There’s plenty of debate about campaigns with purpose. Much of it very intelligent and informed. Should marketers invest in campaigns that go beyond communicating the benefits of the product or service advertised and extend into a wider purpose for society with which the brand wants to associate?
Does purpose pay is often the question. And it can divide a room. The cynics will challenge the purpose of the purpose, often alleging that brands are only doing it to make money or to jump on a bandwagon. The advocates of purpose campaigns will amplify the effects and gently exaggerate the case studies that get it right. The arguments will rarely focus on the skill of the execution. The debate may as a consequence end up being about the difference between a great execution that people love versus one that most people ignore, rather than the strategy of purpose itself.
In other words nice strategy, shame about the execution.
Here are two questions to start with.
The very first question that must be asked is about authenticity. Does the brand have any real right to play a role in the territory in question. And what actually are they doing to help. I discussed this in my first book, “Tell the truth, honesty is your most powerful marketing tool”. As the title suggests our theme was authenticity and we described a powerful case study where the cleaning brand Clorox created a range of products that were better for the environment in partnership with the Sierra Club, an organisation dedicated to fighting for the protection of the planet. From the brand’s perspective the upside was serious third party endorsement. Sierra Club acted on the basis of pragmatism. For the environmentalist campaigners the co-creation of Greenworks meant there was a mass market option available to Americans that was better for the planet. A brand doesn’t need to reformulate to be authentic in terms of wider purpose, but it needs to be able to evidence that it walks the walk as well as talk the talk. Average consumers these days are smart. They can and do investigate the ethics of a brand and manufacturer on their phones, and then shout about what they discover.
The second question is does purpose pay?
Purpose does pay. The most rigorous UK awards scheme in terms of effectiveness is of course the IPA effectiveness awards. Several papers published in this year’s book demonstrated two ways in which purpose pays.
Purpose motivates employees.
Having a higher purpose to the communications helps employees feel positive about the day job and creates opportunities for the business to get more from them.
In an environment where many people are dissatisfied with their careers campaigns with purpose are good for business.
They make employees happy. This can also help with grass roots marketing, as every happy employee is likely to tell their friends and family. For big businesses who count their employees in the thousands, this has a multiplier effect that could reach millions as those employees who are proud of their company are likely to tell their friends and family and if 30,000 employees tell 10 people each, and if those 10 tell another 10 friends, well, you can do the math.
Purpose boosts brand saliency.
It’s one way of standing out from a crowd of similar work and therefore driving return on marketing investment. Where a product is good, but the category is awash with similar images and messages purpose can differentiate the brand.
Why wouldn’t you want a campaign with purpose? A well-executed campaign makes your employees feel better about working for you, it gets you talked about in the right way and it delivers. The strategy should be simple. The campaign can be transformational. The execution needs above all to be authentic or it will fail.
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Is there any purpose in campaigns with purpose?
Does purpose pay is often the question. And it can divide a room. The cynics will challenge the purpose of the purpose, often alleging that brands are only doing it to make money or to jump on a bandwagon. The advocates of purpose campaigns will amplify the effects and gently exaggerate the case studies that get it right. The arguments will rarely focus on the skill of the execution. The debate may as a consequence end up being about the difference between a great execution that people love versus one that most people ignore, rather than the strategy of purpose itself.
In other words nice strategy, shame about the execution.
Here are two questions to start with.
The very first question that must be asked is about authenticity. Does the brand have any real right to play a role in the territory in question. And what actually are they doing to help. I discussed this in my first book, “Tell the truth, honesty is your most powerful marketing tool”. As the title suggests our theme was authenticity and we described a powerful case study where the cleaning brand Clorox created a range of products that were better for the environment in partnership with the Sierra Club, an organisation dedicated to fighting for the protection of the planet. From the brand’s perspective the upside was serious third party endorsement. Sierra Club acted on the basis of pragmatism. For the environmentalist campaigners the co-creation of Greenworks meant there was a mass market option available to Americans that was better for the planet. A brand doesn’t need to reformulate to be authentic in terms of wider purpose, but it needs to be able to evidence that it walks the walk as well as talk the talk. Average consumers these days are smart. They can and do investigate the ethics of a brand and manufacturer on their phones, and then shout about what they discover.
The second question is does purpose pay?
Purpose does pay. The most rigorous UK awards scheme in terms of effectiveness is of course the IPA effectiveness awards. Several papers published in this year’s book demonstrated two ways in which purpose pays.
Purpose motivates employees.
Having a higher purpose to the communications helps employees feel positive about the day job and creates opportunities for the business to get more from them.
In an environment where many people are dissatisfied with their careers campaigns with purpose are good for business.
They make employees happy. This can also help with grass roots marketing, as every happy employee is likely to tell their friends and family. For big businesses who count their employees in the thousands, this has a multiplier effect that could reach millions as those employees who are proud of their company are likely to tell their friends and family and if 30,000 employees tell 10 people each, and if those 10 tell another 10 friends, well, you can do the math.
Purpose boosts brand saliency.
It’s one way of standing out from a crowd of similar work and therefore driving return on marketing investment. Where a product is good, but the category is awash with similar images and messages purpose can differentiate the brand.
Why wouldn’t you want a campaign with purpose? A well-executed campaign makes your employees feel better about working for you, it gets you talked about in the right way and it delivers. The strategy should be simple. The campaign can be transformational. The execution needs above all to be authentic or it will fail.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019 at 3:13 pm and is filed under MediaComment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.