July 20, 2022
When you use purpose to drive marketing and sales, people will vehemently defend your brand like an old friend. These are loyal advocates because they see, through your marketing campaigns, that the brand’s values align with their own.
These actions are the direct result of successful purpose-driven marketing campaigns. Messages that are so relevant to other people’s values, it resonates well after the campaign has ended.
How do you make this sort of magic happen? First, you have to understand what your brand’s values are and the best way to authentically convey them to target audiences.
The first step is to be aware of your company’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of your competitor’s.
Ask the important questions, like:
One example of a business that’s making this happen is the shoe brand Toms. They donate a pair of shoes to the needy for every one you buy.
The same goes for the brand Chewy, who sends pet owners hand-painted oil pictures of their animals.
In both cases, the values of these companies go above and beyond what they offer as products or services. This one-for-one business model has been very effective in attracting new audiences and influencing other businesses to follow a similar model.
If you don’t know the reason and season for your business, how can you expect anyone else to? You must effectively communicate your purpose in every marketing campaign to truly demonstrate values.
Once you have an understanding of your business capabilities and what the brand stands for, consider getting your message out there with things like:
Participate in good causes.
These should align with what your audience is interested in. Donating to a charity or have employees spend time on a project is a good start. It’s never a bad idea to also partner with other socially conscious brands.
Deliver authentic content that actually helps people.
Be a thought leader. One example is brands like Loews and Home Depot. The DIY videos they post on their sites for free not only educate people, but unwittingly encourage them to purchase more products and services.
Be timely and reactive. Seize opportunities as they come.
One good example is when the CEO of GoDaddy had killed an elephant in Africa. Their competition, Curata, took advantage of the situation and provided discount codes to anyone that wanted to switch from Go Daddy. All proceeds going to an elephant conservation NGO. Simply brilliant.
Humanize the brand.
Customers want to support people, not corporations. Showing behind-the-scenes content or pulling back the curtain a bit shows an audience there are people behind your business. Allow team members to demonstrate their personalities is key as well.
Stay committed to the cause, don’t just talk.
People will notice if you have fairweather commitments to values—which actually does more harm than good. Talk is cheap, you must act on your values.
Liberty Mutual is one brand that has a longstanding relationship with the US Olympics and Paralympics, good causes which are both directly associated with the business. Now THAT is commitment to a cause!
Once you start creating campaigns around beliefs and values, it is critical you do the last bit of legwork and measure the results. Otherwise, how will you know a campaign has been successful?
Here are some metrics you should be tracking:
Creating purpose-driven campaigns for marketing starts with knowing exactly what your brand brings to the table. Pick 2-3 things to stand for and stick to it. The more authentically you align yourself with problems and issues in the world today, the more people will naturally flock to what you offer.
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