This week we were at Twitter UK HQ for this month’s MRG members evening, hearing all from Sara Picazo about the Marmite of ad land – brand purpose marketing. There’s a lot of confusion about exactly what brand purpose marketing is and how best to employ it, and we’ve all seen the fall out when brands get it wrong (Pepsi & Kendall Jenner anyone?!) but here’s the 3 things we took away from Sara’s presentation:
- Purpose doesn’t have to be centred around social good, but it needs to add to your consumers lives. You can still be profit focused with your purpose, but social causes tend to get better traction!
- Brand purpose marketing is actually pretty low risk – especially if you’re talking about one of those big areas of concern like climate change! But brands need to ensure their actions actually match up with their purpose.
- Audience is crucial: different causes appeal more to different groups (younger people are much more concerned about inequality, whilst for older people terrorism is the biggest concern) – brands need to ensure their chosen purpose fits with the brand and target audience
Time will tell! It’s unclear whether brand purpose marketing has a big impact on business yet. Always keep in mind the drivers of success: excitement, brand fit, and resonance.
Thanks to Twitter UK and The Media Research Group for hosting a great, thought provoking evening!