Brand purpose. We’re all talking about it – but, if we’re being honest, is talking all we’re doing?
There’s a clear benefit to being a brand with purpose. Consumers – especially the younger generations – have a genuine interest in and actively support companies that align with their values and beliefs, with brands quickly cottoning onto the idea that making the world a better place can also mean making more money.
But while there are cynics out there – and not without good reason – marketing can also be a genuine force for good. Brands need to demonstrate a genuine desire for positive social impact – and to reap the benefits of being perceived as a purposeful brand, brands must go beyond talking about their chosen cause and put their money where their mouth is.
Poppy Mason Watts, chief impact and growth officer at WaterBear says its time for the industry to move on from its fixation on clicks and likes and start asking for real action.
A staggering 80% of people believe brands should be driving change and making the world a better place. Purpose is becoming the key driver of loyalty with a public which now holds companies accountable with their wallets.
According to Kantar, purpose-driven brands saw their value increase by an astounding 175% from 2006- 2018. Research from Harvard Business Review also indicates highly trusted companies are outperforming their counterparts by 400% in terms of market value.
What stood out as a major driver of this trust, among Gen Zs and Millennials especially? Sustainability.
By the end of this decade, Baby Boomers will transfer a whopping $68 trillion in wealth to Millennials and Gen Zs. With younger generations gaining purchasing power, a seismic shift in consumer behaviour is imminent.
The brands that fail to align with their moral compass will be left behind. Truly sustainable brands – those that earnestly and authentically deliver on their purpose-driven promises – will triumph over the superficial, the performative and the inactive.
Measuring success
So, the time has come for brands to reassess their yardstick for marketing success. They can no longer rely on superficial online nods (‘likes’, ‘comments’) to prove their sustainability credentials.
Brands must instead accurately measure their ability to drive authentic change.
Digital marketing’s meteoric rise has been twinned with a surge in disinformation, clickbait, and media distrust. We have all bought into it. Millions have poured into paid media, to generate trillions of clicks, impressions and likes. But there’s no reliable way to track attention and impact to determine the effectiveness of these online ads.
Who really cares how many eyeballs you reach if no-one lifts a finger? What do ‘impressions’ mean if this does nothing for brand authenticity, value or even sales. Surely completion rate and what happens next are more important metrics to measure?
It’s time to de-incentivise these traditional marketing metrics, and incentivise those purposeful metrics that matter. Can we replace newsletter sign ups with the number of petitions signed? What about replacing the numbers of ‘like and subscribes’ with the numbers of trees planted? Or trading views with volunteering hours? It might sound uncomfortable, but it can be done.
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Creating a better world
Brands have the clout, reach and resources to create a better world. Telling powerful and purpose-driven stories is one incredible tool to start inspiring people into action.
Take, for example, WaterBear’s partnerships with Nikon, Jack Wolfskin and Ecologi. Together, they’ve created documentaries on everything from the near-extinct mountain lynx to restoring the biodiversity of North America’s great plains.
These films have yielded tangible real-world impacts, such as planting 65,000 trees through our partnership with Ecologi. And we developed a robust toolkit designed to empower Generation Z to engage in constructive conversations with their employers about net-zero commitments.
We’ve also provided support to grassroots NGOs, supplying them with cameras to document vital frontline work and enhancing their skills, and enabling them to create valuable and impactful changes.
The power of purpose
Earlier this summer, the BBC’s 2023 ‘Monkey Haters’ doc exposed the grim reality of monkey torture.
Swiftly, an online bill was amended, making social media firms accountable for removing animal cruelty content or facing fines of up to £18 million. This highlights the power of storytelling in shaping policy and fostering a responsible digital landscape—a testament to media-driven activism’s global impact.
For brands, recognising this potential can be a battle in itself. And making positive, purposeful change happen, and then measuring it? Even more challenging. It requires bold thinking and a desire to move away from business as usual.
That said, marketing has always been at the forefront of innovation and change: it responds to changes in behaviour and attitudes, and it always adapts to maximise value. Let’s harness that ability to innovate for good.
And what better incentive to use marketing for good than our emergence from this summer, where the planet appeared to burn. The era of ‘global warming’ is over. The age of ‘global boiling’ has begun.
It’s time for the industry to move on from its fixation on clicks and likes. We need new metrics for a new generation, which prize sustainability and impact above all else. Not just for the sake of our planet, but for the sake of our new market reality.
