Brand purpose needs a purpose

Is brand purpose as powerful as some commentators would have us believe? I thought I'd take a closer look at the point of brand purpose and if it’s useful for all businesses, brands, products, and services...or not.

Depending on who you talk to, brand purpose is either the one thing that will make a difference to business in the modern world, remind us that it’s not all about money, a rallying cry for a workforce who believe their role is bigger than just “working for the man”, a questioning of the mistakes of the past and a promise to do better, or a nonsense-driven buzzword used by brands in a desperate attempt to make a younger audience like them.

The truth probably incorporates all of the above.

WARC defines a brand purpose simply, as “a reason for a brand to exist beyond making a profit”. When it’s done well, a brand identifies a purpose that relates to its core product or service that not only puts it at an advantage commercially but also benefits a broader community who may – or may not – be consumers of the brand.

Marketers have long debated the value of brand purpose, but now CEOs are getting in on the act, too. A group of American CEOs, representing 192 large companies, last month released what they dubbed a “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation.” The statement redefines the purpose of a corporation around broader stakeholder benefits – beyond just what’s good for shareholders. Part of it reads: “We commit to deliver value to all [Americans], for the future success of our companies, our communities, and our country.”

As stated in a recent Harvard Business Review article, many high-growth companies use purpose to generate sustained profitable growth, stay relevant in a rapidly changing world, and deepen ties with their stakeholders. 

Emmanuel Faber, the newly appointed global CMO at Danone – the company’s first in 10 years – recently told Marketing Week that brands need relevancy, meaning and purpose if they are to “thrive and survive”. His view: marketing and brands must have a strong point of view on society and be ready to be divisive.

There are plenty of studies that back Danone’s view that brand purpose matters to consumers. From Accenture’s recent From me to us: The rise of the purpose-led brand – which showed that nearly two-thirds (63%) of surveyed global consumers prefer to purchase products from companies that stand for a purpose that reflects their own values, and will avoid companies that don’t – to the 2018 Edelman Earned Brand Study, which found that 74% of consumers around the world buy or boycott a brand solely because of its position on a social or political issue.

I think we can safely say brand purpose is in the zeitgeist. And there are good reasons for that. For starters, as it becomes harder to differentiate products and services with key attributes alone, brand purpose can play a role in giving consumers another reason to buy – in some cases the only reason to buy.

On another level, we live in a time where there’s a crisis of trust. Some consumers no longer know whom to trust (especially our politicians), so companies are stepping in to fill the vacuum.

Can brand purpose deliver commercial outcomes?

For companies that get it right, purpose can lead to profit. One example is Unilever, whose ‘Sustainable Living’ brands – including Dove and Lipton – are growing 50% faster than the company’s other brands and deliver more than 60% of the company’s growth, according to this recent Forbes article.

For master brands in particular, brand purpose can position the organisation in a way that reflects consumers’ own values, while also motivating employees and bringing together separate departments and teams. This goodwill then halos the entire organisation, not to mention the suite of products and services – aiding an efficient and effective use of marketing resources. 

P&G’s Olympics sponsorship campaigns celebrating Mums is a nice example of this brand behaviour. The onus is on P&G to live and breathe the same values within the organisation so all the good work (and investment) doesn’t come undone. Nike’s recent campaign encourages us all to back ourselves and have integrity. Values that hopefully motivate that organisation. 

The problem, as Mark Ritson would tell you, and has here, for example, is that brands can be caught out paying lip service to purpose while their behaviour goes counter to that purpose. Brand Purpose can sacrifice profit, he claims. His example of Starbucks is a valid one: the brand purports to be focused on ‘nurturing’ communities, but engages in next-level tax minimisation, which does little to nurture anyone other than its own profit margin. 

It’s not for everyone

There are also many brands where purpose might struggle to make a difference, particularly for those that provide a specific utility and need to promote new features and benefits. It’s strategically, and creatively, challenging to design believable purpose-driven communications for a packet of chips, a low-carb beer, a faster processor, a new model of SUV, a ride-sharing service, a 55” 4K UHD LED TV or a bar of chocolate – see Cadbury’s recent Diversity Bar fail here. 

How much upside did Cadbury think it would achieve with Diversity Bar? The scorn on social media was substantial. “Where were you when Cadbury ended racism?” one person tweeted. Surely this attempt at aligning chocolate with skin colour isn’t good for sales? Or, did they sell hundreds and thousands of the things and so the public relations downside pales in comparison to the commercial upside? Does short-term commercial upside trump longer-term brand dissonance? Was this purpose-driven marketing gone wrong, or just a bad idea? Only Cadbury will know the full story, but people are out there judging them for it.

Marketers need to sell their products in the most interesting way possible (obviously) but may restrict effectiveness if they stray too far from core value propositions. It’s a risky strategy to try and cozy up with people’s values, especially when it’s disingenuous. Insert Pepsi’s ad with Kendall Jenner here (no link for a reason).

Brand purpose is incredibly useful when it acts as an ‘organising thought’ for a business - a galvanising idea bringing different departments and staff together around the highest common denominator. Its potential is more potent here than restricting it to a marketing tool. However, it should still come from a truth about the organisation, what it believes and what it values. Some guiding questions to answer are: will purpose influence strategic decisions and investment choices? Will purpose directly influence the business’s core value proposition? Will the purpose drive innovation? And is purpose on the agenda of every SLT (or Board) meeting? 

So what’s the purpose of purpose?

It’s not far fetched to suggest we are entering a new reconciliation of the role of brand purpose, culminating in the battle between short-term and long-term objectives. I’d argue there’s little room for purpose in a marketing world obsessed with always-on, programmatic, performance-based media. 

And this is a problem. Business is demanding assurances and the current operating system is forcing us to be practical, scientific and analytical to drive growth (economics drives everything, after all). But is this right? Is this the only way? 

It’s hard to argue to the contrary because we believe the numbers don’t lie. We’re told that if we spend a certain amount, our traffic will be X and our CPA will be $Y. It’s reliable, quantifiable and defendable. But there’s no multiplier effect. There’s no art in this model. No creative magic. 

Brand purpose work is the secret sauce. When done well, it’s the emotional content a brand needs to engage an audience in a world that’s full of communications landfill. It’s the part of the marketing mix that can build sustainable growth in the long term, even when the campaign is no longer in market. Purposeful thinking and behaviour from brands can fuel organic search (building in value over time) and can impact the immediate acquisition campaign by lowering the CPA. Much more effective than buying more impressions (I’m not a media strategist, so I’m happy to be proven wrong here). 

To wind this up, I strongly believe in the power of brand purpose. It creates a more interesting and engaging platform for organisations to connect with consumers. Plus, this approach has been proven to work.

But purpose must be relevant to the category, product or service in question – that’s the strategic challenge. We can’t pretend to believe the business cares for people, the planet or the local community if we’re willing to compromise them as soon as the mood, traffic, clicks, sales or profits dip. So let’s be honest about that from the start. 

“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”