Next-Level Purpose-Driven Marketing and Its Impact on Marketing Strategies
Last update: 29 August 2023 at 01:49 pm
4.50/5Modern-day tech-savvy consumers can see right through the inauthentic partnerships. This could damage your brand’s equity instead of building it. Hence, focusing on purpose-driven marketing is a must.
Similar to other marketing techniques, even purpose-driven marketing shares a similar goal: capturing the customer’s attention. However, the route taken by this marketing practice is a little different. For instance, a purpose-driven strategy allows you to demonstrate a sense of purpose – something the target audience truly connects with.
A brand’s purpose can significantly impact the appearance of your brand in the market and could eventually become the driving force behind your success.
But how do you build and market a brand’s purpose that defines your brand’s authenticity while forging real-connection with potential customers? Keep reading to find out!
Brand purpose – What is it?
Before you determine the importance of brand purpose and how to build a brand’s drive from the ground up, you must first understand what exactly it is.
In layperson’s terms, it represents your brand’s reason for being and the things it stands for above everything else.
Purposed-driven marketing, on the other hand, is a type of marketing that aims at connecting with audiences through topics that adds meaning to their lives. These topics can be related to anything and everything, including climate change, mental health, social issues like diversity, and animal welfare.
Source: Cost of Beauty: A Dove Film | Dove Self-Esteem Project
Purpose-driven marketing aims at developing a deeper rapport with consumers that goes beyond appealing to their sense of humor. It aims to appeal to their understanding of what matters over time.
An important thing to note is that a purposed-driven marketing strategy isn’t just limited to speaking on topics but also acting in their interest for the greater good of society.
Edelman’s Trust Report states that a brand’s decision to discuss social events can significantly impact consumer purchasing behavior. Hence, brands must take appropriate steps to speak on contentious topics.
Is purpose-driven marketing manipulative?
Purpose-driven marketing is fundamentally different from manipulative marketing tactics in its approach and intentions. While manipulative marketing strategies often rely on deception, coercion, or exploiting consumer vulnerabilities, purpose-driven marketing operates on the premise of authenticity and alignment.
Rather than solely aiming to maximize profits or manipulate consumer behavior, purpose-driven marketing places emphasis on connecting a brand’s mission and values with the genuine needs and aspirations of its target audience. It seeks to establish a meaningful relationship based on shared values and a mutual understanding.
By aligning its mission with the desires and concerns of its customers, purpose-driven marketing strives to make a positive impact on society or the environment. This approach goes beyond traditional marketing strategies, as it focuses on addressing societal issues or supporting causes that resonate with the target audience.
Why does purpose-driven strategy matter?
Purpose-driven strategy matters because it goes beyond profit-driven motives and taps into the core values and aspirations of both consumers and businesses. By aligning a brand’s mission with a greater purpose, it creates a compelling narrative that resonates with customers on a deeper level, fostering a sense of trust, loyalty, and emotional connection.
Purpose-driven strategy provides a clear direction for decision-making, guiding the development of authentic brand messaging and actions that genuinely impact society and the environment. It empowers businesses to differentiate themselves in a competitive landscape, attract like-minded consumers, and cultivate long-term relationships based on shared values.
Moreover, purpose-driven strategy has the potential to inspire and mobilize employees, driving internal cohesion and motivation. Ultimately, purpose-driven strategy transcends transactional relationships, allowing brands to make a meaningful and lasting impact while driving sustainable growth and success.
Consumers prefer brands that align with their values and beliefs
Today’s modern, tech-savvy consumers care more about social issues than ever. These consumers have strong views on a wide range of social problems. Also, they aren’t afraid to speak their minds.
Aligning your brand with the beliefs and values of this younger generation can allow you to place your brand in their day-to-day lives.
Purpose-driven campaign helps drive fundamental changes
Besides the consumers, even influencers prefer a purposed-drive approach.
Influencers use social media platforms to discuss critical environmental and social issues.
Source: The Guardian
The reason behind this is simple. Same as your brand, even social media creators or influencers are determined to make a positive impact. They do so by using their influence and social media followings.
Influencers are prioritizing social issues
Speaking out loud about a topic on the public stage increases the chances of making tangible changes.
Purpose-driven brands and digital creators highly influence the audience today. By working in unison, digital creators and brands can educate, advocate, and inform the target audience about the fundamental social changes they wish to make.
How to build and market your brand purpose?
A successful purpose-driven approach has five crucial elements.
Define the brand values clearly
The purpose-driven approach is based on values. Hence, having clear brand values is crucial.
Screenshot by Marketing Insider Group
Start by setting clear goals to determine which social media platform can help you authentically speak about social issues. For instance, if one of your brand’s core values is diversity, discuss topics directly impacting world diversity. This will allow you to showcase the genuineness of your brand.
Remember, aligning the topics you wish to cover with your brand value will allow you to deliver the message clearly and authentically.
Use affected voice to create engagement
Social issues are both complex and varied. This means you won’t necessarily understand or experience a particular subject, which is okay.
But, if you wish to speak up on such issues, ensure that messages you have complied with go through someone who relates to the point. It can be anyone from your organization or someone you wish to collaborate with – ensuring the use of credible voices is crucial, mainly when covering topics you do not fully comprehend.
This way, you can prevent misinformation while showing that you genuinely wish to make an impact.
Take actions
There is a vast difference between saying something and doing it.
Screenshot by influencerintelligence
Hence, always stick to your words when converting those words into action. For instance, donate if you mentioned doing it. If you affirmed about volunteering or educating people, ensure you convert your mere words into reality by acting on them..
Failure to transform your words into action can make your brand appear ingenuine and untrustworthy. And we don’t think that is what you aim for in this competitive marketplace.
Maintain a long-term commitment
You may run social justice campaigns and even advocate for the cause through social media, but is that enough? Certainly not. Your long-term commitment to your values matters, too. You’ll require incorporating those core values into your business.
Hence, speaking on issues that matter to you the most is crucial. Making long-term commitments to issues you value should not be hard.
Collaborate to make social change
While collaborating is essential to a purpose-driven approach, who you are collaborating with matters the most.
Here are some tips for successfully collaborating with creators and influencers to boost your marketing efforts:
- Ensure you and the chosen creator are on the same page regarding the cause because failure to do so can result in inauthenticity.
- Influencers can help spread the message effectively, given they are in the front seat of the conversations. Hence, consider giving them creative freedom. Allow them to employ their expertise for good. Also, ensure to have them involved when you devise any marketing strategy.
- Focus on producing long-term collaborations with the creators. Why? It demonstrates to your followers/consumers that your advocacy isn’t just a one-off stunt; you are dedicated to making changes.
It is always best to collaborate with influencers who have similar ethical and environmental values as you. This can help maintain authenticity while driving more awareness of the issues that matter most to you.
Top trends for the purpose-driven marketing campaigns in 2023
Here are some purpose-driven campaign themes that have an excellent success rate.
Women’s Empowerment
Many events across the globe are centered around women. While some events are positive and others are negative, it is evident that a campaign that supports women’s well-being tends to have significant impacts.
Source: The Superwoman | TanishqJewellery
Brands that focus their purpose-driven campaign around women improve their relationships across industries. This is because, even half-century after the International Women’s Year, gender issues still manage to harness power.
Diversity, inclusion, and equity
Consumers place a high value on representation. They want to see themselves represented in marketing messaging and are excited to find brands that share their principles.
Source: The Greatest | Apple
This consumer demand compels brands to prioritize DEI (Diversity, inclusion, and equity) in their marketing plans. Additionally, it promotes conversation over what may be classified as fundamental human rights – tech equity, transportation equity, food equity, housing equity, health equity, environmental equity, and financial equity.
Environment
The environmental theme for the purpose-driven campaign will remain effective in 2023 and 2024, given the U.S. policy will get broadened. This will give the brand added reasons to stand for critical causes.
Source: Grow Ensemble
Brands communicate with many people regarding environmental, social, and governance challenges. ESG elements might be ill-defined and subject to backlash. Yet, more than ever, marketers must demonstrate how their organizations perform well by doing what is right.
Other trends include
Animal welfare – You cannot deny the fact that pet owners adore their pets. Brands emphasize animal welfare on their platforms because they understand its importance. These effective marketing campaigns have encouraged adoption, fed starving animals, and tended to wildlife.
Screenshot by Moondust
Civic engagement – There will be more announcements of 2024 presidential candidates in 2023. Expect businesses to promote impartial civic participation and voting.
Things to keep in mind
The purpose-driven marketing strategy makes sense for most marketers. After all, companies grow in popularity when they start to reflect the desires of their target audiences. Marketing aims to help consumers identify themselves with the companies they choose to deal with.
In 2023, brands will delve further into these themes. Environmental sustainability and health equity discussions have gained more importance in the past year. In 2023, we forecast that brands will start taking action.
We expect to see companies magnify their voices while supporting these causes by expanding their partnerships with diverse people and organizations that share their values.
To truly effect change, brands must have a sincere desire. Being insincere or tokenistic in their approach might result in them receiving greater retaliation than if they had remained silent. As a result, firms must make genuine and significant advocacy statements instead of utilizing social concerns to expand their fan base and gain exposure.
To wrap it up,
Capturing the ideal customer’s attention in the market isn’t as easy as a decade ago. It would be best if you focused on emotional competencies. For instance, consider understanding what the consumers value and then attune to their pleasures and pain. Using purpose-driven marketing, you can inspire and influence people while directing them toward a shared goal.
Also, ensure that you dig deep if you wish to stick with purpose-driven marketing in the future. Of course, entertaining and exciting are enough to capture the audience’s attention, but they may not be sufficient to tackle the ever-evolving marketplace.
Consider partnering with industry experts to stay up-to-date with your purpose-driven marketing strategies. Find a reliable expert from Sortlist’s list of marketing agencies across the globe.
