Brand Purpose: The Harsh Truth Marketers Don’t Want to Admit 🙅🏻

Lord, I'm late to the party. The debate in broader marketing circles about the effectiveness of brand purpose has been a polarising topic for years now.

In a 2021 study, Peter Field's analysis demonstrated, quite clearly, that the average brand purpose campaign was significantly less likely to generate robust, long-term business effects when compared with ‘traditional’ non-purpose campaigns.

So the debate around brand purpose is settled once and for all then? Hmm. Not so fast.

Field provided an additional but skewed view of the results in a non-typical way, maybe to satisfy the ‘marketing politik’ or people paying for the report.

However, in the end, this did little to settle the debate. Instead, it had the opposite effect by causing the discussion to rumble on and on.

It could be argued that the debate can't be won and that any research for or against merely underlines that the results are open to massive variations in interpretation.

However, all the discussion and available research is based on advertising effectiveness and other factors, yet not improved profits or products.

Come again? When was profit not essential? 

This product marketer would like to offer a different way to look at the effectiveness of brand purpose. Not through the lens of advertising but through the lens of consumer orientation.

In this article, I will challenge the status quo. I'll demonstrate that, ultimately, success depends on what you sell and how interested and engaged your consumers are.

What Is Brand Purpose?

The definition of brand purpose for Field’s analysis:

'A commitment articulated by a commercial brand or its parent company to goals other than improved profits or products, involving contribution towards one or more positive social impacts in the fields of health, the environment, human development, sustainable business practices, or other similar areas.'

Looking at this definition, I’d challenge that the goal should be completely detached from improved profit or products completely.

If we are not seeking to improve profits or products, then what is that we are doing?

What did I miss? Answers on a postcard, please.

By definition, I don't see the core tenants of authenticity and creating value for customers here either.

The dictionary definition of purpose (noun) is ‘the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists’.

Let’s break the parts of the definition down:

• An action (for which something is done).

• Something has been produced (or created).

• It’s already been done (something exists).

Now, this would strongly suggest that something very tangible is happening or has happened, yet many purpose statements pass as pure marketing fluff at best or, in reality, baseless BS.

Launching his strategy for Unilever, former chief executive Alan Jope held up Hellmann’s mayonnaise as a brand with a purpose: “Fighting against food waste — that is the purpose of Hellmann’s,” he said.

Really? Is your mayo a non-governmental org? (NGO). It is hardly an authentic claim, nor does it create value for customers.

All Roads Must Lead To Value Creation. Or It’s A Road To Nowhere.

Tom Roach’s analysis of brand purpose helps us ‘land’ on 3 broad types of brands that define themselves as having a purpose that we see in the marketing world:

1. Born Purposeful, often founder-led, often small, niche, usually founded with a societal purpose and where purpose goes across the whole business operation.

2. Corporate Converts – often larger businesses that have recently adopted the concept of purpose. They usually seem to genuinely want to make a positive difference in the world and make money, sometimes to correct past wrongs or become a better corporate citizen.

3. Pseudo-purposeful brands – these are the ones for which purpose is just a new ad campaign claiming to try and solve an issue like gender or racial equality, or toxic masculinity or whatever the most resonant topic is that their social listening data says is trending with their demographic that month.

The pseudo-purposeful brands seem to either dominate or ruin the reputation of marketers (or both).

How does this lead us to value creation? Are we so woke that we have forgotten what our job is? If anyone needs a reminder, it’s to sell things.

We're not doing our job if we are not creating value for customers. Therefore, we must look through the lens of the building blocks below and be able to answer each question with honesty and humility.

Who You Are And What Category You Belong To Matters.

Your level of importance on your brand as a marketer is in a different stratosphere compared to where your audience places importance.

To them, your brand barely registers.

Engagement with a brand or at the product level depends on many things, but we must create value for customers and be authentic.

If the building blocks of salience and tangibility are to play a part, and engagement means we want people to do something - even if the aim is for customers to think about our purpose simply - then we need to dig further into this area.

First, let’s look at the axis. There are two:

1. Interest – is my offering or category of interest?

2. Obligation – do I need it?

When you map this with specific categories, we can see that there’s a dynamic that plays out that you could split like his:

If a consumer struggles with salience and tangibility in a low-interest category, then does it really matter what your purpose is? If you are in a commoditised business, does purpose matter to the degree some marketers put on it?

If your customer is battling the cost of energy, does your caring for the planet and your green credentials matter as much?

Remember, for them, it’s heat or eat.

Did We Forget That Customer Orientation Wins Every Time?

Whilst companies and marketers high-five and back-slap each other, they risk inadvertently shooting themselves in the foot.

Will ‘We are here to save the world from…’ resonate with a consumer who could not give a flying fig about you or your category?

Lofty, unobtainable missions will be seen as verbose, unsubstantiated claims that can’t be delivered.

Lest we forget that public awareness of corporations misbehaving is high, the virtue of ‘fairness’ is a very strong value to we Brits (I’d suggest most people).

Therefore, as a marketer, you must ask yourself, does my purpose campaign really hold water?

Could the perception of Facebook be any more toxic as an internet menace? (Unfortunately, probably).

Does the public really ‘get’ your purpose when it’s revealed you managed to pay no tax on billions of dollars of profit?

Or does the CEO helping themselves to obscene profits whilst their workforce struggles during a cost of living crisis lend itself to a higher purpose?

Credibility with weary consumers is dropping quicker than an astronaut entering the earth’s atmosphere. Is purpose really going to help you?

Back To Basics.

Leave the purpose at the front door. Low interest means low engagement. Your mayonnaise does not need some lofty purpose.

Mark Ritson correctly cites that bread and salad are its purpose.

In low-interest categories, I am a keen champion of doing what matters as a product marketer. Consumers seek mental shortcuts; yes, brand awareness factors in the many shortcuts they seek.

But not a lofty, unobtainable or unrealistic purpose.

There is a case in which transparent, purpose-driven decision-making forms an incredibly deep bond with true believers, especially for Born Purposeful companies. But be realistic if your category is one of them and accept that ‘purpose’ is not the only driver of value.

Most consumers' current purpose is to survive the cost-of-living crisis born by recent events. So, as marketers, let’s show some humility instead of undermining the credibility of our trade by trying to pretend our brands are something they are not.

Harvey.

👋🏻 How To Work With Me:

I recently helped several clients with their positioning and sales pitches. This gave them all such clarity on why they were best at something a market cares about, enabling them to move their marketing forward confidently.

I also help organisations with social selling, thought leadership and employee advocacy on LinkedIn. This is a HUGE opportunity for companies to build connections in their market and acquire more leads.

Just reply to this email and ask me how.

Product marketing consulting is just one of the categories I work across, and I’d be delighted to hear from you if you feel I could help you reach your objectives:

1. Consulting - https://harvey-lee.com/consulting

2. Career Coaching - https://harvey-lee.com/coaching

3. Speaking - https://harvey-lee.com/speaking

Sources:

• Peter Field/IPA https://ipa.co.uk/news/power-of-brand-purpose/

• Tom Roach. https://thetomroach.com/2020/11/13/truth-lies-and-brand-purpose-the-biggest-lie-the-ad-industry-ever-told/

• Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/8feb8f98-c6d9-4288-9ce8-9e68be621a60