THE PROBLEM OF ‘BRAND PURPOSE’

Is one of the past decade’s biggest ad and

marketing themes also its most problematic?
BY AMIT BAPNA, DELSHAD IRANI & PRIYANKA NAIR

A recent global survey by Havas Group revealed a startling fact. If

77% of all the brands in the world today ceased to exist tomorrow, no
one would care. Brands across categories have tried every trick in the
book to not be part of that 77%. As a result of this relentless pursuit to
find “meaningful” roles in consumers’ lives, one of the biggest themes
that emerged in the past decade is that of Brand Purpose. But as Brand
Purpose began getting conflated with ‘saving the world’, marketers went
down a slippery slope. Recent marketing history is littered with
examples of brands hijacking ‘trending’ causes and social issues with
superficial intent and then getting called out for “woke washing”,
hurting both brand and bottom-line in the process. Meanwhile,
consumers are more suspicious than ever of businesses and their
brands’ lofty pledges to make the world a better place. Yet, reports
across the world have found that people favorably perceive and become
patrons of brands that share their values. So what should marketers to
do with Brand Purpose in this new consumer age of paradoxes? For
starters, recognize the upsides and the pitfalls of ‘purpose’.

Why ‘Brand Purpose’ matters more than ever

Havas’ Meaningful Brands study found brands that are seen as

“meaningful” and viewed as helping to make the world a better place
have seen their wallet-share multiply by 9 and see a 24 point greater
purchase intent. Plus, “meaningful brands” outperform the stock market
by 134%. “Case closed, methinks,” says Bobby Pawar, chairman and
chief creative officer, Havas India.

But the true challenge begins in the conception of a brand’s purpose.

According to Sudhir Sitapati, executive director, foods & refreshment,
Hindustan Unilever, purpose must be forged in the problem that the
brand is solving, only then consumers immediately relate to the brand:
“This results in higher brand salience. It’s important for brands to be
famous than to be persuasive and nothing drives fame better than
purpose.”
 Often, having a clearly defined brand purpose adds an air of safety
and trust around your brand. One of the clearest examples is Unilever;
whose brand purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace. In
2018 alone, 28 of their sustainable brands grew 69% faster than the
company’s other brands. Sitapati believes that while highly functional
advertising may have been the way for a decade or two, more
purposeful advertising is the way forward. Adds Josy Paul, chairman,
BBDO India, “Brand Purpose forces us to ask uncomfortable questions.”
Questions about the contribution of the brand to the lives of people they
serve, ‘what difference will the brand really make’, and ‘does it matter if
they exist at all’. In that regard, Amul is perhaps one of the greatest
examples of a purpose-led brand movement. Starting before
Independence with the objective of eliminating unfair trade practices
and providing farmers with remunerative rates, it’s the kind of
unyielding commitment to a brand purpose that’s missing in most cases
today. Says Nandini Dias, CEO, Lodestar UM, “The truth is, genuine
brand purpose requires as much determination from the creators as it
does from the brand.”
The Problem Of ‘Brand Purpose’

Dias adds, “Initiatives that clearly tell what you should ‘do’ rather than
just manipulate how you should feel. Because no one benefits from
guilt-marketing. Not the consumer, not society and certainly not the
brand.”

Once brands have found their purpose, one that fits with product and
brand ethos, it can help build a higher-order emotional bond with all
stakeholders. But for these connections to stick it needs to go beyond
just communication and reflect in culture systems and people.
Vodafone-Idea’s chief digital transformation and brand officer, Kavita
Nair’s favorite brand purpose story is about JFK and a NASA janitor as it
reflects a powerful brand purpose that connected across stakeholders at
a personal level. The story goes: When asked by President John F.
Kennedy about what he did at NASA the janitor replied - “I’m helping
put a man on the moon.”

The Pitfalls of Purpose

The past few years have witnessed many brands crash and burn (in
many cases, quite literally) in their endeavors to land higher-order
messages. Some famous recent examples include Nike, a marketer
adored and “trolled” in equal measure for its purpose-driven work and
P&G’s Gillette that felt the wrath of social media hordes when it
attempted to take on “toxic masculinity”.

Eternal vigilance is the price of social media, says Sumanto

Chattopadhyay, chairman & chief creative officer, 82.5 Communications
(A WPP Company); “In the past, one used to say that advertising would
kill a bad brand faster. Well, in today’s world of universal access to
information, falsity of purpose—or even an unintended misstep—is
what could grievously and instantly wound a brand.” If a purpose-led
brand like Nike talks about how women should dream big and then
mishandles the payment of maternity benefits to female athletes, its
image would be instantly tarnished.

To avoid falling into other common Brand Purpose traps, marketers

must begin with asking some fundamental questions like “does the
‘purpose’ have any relevance or connect with my product or product
category?” According to Ajay Kakar, chief marketing officer, Aditya Birla
Capital, “Arbitrary adoption of causes can create a problem of purpose,
especially in multinational companies. They need to be cautious to first
ascertain if their brand purpose is relevant across the markets and
countries they are present in. A company representing a house of
brands needs to have a clear strategy, whether the purpose is
represented at a company level, or for a specific brand from its
portfolio.”

While marketers are still trying to crack the old Brand Purpose
equation, Generation Alpha, or GenZ, is making it irrelevant. It’s already
time to reimagine what Brand Purpose might look like in the new
decade. Because, says Sidharth Rao, CEO and co-Founder, Dentsu
Webchutney, “This new generation does not care about why your brand
is here as much as it does about what your brand is actually doing and
those are two very different things.” BBDO’s Paul illustrates Rao’s point
with the example of #OptOutside, where we saw a brand committing to
its purpose. REI, a popular retail chain in the US known for outdoor/
camping clothes and gear, launched #OptOutside on Black Friday,
America’s biggest shopping day of the year. REI closed all its 143 stores,
encouraging everyone, staff included, to go outside and enjoy the great
outdoors. More than 150 other companies joined REI in #OptOutside and
closed their doors on Black Friday, and hundreds of state parks opened
up for free.

The question on Brand Purpose takes Nirmalya Sen, founder and CEO,
The Rethink Company (former CEO of Havas Worldwide India), back to a
multi-agency ‘integrated marketing’ meeting he was a part of from a
little over a year ago. “The Media agency (a large, global one) was trying
hard to sell a content series to the client (also a large, global company
known for its marketing acumen), saying how brand purpose was ‘in’
and how they believed the brand should do something to ‘show we are
concerned about the environment’. Needless to say, the content series
was based on an environmental issue. I wasn’t sure if I was angrier at
the callous approach to ‘Brand Purpose’ or the ‘serious consideration’
that followed till one of us stepped in.”

So, here’s the bottom-line: If you are the kind of marketer who thinks
Brand Purpose “is in”, it’s best to #OptOut.

“Purpose
must be
forged in the
problem that
the brand is
solving, only
then
consumers
immediately
relate to the
brand: This
results in
higher brand
salience.”

Sudhir
Sitapati, ED -
Foods &
Refreshment,
Hindustan
Unilever

“A tokenistic
approach
mostly results
in brutal
takedowns by
consumers.
More and
more brands
will realize
this and will
push to find
that right
purpose.”

Kavita Nair,
Chief Digital
Transformation
and Brand
Officer,
Vodafone-
Idea

“Arbitrary
adoption of
causes can
create a
problem of
purpose,
especially in
MNCs. They
need to be
cautious &
ascertain if
their brand
purpose is
relevant
across the
markets and
countries
they’re
present in.”

Ajay Kakar,
CMO, Aditya
Birla Capital