The use and abuse of brand purpose

Hats off to the CEO of UK brand transformation agency PULL, Chris Pullick.

He took the exceptional action of actually asking a broad cross section of UK consumers if they would you like to see brand advertising be more, in a word, woke.

Because, increasingly, that’s what marketers mean now by purpose: progressive politics.

Consumers in the UK, were asked, “When it comes to corporate social responsibility for health and beauty brands, rate these things you think brands should do.” Two of the things were:

1)    Pay their taxes, treat people fairly, respect the environment and not use it as a PR opportunity.

2)    Take a public stand on causes like LGBTQ+, Black Lives Matter, Climate Change, Female Body Confidence.

Option number 1 was endorsed by 58% of UK consumers. 

Option number 2 garnered only 11% consumer support.

As Chris puts it, “Consumers are uneasy about brands supporting woke causes. Marketers are not.”

The full study and Chris’s perceptive insights about what it means for modern brand marketing can be found here:

https://www.thepullagency.com/blog/is-your-brand-too-woke

So how is that the modern marketers are so far apart in what they think matters from their own consumers?

As Martin Weigel so beautifully puts it, modern marketers and their agencies live in a fantasy land:

Actually understanding your consumer, how they view the world, what they find funny, what they find poignant, is the stern challenge for all of us.

Did you know that the use of light-hearted themes and humor in advertising is only half of what it used to be only 20 years ago? It’s true. Kantar’s Link database of more than 200,000 ads makes this clear. Kantar’s report ascribes this development to the fear “getting it wrong.”

https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/advertising-media/how-to-get-humour-right-in-advertising

But maybe it’s also about an unstated belief among modern marketers that they have something more important to do than serve their consumers. They think they have to educate them. 

Why this shift?

What if what drives it are what Rob Henderson calls the “luxury beliefs” of the modern thinking class?

Rob is a wonderful American contrarian who rose up from foster care to getting a degree from Yale.

He spoke last week at Ogilvy’s Nudgestock, asking “What’s the relationship between top hats and Defund the Police?”

“They’re both status symbols,” Rob says and he has the data to back it up . Defund the Police is far more popular with moneyed elites than it is with the striving poor. Why? Because the rich can afford to endorse the cause while the poor can’t. Just like wearing top hats back in the day.

Follow this link. It’s not quite as long as a Ted talk and it’s just as thought provoking as the best of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww9uXmonqtM

So, are you looking for a new way for your brand to stand out? 

Resist the urge to score points with your privileged peers in the world of big agencies and their multinational clients.

Instead figure out how to say something that your consumers actually care about.