Marketers may worry that a social purpose will turn off consumers, or at least divert resources that could have been used to win over buyers directly. But brands on a mission are usually rewarded, not penalized, by their customers.
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Marketers may worry that a social purpose will turn off consumers, or at least divert resources that could have been used to win over buyers directly. But brands on a mission are usually rewarded, not penalized, by their customers.
The strongest brands stand for something bigger than the products that they sell, as we have seen in various examples of social movements. They stand in unity with the public sector, the populations united against a common enemy which is a social issue (such as child mortality, women’s equality, trachoma elimination).
To carry out a social mission at scale, brands must operate on a level higher than simply focusing on consumer behavior change linked to their products.
I’ve seen brands take on a social purpose in two ways. One is to go back to the founding of the brand and understand its reason for existing. Brands often forget their original purpose in the chase for growth. Marketers focus on functionality and new features. But that does not mean the original purpose is irrelevant.