Put your values where your logo is: action, sincerity and consistency

June 1st is a beautiful day. It’s the day that starts LGBTQIA+ Pride, promoting and celebrating the dignity, equality and visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals and communities. It’s a social movement, it’s a celebration, it’s a commemoration and a rallying cry.

?It’s also a day when the cause-marketing debate gets a massive kickstart. Logos across the internet change to the dazzling rainbow of the Pride flags. Easter eggs pop up, capsule collections and special editions launch, and audiences start taking a long, hard look at the actions behind those rainbow logos.

?Authenticity is key

?Modern visitors and consumers are looking to build relationships with brands; 72% of Americans say they feel it is more important than ever that the companies they buy from reflect their values, while 64% of consumers choose, switch, avoid or boycott a brand based on its stand on societal issues. Customers want to feel like they’re doing business with someone who gets them, who understands where they’re coming from, who they like and trust, and that’s easier to do when the brand in question shares their values. In the age of instant information those credentials must be authentic and responsible - transparency, honesty and sincerity are key.

A Nielsen survey encompassing 30,000 consumers in 60 countries found that 66% of consumers were willing to pay more for goods from brands that demonstrated social commitment. Brands have an outsize opportunity to use their position, reach, and resources to live their brand values through socially responsible initiatives. There’s no need to pretend like that isn’t good for business; audiences are full of smart people who understand how capitalism works. What’s key are honesty and sincerity: it wouldn’t take most folks long to think of an example of a marketing campaign that turned out to be greenwashing or pinkwashing and backfired spectacularly. Modern audiences are on the alert for that type of cynical showboating; Cone Communications found that 65% of people will research a company’s stand on an issue to make sure that the stance is authentic.?Talk is cheap - what you do and how you do it are what audiences pay attention to.

Blogger, speaker and author Luvvie Ajayi Jones has an excellent decision-making strategy for deciding when and how to take a stand; she outlined it in her CMWorld keynote in 2020 and it was documented in a post from CMI in December 2020 titled “Should Your Brand Take a Stand.” I think about it approximately twice a day. It’s three simple steps:

1)???Does the brand mean it?

2)???Can the brand defend it?

3)???Can the brand say it thoughtfully?

She also talks about the importance of building a culture of honesty and safety within the company. That kind of culture can help hugely with this; whenever I see a brand misstep (and they tend to go viral, so EVERYONE sees it) I think about how many pairs of eyes saw that copy and how many hands that campaign passed through before the world saw it. Creating an environment where employees feel able to express dissent is a critical component to an honest and sincere communication and marketing strategy.

?Take Action

…and not just one day or one month out of the year. Brand values universally need to be backed up by concrete actions that support and advance those values. Changing the color of a brand logo or updating social feeds with a generic call-out for gender equality are performative at best. Making a plan with actionable goals, achievable objectives and leadership accountability can create real change and give the brand something to be truly proud of.

Intel, for example, partners with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society to award scholarships to Native American students each year, as well as offering a mentorship program, leadership training, and opportunities for internships/full-time jobs at Intel. The makeup brand Jecca Blac, which was founded on the principal of inclusion and offers products specifically for transgender and non-binary cosmetic wearer's, partners with the Stonewall Foundation year-round and also focuses on hiring and collaborating with LGBTQIA+ employees.

Picking a single cause can focus energy and time, should those be in short supply, as well as aligning that specific action to the values of the company. The makeup brand MAC, for example, directs 100% of the sale price of their VIVA Glam lipsticks in the US to the M?A?C?AIDS Fund, and have done since the fund was established in 1994. And a brand can show support for multiple causes throughout the year - the important thing to keep in mind is that it’s not enough to share graphics on social media. Pairing traditional steps with an active plan can make the difference and deepen a brands connection with causes they support.

This becomes much easier when brand values start with the brand itself; how the brand lives their values, how they express them in the hiring and compensation processes, how they display them through ethical production practices. The lingerie brand Adore Me, for example, has made both inclusion and sustainability core pillars of the company by?using a digital-printing technique that conserves water as well as biodegradable packaging and azo-free dyes; it’s striving for 100% sustainability across the brand while making sustainable fashion accessible and size-inclusive. Nike has a dedicated diversity sourcing team and have built inclusive hiring practices that helped them create a workforce that was 50% people of colour and 48% female identifying in 2016 and their most diverse class of interns ever in 2020; by 2025 they aim to grow the representation of women to 50% in their global workforce and at least a 35% representation of racial and ethnic minorities in their US workforce. Notably, they’ve tied executive compensation to the company hitting those goals.?There’s never been a better time to ensure that the values of the brand are being realized systematically throughout the brand itself.

Say it because you mean it

A quick Google search is all that’s needed for a consumer to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to authentic expression of brand values. For those active on social media platforms that information is shared widely and often. One of the better examples of this surfaces every year in October during Breast Cancer Awareness month, where it’s increasingly difficult to establish whether “awareness” is a viable KPI. Supporting a cause in a way that is visible and consistent with the values of the brand and the situation at hand is critical. In the words of Gayle Sulik “… it’s not about intentions; it’s about following the money and seeing where it lands.”?

Bombas, for example, employs a “one purchased = one donated” model every day of the year; for each item of clothing they sell, they donate one to an organization helping homeless, at need, and at-risk communities (this is especially critical for socks, which are among the most needed and least donated clothing items). During the month of June, Bombas rolled out a Pride capsule collection using the same donation structure to specifically benefit organizations working with and for LGBTQ+ communities. The meditation app Calm stepped forward shortly after Naomi Osaka withdrew from the 2021 Grand Slam to pledge that they would not only donate $15K to Laureus Sport to support her decision to prioritize her mental health, but that they would pay the fines for any other players opting out of media appearances for mental health reasons during the 2021 Grand Slam.

These two examples stand out to me largely because of the drive behind them: Bombas isn’t changing its model, just making it situationally appropriate and causally specific – this is also reflective of the fact that there are myriad causes to support in the LGBTQIA+ community and Bombas has chosen one that pairs with their values and mission.?Calm moved to support its values independently of a purchase requirement or a marketing campaign. The most successful efforts work specifically because they are consistent, honest, action-based, and rooted in the values of the brand in question.

Do the work. Every day.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about how important it is to be honest and sincere when communicating with our audience, especially when it comes to brand values. There is a large divide between performance and action, and that divide is never clearer than during an event or time driven by the need for political and social change. It’s not enough to turn your logo into a rainbow in June, pink in October, purple in March. Brand values should be a living breathing part of your culture; they should be clearly communicated, consistently reinforced and deeply integrated into the hiring, production and promotion process.?Approaching brand values with a committed and intentional mindset can bring them to life in a way that positively impacts employees, customers, and society at large.

Supporting the marginalized communities being celebrated by creating real change within our brands that leads to increased diversity, equity and inclusion, and holding ourselves, our co-workers and our bosses accountable for continued improvement is essential. When every company in the world turns their logo into a rainbow for Pride, be the company that has an active and actionable plan in place for creating equitable and inclusive POLICIES. Nothing is more fun than celebration; nothing is more crucial than doing the work.