As we strive to be the best marketers, we need to consider the purpose our brands stand for. The fall Wisconsin MBA Center for Brand and Product Management (CBPM) Board Meeting was centered on the social good of marketing. This semester we heard from an alumni panel and Afdhel Aziz, founder and Chief Purpose Officer of Conspiracy of Love consultancy and author of the book Good Is the New Cool: Market Like You Give a Damn. The alumni panel included three CBPM graduates, Kurt Kober (The Honest Company), Angie Peltzer (Kohler), and Andy Freedman (Miles4Migrants), who are focused on bringing purpose to the businesses they work in.
Each speaker talked about using business as a force for good. In a world that seems more divided than ever before, we can leverage business to make positive change. 95% of consumers say they would switch brands for a good cause making brands a great change agent. In addition to consumers demanding more from companies, employees are also demanding more. With only 13% contentment in the workforce, there is a need for companies to stand for more. This will have an enormous impact on their external business, but also in recruitment.
How do companies tap into the power of purpose?
Look at the company and brand origins. Some brands have purpose built into them, but many need to re-discover their purpose that was at the core of their founding. It may be that a brand needs to unearth a new purpose to deliver on unmet needs of the next generation. Both take time and space but represent crucial starting points for successfully placing purpose at the foundation of a brand.
Incorporate purpose at the brand level laddering it up to company level initiatives. Historically, social responsibility has been siloed within companies. We now see how much more impactful it can be to start at the brand level where the consumers and all employees have an opportunity to participate and interact. Linking personal purpose of internal teams to the organizational and brand purpose helps embed the purpose-driven approach throughout the entire business.
Perform acts not ads. The current structure of marketing focuses on advertisements, but by performing acts we can bring purpose into our brand communications. Afdhel highlighted the phrase, “you have to give love to get love” applying it to brands. By displaying love to consumers or a cause they care about, brands then have the opportunity to receive it in return. The key is to move beyond words and into actions which can be done through big statement projects such as – new product concepts, campaigns, social initiatives, collective experiences, or content with a message that ‘optimizes the lives of consumers’ in a way that is in line with your purpose and that drives advocacy, loyalty and ultimately profits.
The CBPM Fall Board Meeting was full of strong insights and new challenges, I am already looking forward to our spring meeting!
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