Breaking through the brand purpose clutter

Obviously, there is an inherent societal good that comes from purpose-driven marketing. However, as Byron Sharp and others have argued, there is a lot of justifiable skepticism about brands that wave the flag about their purpose. It is not easy to do it in a way that seems genuine and, from a cold, hard business perspective, it is not easy to do it in a way that provides any kind of competitive advantage.

This WARC article (subscription required) discusses best practice examples of brand purpose in action. The article cites three attributes of a successful brand purpose campaign: be authentic, make it about them, make the world a better place.

That is all fine and somewhat obvious, but thinking creatively about how your purpose ties to your brand is also critically important. A few of the examples cited include:

• Volvo’s E.V.A. (Equal Vehicles for All) campaign, in which the company shared with the entire auto industry its safety findings about why women are more likely to be injured in an accident. This is very on-brand for Volvo, which is known for safety and which refused to patent its three-point seat belt technology back in 1959.

• The New York Times’ The Truth is Hard campaign, which ties back to the brand’s inherently purposeful roots and is relevant in a climate in which attacks on press freedom are increasing.

• AFLAC’s My Special AFLAC Duck, which provides pediatric cancer patients with a smart-wired stuffed duck that can serve as their companion during chemo treatment.

In these and other cases cited in the article, the brand does much more than just saying, “X% of your purchase goes to this particular cause.” Instead, each brand goes back its roots and cleverly ties its purpose to the brand DNA in a way that only that particular brand could.