Social purpose blog
1. what is social purpose branding/marketing and why should brands pay attention to this?
Customers have long expected companies and brands they buy from/ use to do more than just donate to a favourite charity. CSR is no longer just enough. They want brands and companies to be actively committed to cause(s) that impact the communities they serve or other socially marginalised/ underprivileged communities. They desire that activities of the brands and companies are credibly and clearly aligned to their culture and value set. While comparatively newer companies would find social purpose branding easier to take up, established brands and companies need not however wonder how they will meet this newer and evolving customer expectation.
The pandemic has thrown up several opportunities for brands and organisations to take up a social purpose. Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE) is an India based tractor major with a history of close to 60 years of serving Indian customers with tractors and farm machinery .
They offered use of their tractors and related farm equipment to small farmers free of cost through their “J farm Services “ custom hiring centres across India during the pandemic, meeting the urgent need of their core customers, who had to complete farm activities without the traditional support of migrant labour who were back in their homes because of the lockdown. In just 3 months, they helped till 160,000 acres of land owned by small farmers. The key issue to remember is that the customers should perceive that these actions are genuine and authentic and match the brand’s image. Organisational culture, values and image.
2.How does a social purpose branding strategy differ from other strategies like movement marketing, cultural innovation and cultural branding strategies?
There is a well-marked difference between social purpose branding and other emerging strategies such as movement marketing or cultural branding. In the case of movement marketing, the brand or the company aligns itself to or creates a movement. The movement may or may not serve a social purpose. Jim Beam whisky’s “Make History” campaign was part of a strategy to reclaim business that was declining over the years by starting a movement against patriarchy and for equality featuring Mila Kunis. This campaign, though it achieved great results could never be labelled as social purpose marketing.
Cultural branding does not serve a social purpose. It essentially meets an emerging need brought about by a disruption of the social fabric. It builds a community of customers united by a benefit/ experience that need not be directly associated with the product. Harley Davidson owners have one such community. They are called HOGS and are united by the joy and the freedom of the open road and more still by a satisfaction of macho imagery that their real lives may not bring.
Cultural branding reinforces consistent customer experience across geographies. Whether it is an Apple Store anywhere in the US or a “Saravana Bhavan” a chain of restaurants in India or in any of the 4000 plus Louis Vuitton outlets in the world. The customer experience is unique to each of these brands and replicated in every one of them ensuring repeat customers. Cultural innovation as offered by Apple is another characteristic of cultural branding.
Social purpose branding involves brands and companies taking a stand on issues instead of the classically accepted method of skirting around the issue. This could hurt the bottom line initially but careful efforts to leverage the social purpose behind the strategy can result in increased revenues, brand recall and share.
3.What is the framework for a social branding strategy?
Startups or new brands or organisations find embedding a social cause into their culture, mission and values less taxing. TOMS shoes and Warby Parker have been successful with their programs of donating one unit to needy people for every one sold. Not for profits or charities and Foundations essentially are well suited to social branding as the organisations vision is the fulfilment of some social purpose already. However, this does not mean that social branding is impossible for older brands and companies. A social branding strategy is no simplistic exercise. It requires careful study and tailoring the process to fit specific brands or organisations. A broad framework of activities is discussed here.
A. List
To develop a social purpose strategy, list needs that the society you serve is concerned about. From this long listing check which need can be impacted positively by your brand or organisation. Some of these may be already part of your CSR programs. This list could include social purpose ideas that are closely linked with the brand’s or the product’s key benefits. It could include causes that ease your target audiences concerns. It may also include causes that their products or brands could contribute by changes in the manufacturing process of the constituents. A product / brand promoting vegan lifestyles may substitute constituents that may be perceived to have animal origins.
B. Shortlist
From this rather long list identify causes that address customers’ concerns and are linked to products / brand’s key benefits. Smart choices would be causes that could increase business value and reduces organisational risk. If the choices could contribute to improving your brand attributes go for them. This should provide you a shortlist of 5 to 6 causes. Workout strategies for each of the shortlisted causes for final evaluation.
C. Prioritize
Of the 5 or 6 strategies prioritise in order of how each contributes to increased business value, reduces risk and improves or strengthens brand values. You may decide on what is the best for that particular time and finally check on what are financial implications of rolling out the strategy. If it will adversely affect stakeholder interests, you may want to relook at the strategy.
D. Pilot
It’s a good idea to pilot the cause or sound out a consumer group about how they perceive the social purpose you have finalised on before rolling out into the market. Quite often purposes tend to be associated with products in different ways. While a restaurant claiming all ingredients used as organic may be well received a laundry advertising its using only organic cleaning products may be perceived as a second grade cleaner. So a careful analysis of customer perceptions of social purpose relative to the brand is a prerequisite.
E. Roll Out
While rolling out a social purpose branding strategy, it is also important to choose which attribute of the purpose is to be promoted relative to the brand. A brand of organic soap that uses turmeric as an ingredient for its germicidal properties may promote the fact that the soap uses organic ingredients but that the soap is manufactured outside the country or that the packaging is also eco-friendly may not be claimed. If the social purpose identified and rolled out by you cannot be easily imitated by your competitor that is a sweet place to be!
Social purpose branding and the related strategy requires clarity of thought, complete knowledge of customer perceptions on various causes relative to your brand and must add business value and strengthen your brand attributes or create new ones for you and ultimately grow your business.
4. When should brands consider a social branding strategy?
There is a school of thought that says that Social Purpose branding is only for Charities or Organisations whose central purpose is social. However, leading brand strategists and surveys prove otherwise.
Marie Minyo, Executive Director, Client Services, Landor in her article titled “How brands can succeed with social purpose” says “The answer for many brands is clear. They need to build cultures that reflect their values, beliefs, align themselves with the hopes and aspirations of their customers, and be prepared to take a vocal stand when action becomes necessary and true to the promises they’ve made.”
According to surveys by Accenture Strategies, about two thirds of consumers worldwide prefer to purchase goods and services from organisations that reflect their own values and will avoid doing business with those who don’t. Mediacom, UK found that close to 50 % of consumers are prepared to pay more for brands whose core values they share. (A. Bruce Crawley, CEO, M3M Inc., in his article Social Purpose Branding- The next big thing). Ben Paynter’s article in the December 2018 Fast Company titled “Will brands without social purpose thrive “ reinforces the fact that as differentiation by product features is increasingly becoming difficult with me too products coming up quickly ,brands need to consider social purpose branding seriously.
So does that mean all brands should take up social purpose branding? It all depends on what your brand’s heritage, culture and beliefs are. A social purpose that is genuinely aligned to your brand’s key benefits and support of which would create significant impact is a basic prerequisite for the strategy. Vaseline, a leading brand of Petroleum Jelly was in danger of becoming a commodity. Study revealed that it was the first line of defence for minor abrasions and cuts/ wounds and minor skin ailments in many refugee camps. This insight was leveraged by Vaseline in 2015 in association with a NGO to launch their Vaseline Healing Project in 2015 and it aims to reach 5 million people by 2020 ( Competing on Social Purpose- Omar Rodríguez Vilá and Sundar Bharadwaj). According to its website, the project, apart from providing its products to emergency relief camps across 61 countries, also provides training on skin care to community health workers and deploying trained dermatologists in such resource poor locations. It also serves all states in the US through its products and support services through its NGO partner at times of calamities and disasters. Through this , the brand was able to reach out to the younger generation which was not so familiar with the brand. So if your brand’s heritage , culture and values gel with a specific social purpose that concerns your customers and if your strategy would significantly and positively impact the cause, you should opt for the strategy.