Why Purpose Should Guide Marketers
Andy Murray
I help companies deliver customer-centered innovation that drives growth.
If you visit Jim Stengel’s website, listen to his podcast, or happen to have a chat with him about the state of retail like I did, you’ll find that his insights and outlooks are guided by one core theme: Purpose.
Jim became a trailblazer in customer marketing during his time at Procter & Gamble, which is where we first met and where he rose to the role of global marketing officer. He founded the Jim Stengel Company in 2008, hosts “The CMO Podcast,” and is the author of "Grow," so I was excited when he joined me on a recent episode of my “It’s a Customer’s World” podcast to share his purpose-driven approach to customer centricity.
Jim believes purpose is a driver of solutions and innovation. And, in the time of COVID-19, he said, purpose not only is something customers and employees want, but something they need.
“Those companies that were already grounded in purpose,” he told me, “who knew what they were about, who knew what was important to people, who had a purpose that uplifted people, that impacted their life in a way beyond their product and service, they were ready to shift, the entire organization was ready to move more quickly.”
Purpose isn't about holding a yearly philanthropy event or creating a page on the company website dedicated to a social cause. Purpose comes from having a company goal or trajectory that embodies a sort of human truth. And it isn’t enough to just share it in a press release, but rather it’s something that’s seen in “actions” and “commitments,” according to Jim.
With this idea of purpose at the heart of our conversation, Jim and I looked at the past, theorized about the future, and analyzed what all is in between. We used the cardinal directions as our guide, so we started by heading West, into the sunset — into the past.
West to the Sunset
As Jim put it, the old system just wasn’t working. COVID-19 flipped the status quo on its head, and what was unearthed was this blatant inefficiency. Companies that had eight- or 12-pillared approaches, quickly realized that only two or three were truly relevant and vital to their business, and, more importantly, their customer. The by-the-book, patterned business models of the past are slowly being reinvented with agility being top of mind.
CMOs and business leaders have gained an immense amount of clarity and are beginning to shift focus to what really matters. A reset button of sorts has been pressed, and there’s a newfound energy and dedication to creating more efficient, purposeful businesses that can trickle down from the top to be company-wide.
North to the Tundra
This brought us North, to the tundra, where provisions must be put in place for a journey to be successful. In the world of retail, those provisions are being directed toward efficiency. The cracks in the organization, from talent to infrastructure, widened in the pandemic, and now businesses are, or should be, adding plans for efficiency efforts to their budget spreadsheets.
To evaluate the true successes of provisions such as this, new measurements need to be adopted, some even created. It isn’t just about ROI, CAC, CPL, or any other fun acronym trying to illustrate a company’s performance. It is about understanding holistically customer satisfaction, lifetime value, and of course, company purpose.
South to Warmer Weather
Next, we turned South, to a warmer ecosystem where the hard work of the workforce is ignited. The role of the employee is growing more and more each day. As “paradigms are being blown up,” as Jim put it, urgency, creativity, and passion are boiling to the surface from employees at all organizational levels.
Employees are eager for change and improvement within their organization, and expectations are shifting. For those with C-suite titles, much of their time needs to be dedicated to understanding, challenging, and encouraging these organizational shifts.
East to the Future
This steered us in our final direction, East — to the future. With all the turmoil the world is facing, issues are being exposed, and people are ready for change. Jim hopes that this will ultimately translate into action. For all the change that is occurring socially, politically, economically, and so forth, a business, its employees, and its consumers are inevitably affected. It is up to business leaders to act in a way they see appropriate.
And, it all comes back to purpose. The past, present, provisions, and people that make up an organization filter into a company’s purpose. The companies that have a purpose centered on the customer will shine through.
Want to hear more insights from my conversation with Jim? Listen to the podcast episode here.
Product Marketing Exec | Retail | eCommerce | Omnichannel | Strategy | Customer-Focused | Leadership | Inclusion
3 年Andy, great conversation and really relevant to my new team at IG, as we have been challenged by our CMO to focus on our purpose / "why" we are all here as well. I particularly loved your metaphor with the bricks and mortar, with purpose being the mortar, that will stick with me. I've shared the podcast broadly w my team, so will share any other interesting ?s / insights that come back. Thanks for sharing this conversation, look forward to listening to your ongoing series as well, they are all downloaded to my phone now. All the best!