Prosperity Productions Helps You Understand What Your Customers Truly Want

Insights are integral to innovation. Information is not enough in this day and age because without deep insights; people are just creating new ideas based on the exact same information everyone else has. And deep insights is something that Lori Hamilton-led Prosperity Productions excels at.

Founded in 2004, Prosperity Productions is bridging the gap between brand innovation and the desires of the consumers. The company derives deep insights from the data to help brands improve their decision-making and reach their consumers, build brand reputation, and boost engagement.

Prosperity Productions works on creating an experience rather than talking about storytelling. The company acts as a link that connects the customers with its clients and the things that they do. We recently interviewed Lori Hamilton to know more about the company and what makes the company unique. Read on for the excerpts from the interview.

Q. What was the idea behind Prosperity Productions, and how has been the company’s journey so far?

Have you ever had someone give you a gift and you think “I know why you thought that was a good gift,” versus, when someone gives you a gift that is perfect for you and you are overwhelmed with the emotion of having someone who really knows you? That’s what our company is all about. We help our clients uncover what’s really going on with their customers, what they do that is a gift (or thing of value) to them, and how to wrap it (marketing) so that customers see it as a gift. When you do that work with depth and insights, it creates a sense of prosperity for everyone involved.

When I first started my business, I knew that I loved marketing, communications and strategy. I also thought that I loved project management. Turns out, I love the collaboration and teamwork of project management, but not the tasks. And what I really love best, where my team and I excel most is in uncovering insights that lead to innovation for our clients.

Q. How does the company help in bridging the gap between consumer desires and brand innovation?

If Henry Ford had asked what customers wanted, they may simply have said faster or more reliable horses. That’s because customers can only describe the problems and needs they face—they can’t develop the solutions. At Prosperity Productions, we bridge the gap between consumer desires and brand innovation. We get inside the data, going beyond the obvious to help you make informed decisions that connect with consumers, build brand reputation, and boost engagement.

Our insights work can:

• Capture customer needs as they evolve
• Explore potential ideas – what makes them work and why?
• Test messages and approaches for communications, sales, and advertising
• Rank creative, packaging, and sales materials – what works best and why?
• Measure the impact of new programs and campaigns
• Track customer sales and satisfaction
• Develop new products, distribution, and communications channels
• Improve sales team performance
• Motivate and engage key partners, ad agencies, design shops, vendor partners, and co-sponsorship partners

Q. What unique approach does Prosperity Productions employ to remain ahead of the competition?

First, we work as hard at understanding our internal audiences as we do our external audiences. The goal isn’t just to uncover insights about the client, brand, product or service; it’s about serving up those insights in a way that creates enthusiasm and immediate action for our clients.

Q. Analytics are invaluable in research. How does the company keep up with the detailed research work?

I am lucky enough to teach at Columbia, NYU, and Pace University, among others. Interacting with clients and colleagues is a great way to stay on top of innovation and best practices in insights work.

We also look at the best-in-class innovators – how are they uncovering motivation, key trends and next-level insights.

Q. Would you like to elaborate a bit about Traditional and Non-Traditional research?

A colleague asked me recently, “What’s the future of strategy?”  “Strategy is strategy,” I replied. The fundamentals of uncovering insights are evergreen – from getting respondents to reveal how and why they do things based on emotional motivation not just logic, to measuring and tracking response to key stimulus. Non-traditional research is something we’ve done for almost 20 years, going into the field and using tools from ethnographers, improvisation, projective techniques, and documentary filmmaking. The goals are the same – to get the messy truth about how and why people do things – the techniques have evolved. And with COVID-19, we’ve upped our game even further by finding ways to create “in person” experiences using digital tools.

“Our clients are smart, hardworking, committed professionals. It is our honor and our pleasure to help them be even bigger rock stars in their own right.”

Q. How do you create unique, creative ways to help your clients recognize their most valuable assets?

Everything we do is custom-designed. First, we work to understand our internal audiences as well as we understand their external audiences. Every client has a core emotional motivation, such as “make me look smart, keep me out of trouble, reduce the pain our company is in (e.g. competitive/external pressures), make me believe this crazy dream can come true (e.g. visionary innovators).” Second, we recognize that whatever you do – as an individual or a brand – you have almost no awareness of because your brain doesn’t pay attention to things that come easily to you. We look for unconscious competence within our clients, as well as uncovering core motivation of their customers using story and projective techniques.

Third, we recognize that innovation happens when the customer experiences additional value. Thus, you can get a lot of mileage from doing a better job of communicating what you already offer as you work to generate that silver-bullet innovation that will change the category.

Finally, we make sure that the way we present the work is as engaging and inspiring as the work that will come with it. Because we have a sister company doing film work, we use a cinematic approach to bringing insights to life – even if it’s just in a PowerPoint deck.

We make sure that the insights dollars are spent in the right ways.

Q. Do you have any upcoming expansion plans or any new product launches?

We are always adding to our mix of techniques. Right now, we’re developing some fast-track approaches to get quick, straightforward answers to complement the deep insights work we do. At the same time, we’re using more digital tools to create the in-person, ethnographic approach we’re known for.

Q. Would you like to add something we may have missed?

I think it’s important to mention that everyone on our team has been an agency person, a client, a consultant or a combination of the three. Thus, while we have strong research chops, we’ve

also been in the seat of having to make something happen based on insights. Our goal is to make our clients better equipped to succeed. One of our proudest achievements is that on three separate projects with three different clients, the entire client team was promoted. Our clients are smart, hardworking, committed professionals. It is our honor and our pleasure to help them be even bigger rock stars in their own right.

The Visionary

Lori Hamilton, Founder and President

Lori has worked as a marketing strategist, researcher, and creative consultant for more than 20 years. Her work has generated over $3 billion in incremental business for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to startups. She has personally interviewed over 25,000 people from Global CEOs to people living in trailer parks and everything in between.

Having worked across a wide range of categories and industries, her clients include Google, ConAgra,

Intuit, Rubbermaid, Deloitte Consulting, CitiBank, MetLife, Accenture, Herman Miller, USG, Russell Athletic, Blue Diamond, Johnson Controls, Microsoft, Garanimals, Carter’s/Oshkosh, United Technologies, The Home Depot, Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Novartis. Her firm has conducted research in 23 countries around the world.

Lori holds a B.A. in Linguistics from UCLA and has won 59 awards for creative and marketing excellence, including five Best of Shows and a Clio. She also uses her Juilliard and other professional theatrical training to create customized workshops that generate hundreds of ideas in a matter of hours.

Lori has taught Insights and Innovation at Columbia University’s Master’s Degree Program in Strategic Communications, NYU Business School, and Pace University.

“We help our clients uncover what’s really going on with their customers, what they do that is a gift (or thing of value) to them, and how to wrap it (marketing) so that customers see it as a gift.”