by Colwyn Elder (@colwynelder) If you’ve read about the benefits of building purpose-driven brands, but remain unsure of what and how to do it, read on, because today I go beyond the “reasons why” and unpack the “how to’s” behind a campaign.
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Find a cause or big issue to support
Having a strong point of view on a big social issue builds an emotional connection with your audience. The most famous example here is Dove standing for female self-esteem with its Real Beauty campaign.
But while it may look like an obvious route, it’s not necessarily the easiest to get right. Finding a cause and retrofitting it to your brand is likely to do more harm than good, and success is contingent upon finding the sweet spot where consumer insight, social need, and brand benefit overlap.
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Be a concerned brand citizen
Brand citizenship is based upon the premise that organisations are as much a part of society as people, and so have civic responsibilities beyond their business. Here, companies take on those easy-to-get-behind, non-contentious issues that represent a good-for-all future.
This is arguably a more-accessible strategy for most brands, since not every category has consumer relevant insights that also tap into a big societal issue. A useful strategic tool here is to look for a point of intersection between your brand’s values and the priorities of your customer (what do they care about?), as well as what business is doing (or could do) in terms of sustainable development.
Unilever’s brightFuture (previously Project Sunlight) is a good example here. Unilever’s goal is to halve its environmental footprint, which constitutes both the manufacture and use of its products, while growing its business. So while the business makes ongoing improvements to its manufacturing and supply chain, it is equally imperative to co-opt consumers by influencing and educating them to use products more sustainably.
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Create something and be part of the solution
Good corporate citizenship can also go beyond the realm of your business.
If the key priorities of your customer are outside the business scope but in sync with your brand values, another strategy is to create a socially beneficial project — in other words, be part of the solution, and put your brand’s name on it.
OMO washing powder knows that South African moms put enormous priority on their children’s education in a country with one of the lowest maths-literacy rankings in the world. In line with its brand purpose of “unlocking human potential”, OMO has created Fast Kids, a maths app designed to improve maths literacy through a gamified learning experience.
Also referred to as cause-related marketing, this is effectively another form of sponsorship, whereby marketing budget is assigned to something people care about in return for increased brand awareness and customer engagement.
Another example here is Kenco’s Coffee vs Gangs, a unique training programme established by Kenco that trains ex-gang members to find employment as coffee farmers.
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Facilitated giving
Fundraising has long been part of corporate social responsibility programs, and usually involves employee fundraising combined with corporate matching to raise money and make donations. But involving and facilitating customer-giving is becoming increasingly popular.
British Airways Change for Good programme facilitates customer-giving to UNICEF, simultaneously getting rid of that pocketful of foreign currency no longer need at your final destination, while MasterCard donates money to STUC (Stand up to Cancer) with Dig in & do Good every time diners pay their restaurant bills with MasterCard.
And, finally, the much-loved Toms shoes brand has been built on a model of one-for-one giving. For every pair of shoes sold, Toms gives a pair of shoes to children in need, and to date has given a record 45m pairs of new shoes.
The last word
So, there you have it, four successful strategies for sustainable marketing, and in this last little word lies the key difference between these strategies and conventional corporate social responsibility: it’s not CSR — it’s marketing, and so requires an appropriation of marketing budget and resource.
Strategic consultant Colwyn Elder (@colwynelder) brings a global perspective to the issue of sustainability, having lived and worked in London, Tokyo, Amsterdam and Cape Town. She contributes the monthly “Green Sky Thinking” column on sustainability issues to MarkLives.
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