Purpose driven brands — marketing hype or legit?
Purpose driven brands have been on a steady rise for some time now.
In the past a company’s mission statement would promise commitment, the best service, competitive pricing and quality products.
But today businesses with these type of mission statements are regarded as commodities and big brands try everything to avoid this label.
READ: Your Brand Purpose is your Mission Statement
Purpose driven brands seek to differentiate on a larger purpose, not on their products and services. To this end they work hard to identify what makes their brand truly meaningful — their larger positive impact beyond making money.
A brand’s purpose should be a guiding light to a loftier ideal that should always remain the focal point of its brand identity.
Procter & Gamble CMO, Jim Stengel, makes a clear distinction on what he sees as brand purpose;
“This is not corporate social responsibility, it’s not cause marketing, and it’s not a strategy for philanthropy; it’s a business strategy. …once you choose your purpose — everything else should come out of that.”
What is interesting about what Stengel says is that terms such as ’cause marketing’ and ‘corporate social responsibility’ perhaps make it too easy for brands to simply tick a box rather than commit to a purposeful mission.
The term ‘purpose-led business’ is ubiquitous today because society is so much more aware of environmental impact, sustainability, and indeed, social challenges that modern lifestyles propagate.
This makes it all the more enticing for brands and marketers to jump on this bandwagon. It’s as easy as simply using the catchphrases and lingo associated with this.
The term ‘shared value’ seems to be a popular one among big brand marketing at the moment. The advertising game has always been 80% perception, 20% reality, or more cynically put, truth!
So, are purpose driven brands all hype and clever marketing or are they the real deal?
Purpose driven brands are legit and here’s why…
Greenwashing or purpose washing will still exist for as long as there are undesirable marketers and short-sighted investors who think that purpose-led business costs money.
Statistics, however, and there are so many examples nowadays, are proving the exact opposite.
The shift toward conscious consumerism demands brands with purpose today.
Companies are under the spotlight like never before. The paradigm shift in how customers choose a brand has moved beyond price and product selection. They’re now assessing what a brand says. What it does. What it stands for.
In 2020 Forbes published perhaps the most comprehensive collection of statistics and data showing, not only why purpose led brands are the future, but also how successful brands that have adopted this as their mission statements have become.
In short, purpose driven brands are here to stay and the ones that are adopting this legitimately are ahead of the curve.
It simply make good business sense.
