4. “If you’re still seeing our business essentially as a
giant factory producing outputs, instead of a
system that creates real, positive, human
outcomes, - you’re still stuck in the industrial age,
while the rest of the world, especially our
customers, are beginning to take a quantum leap
into a human age – an era where a life
meaningfully well lived is what really counts.”
Umair Haque, Havas Media Labs
5. Purpose
A clear purpose provides an organisation—from any
industry and of any size—with the connective thread that
aligns all operations and audiences; the heart and soul to
connect more meaningfully with the people that matter;
and an essential foundation for planning and decision-
making.
6. WHY THE NOISE AND WHY NOW?
Five Things that are Creating the Ripple
7. “We have to do more work
that matters. It’s not just
more, it’s more good.”
Wendy Clark
Coca-Cola Global Marketing Chief
8. “Over the past three
decades we have drifted
from having a market
economy to becoming
market societies.”
Michael Sandel, Political Philosopher
Market Societies
9. Market Expectation
“People are now more aware of
the origin of a product and the
ethics used behind producing
that product. Consumers expect
goods to be made properly and
issues such as where a product
is made and whether or not it is
fair trade are now more
important than ever.”
Imogen Fowler, Hogan Lovells
*FutureBrand, Made In ..
10. By 2030, 60% of the worlds population will live in cities.
Urbanisation
11. Talent Expectation
“Millennials work more
closely together,
leverage right and left
brain skills, ask the
right questions and
take risks previous
generations resisted.
They truly want to
change the worlds and
use technology to do
so.”
Mike Marasco
Northwestern University’s Nuvention
Initiative
12. Greater trust means that your stories need to be grounded in your beliefs as
much as your products
Brand differentiation
Utility and Significance
14. infrastructure
Why we do itHow we do it
What we do Who we are
What we have
skills and approach purpose-driven
products & services talent & attitude
Companies and brands are shifting from ‘What’ to ‘Why’
Brand DifferentiationTangible/Rational
Intangible/Emotional
19. Builds a strong emotional
connection
Redefines the category Delivers sustainable value
Makes people’s lives betterCreates engaging experiences
at every touch-point
Has a compelling vision of the
future
WANTS TODAY
NEEDS TOMORROW
Purpose-led brands have to balance:
21. Context & Culture
Connection Points
Category & Competition
Content & Capabilities
Offer
Behaviours
Why you’re here
Culture
Building a purpose-led organisation
22. There are three distinct types of purpose. Determining
whether an organisation is moral, institutional or value
based is important.
23. The purpose triangle
WORLD
(Moral)
PERSONAL
(Values)
INDUSTRY
(Institutional)
To make the world a better place. They sell the
cause, envision utopia, and take the high road. Then
invite people to join a movement
To better your personal
life with positive
emotions and
experiences.
To better the industry,
find a failure to be
corrected. Create
positive outcomes
through rethinking
internal norms.
26. 26
To be the earth's
most customer
centric
company.
INDUSTRY (INSTITUTIONAL) PURPOSEIndustry (institutional) purpose
To be the
earth’s most
customer
centric
company.
27. 27
The highest standards of corporate
behaviour towards everyone we work
with, the communities we touch, and
the environment
on which we
have an impact.
Industry (institutional) purpose
Will talk about three things: why the resurgence in interest in Purpose; its relevance and meaning and how it presents the public relations industry with an important opportunity
The benefits of jet-lag. Picture taken earlier this year. I don’t know his name, nor do I know the journey he was about to take. But I did know that his sole purpose in life was to seek salvation through disciplined meditation. He has a single purpose, clearly defined, clearly understood and with little ambiguity. There is much that brands could learn from him
Shortly after that trip, I attended a residential learning initiative called the Hothouse. On the one hand, Purpose has been around for ever. It is the basis of religion and human existence. And yet there seems to be a renewed energy and interest in it. Particularly amount those in our junior ranks. There’s a groundswell of interest in Purpose.
We’re not alone. There’s a plethora of commentators and authors who are grappling with the emotive elements of organisational purpose and why its becoming so important to us.
But before we go any further, let’s at least try to define what we mean by it.
Consistency
Spirit
Strategic rigour
Social impact initiatives were everywhere in Cannes. And they won much too.
There was a real sense that technology was finally being used to facilitate emotional experiences rather than be the experience itself
The disparity of wealth, particularly in emerging markets. The more things money can buy the more lack of affluence matters. When it governs access to the essentials of good life – political voice and influence, education, healthcare – then it provokes inequality matters.
When money comes to govern those things, inequality matters a great deal. The marketisation of everything sharpens the sting of inequality and its social and civic consequence.
From Lehmanns to BP, there’s a litany of organisations that have contributed to the erosion of trust between organisations and their publics.
It’s not just sustainability too. People want to know the history of the product and of the organisation.
Accountability is everywhere.
The demand for greater transparency. Fostered through disruptive technologies
Since the GFC, financial services companies have a mountain to climb to rebuild trust and broken reputations with customers, media, and government alike.
THE ENVIRONMENT CONTINUES TO BE HOSTILE.
By 2030, 60% of the world’s populations will live in cities. Enormous pressure on civic leaders. How can cities deliver the healthcare and education services required to reach the required threshold. Role for brands with a shared purpose that goes beyond commitment to communities
Not just employees, but those we seek to attract too.
To attract people, organisations need to demonstrate diversity, freedom of expression and tolerance.
To retain people and leverage them as an asset, organisations need to project clarity on what they stand for. Their purpose.
And then there’s brand differentiation by creating an emotional connection around purpose. Like this.
A market shift in recognition to mix up utility and significance. That is left brain and right brain. The shift to service based economies and the need to find a way to understand what they do and why they do it.
And when that’s beautifully articulated, simply and with authenticity, it can give you goosebumps.
Taking a stand means there is a need to shift the mindset from ‘What’ to ‘Why’
What. How. Why.
Allows for product diversification
An analysis by Booz & Co of consumer attitudes and spending reveals a return to traditional values, driven by consumers searching for quality, affordability and connection.
1. Back to basics values: 78% of those surveyed reported they are happier with a more back-to-basics lifestyle, while 88% reported they buy less-expensive brands than they used to.
2. Empowerment: people want to do more on their own; resourcefulness and self-efficiency are viewed as virtues, and excessive consumption as a sign of weakness. For instance, an organization like Etsy, an online marketplace for aspiring artists, resonates in today’s marketplace, because its goal is to help people learn new skills while connecting with others.
3. Transparency Breeds Trust: Companies need to meet the expectations of a social media savvy customer and be honest beyond their labels.
4. Companies that care: kindness and empathy are now dominant discriminators in commerce, and are valuable attributes of the best companies. The ability of a company to identify with its customers is now a prerequisite for any brand in the post-crisis age. Today, openness, humility and understanding are critical.
Purpose led businesses require more than a cool tag line, they require a new mindset. And it allows them to do so much more.
Brand purposes are not just feel good exercises.
After Purpose transformed the fortunes of P&G brands like Dove, Old Spice, and Always, Jim Stengel, former P&G CMO made purpose a number one priority of every brand in his portfolio. And he wrote “GROW” which shows the cause and effect relationship between a brand’s ability to serve a higher purpose and its financial performance. Investment in these companies – in the form of his index, the Stengel 50 – over the past decade would have been 400% more profitable than an investment in the S&P 500.
P&G: To provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers, now and for generations to come. Tagline (the everyday effect.)
Wal-Mart realized that its promise of everyday low prices was empty without its purpose as a support. After they added that the purpose of lower prices was to provide better lives for their families, Wal-Mart grew dramatically. And not only did it boost sales, even more critically, allowed employees to understand “why we are here.”
It not only clarifies their roles, but signifies their intrinsic value to the organization and its reputation as a brand. They know that as a result of their work, they’re making it easier for moms to dress their kids in style without sacrificing after-school ballet or karate class, or that food gets put on the table with money left over for family outings. They can directly experience how the company’s purpose pays off, not only in profits, but in customer satisfaction.
Clear awareness of how their jobs affected peoples’ lives for the better has created a stronger, more motivated workforce, which, in turn, has made Wal-Mart a stronger, more valuable brand.
The youngest U.S. automaker, ranks in the top five brands among people surveyed by Consumer Reports. Tesla is revolutionizing the way people interact with their cars and dealerships, and it’s paying off.
Third biggest-selling luxury car, $25B valuation, CEO named Fortune’s man of the year, Fast Company’s most innovative companies, and get described as the most disruptive intersection of manufacturing, innovation and capital experienced by the auto industry in more than a century.
The commercial reality – there’s a tension between immediate and future.
Our today self often loses to our tomorrow self.
We believe that by creating brands that balance what we want today with what we need tomorrow, we can creative a more positive future.
Your today self desires something tasty, but your tomorrow self wants to be healthy. There doesn’t need to be a compromise.
Now everyone desires a better future – but this desire if often compromised by todays reality – I really think I should be fit and healthy – but that donut looks really good.
A great example of a brand that gets the balance right is innocent drinks, where your today self desires something tasty, but your tomorrow self wants to be healthy. There doesn’t need to be a compromise.
A FB understands this and is designed to avoid the compromise of what we want today and what we need tomorrow.
Without clarity of purpose, it becomes difficult to connect other reference points to the development of a position or strategy or anything else.
Altruism
Heroism.
To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.
Leadership
Excellence
BMW Brand Campaign
Elicit pleasure
Experiencing happiness.
Be motivated by the business, not by the customer.
When it comes to your customers, honesty is always the best policy, even if it means being honest about something that you’re not exactly proud of.
Brands need to know that, when presented with honesty, consumers become loyal enthusiasts.
Being honest does not mean being perfect. it simply means truthfully communicating the challenges being faced, and then putting in the legwork to address those challenges.
Patagonia encourages consumers to buy less by promoting its Common Threads Initiative on its home page, advocating sustainability. The company says: “We design and sell things made to last and be useful. But we ask our customers not to buy from us what you don’t need or can’t really use. Everything we make--everything anyone makes--costs the planet more than it gives back.”
Patagonia makes some of the best, and most expensive outdoor gear in the world, but the company’s mission is bigger than simply maximizing profit.
This holiday campaign follows last year’s groundbreaking advertising strategy featuring an ad in the New York Times on Black Friday saying “Don’t Buy This Jacket.” That’s right--an ad discouraging sales on the biggest shopping day of the year.
But like any great campaign, their message the past two years is tied to the brand’s promise. Environmentalism is at the core of Patagonia, but to specifically discourage sales is an unusual maneuver since Patagonia is not a non-profit organization. It’s an exceptionally profitable manufacturer and retailer generating $400 million in revenue each year. Patagonia makes some of the best, and most expensive outdoor gear in the world, but the company’s mission is bigger than simply maximizing profit. The mission is: “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”
Lesson #1. We spend a lot of time trying to win business. And often that means getting stuck in the way we can win the pitch in the boardroom.
So what if we stopped thinking about the clients pitch team and started thinking about what we really, really were setting our to do. Because there’s honesty in great ideas.
We want to move people. To inspire them to do something. Go back and read our Rules of Engagement. That’s what we’re really trying to do.
Lesson #1. We spend a lot of time trying to win business. And often that means getting stuck in the way we can win the pitch in the boardroom.
So what if we stopped thinking about the clients pitch team and started thinking about what we really, really were setting our to do. Because there’s honesty in great ideas.
We want to move people. To inspire them to do something. Go back and read our Rules of Engagement. That’s what we’re really trying to do.
Show the impact of your purpose with facts, proof points, data viz, anyway to make it real.
Timberland shoes: does this very well by having a packaging label that shows exactly what went into making the shoes that you’re buying and how much energy and resources it cost. Showcasing their sustainability efforts through things like their use of renewable energy and recycled materials.
Lesson #1. We spend a lot of time trying to win business. And often that means getting stuck in the way we can win the pitch in the boardroom.
So what if we stopped thinking about the clients pitch team and started thinking about what we really, really were setting our to do. Because there’s honesty in great ideas.
We want to move people. To inspire them to do something. Go back and read our Rules of Engagement. That’s what we’re really trying to do.
Discussion is focused on creative acumen, function and delivery. Problem-solving dictates a need to better understand how to help an organisation establish, articulate and deliver its purpose.
That requires a new breed of people – new skills
A way to think about how we can connect our clients
And counter the threat of us becoming a commodity based business.
But it also requires a new mindset
A mindset we need to demand from everyone that joins us. The constant state of a curious mind.