

Prophet and Alimama: Redefining brand building for China’s digital age

Global brand and marketing consultancy Prophet has announced a ground-breaking collaboration with Alimama, the marketing technology platform of Alibaba Group, to build a new model that’s set to transform brand building in China. The Brand META Model helps multinational and homegrown companies take advantage of the unique consumer dynamics and digital ecosystem of the Chinese market to fuel growth and profitability.

To help both types of companies build strong, enduring brands in China, Prophet and Alimama have created the Brand META Model. META represents the Maintain-Evolve-Transform Approach to brand building, and guides companies through a few steps:

• • Maintain: The model helps companies identify and maintain their core brand principles and positioning
  • Evolve: The model evolves the strategies of classic brand building to help companies account for crucial factors like micro-segments and the role influencers play in China
  • Transform: The model shows companies how to transform their approach to take advantage of the rich data and real time, omnichannel  interactions that are  unique to China’s digital ecosystem

To develop the Brand META Model, Prophet conducted interviews with China digital experts, including well-known authority on Chinese consumers Tom Doctoroff,  in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the impact digital has in the China market. Prophet also conducted research with executives of leading brands in various categories, both international and local, to learn about the insights, experiences and mistakes from those who have successfully embraced brand building in China’s digital age.

Prophet’s Jay Milliken unveiled the model during a keynote address at the Alimama Marketing Conference in Hangzhou on August 9, 2017. A joint white paper describing the model in more detail will be released later this year.

For more information about the Brand META Model and to sign up to receive the white paper, click here.