Stand For Something To Stand Out

How do you win the hearts and minds of your target audience? Find the right purpose and provide real evidence that you mean what you say.

Brands are increasingly looking for a purpose in order to help them stand out from the crowd. But it’s not just about price or quality, or even being ethical anymore, consumers expect that as standard.

In fact, promoting your good behaviour, whether it’s fair pay or being kind to animals, isn’t always seen in a positive light.

Research from Mintel last year found half of Americans agree that marketing products as “ethical” is just a way of companies to manipulate consumers.

That’s why brands have been on the search for a purpose.

This should give people a reason to buy a brand, over and above preferring its products or price point. Once identified, it can lay the foundations of a company’s actions and communications, including the content being produced—from Twitter comments to web copy to campaigns.

Unique Purpose

There are many examples of brands trying to find purpose. U.K. retailer Poundland, for example, recently announced it is donating nearly £800,000 to charity from the sales of its plastic carrier bags. At the same time, it says it is committed to reducing the number of bags in landfill.

But is that just good old-fashioned CSR? (Large retailers should be passing on the proceeds to charity anyway. Morrisons, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s are all doing it, albeit some are giving more than others). Consumers expect companies to act in an ethical way. It’s not enough.

And that brings us to another problem. If everyone’s trying to have a purpose, it’s difficult to be unique and, therefore, truly “purposeful.” Consumers want brands to be responsible, but brands have to find that special something that makes their target audience want to connect with them. The Body Shop did this years ago. People bought into the ethos behind the products as well as the products themselves. But in today’s world, it’s a little trickier.

Unilever is known for its purpose of wanting to make sustainable living commonplace. Its “sustainable living” portfolio includes brands such as Dove and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and the companies in this portfolio are defined as those that contribute to business growth while reducing environmental footprint and increasing social impact.

Scale is undoubtedly on Unilever’s side here. It has the ability to take action on issues as diverse as self-esteem (Dove) and sanitation in developing markets (Domestos). But there’s no doubting their commitment to the concept, which they’ve carried through from their website to their advertising campaigns, and of course by action on the ground.

How To Find A Purpose

How do brands come up with a purpose? Consumers these days won’t buy into a one-off press release stating good intentions. There has to be real evidence of a brand meaning what it says. Finding the right purpose that fits with your brand and your target audience is essential.

You can start by looking at your company mission statement to understand the vision behind the business. It can help inspire your thinking and it certainly needs to be kept front of mind when looking for a purpose. But to really stand out, a purpose has to be culturally relevant. The key here is finding the sweet spot between what the customer is talking about and what you want to talk about. When the two match, you’re much more likely to win over your audience (and potential customers).

Ice-cream brand Kelly’s recently managed to do just this. The company created the first-ever Cornish language TV advert just weeks after the government cut funding for the language. It featured a seller trying to advertise his produce from an ice cream stand in a field of cows. The campaign was accompanied by a downloadable, fun, Cornish phrasebook. It not only attracted headlines, it also tapped into concerns over a dying tradition and promoted a new ice cream range while reinforcing key messages about brand’s heritage and ingredients.

Fast food restaurant Chipotle is a classic example of a brand that embraced a “cultural moment” when it picked up on a growing feeling against America’s dominant industrial food culture. There were always concerned groups, but social media brought them to the fore. Chipotle realised it was a topic worth embracing and produced content accordingly, including its animated film “Back to the Start,” made in 2011, showing an old-fashioned farm “industrialise.” In the end, the farmer was so upset that he changed it back to its original state, and everyone, including the animals, were happier. The brand continues in this vein today, focusing on telling the story about where their ingredients come from and how they’re made.

The smoothie company Innocent Drinks also embraced a cultural trend. Their mission “ To make it easy for people to do themselves some good—and that doing so should taste good, too” embodied a growing consumer demand for healthier products at the time, a market that is currently somewhat of a phenomenon.

However, coming too late to the party can result in failure or a sceptical public just thinking you’ve jumped on the bandwagon. For example, people are now questioning the values behind the current “clean eating” movement, getting bored of it, or both. The declining viewing figures for the TV programme “Eating Well With Hemsley + Hemsley” are an example of this.

Innocent are sticking with the “wellness” agenda though, and their new products (innocent bubbles and coconut water) fit perfectly with the original mission as well as current cultural trends. It shows, with sales in Europe due to hit £100 million for the first time.

To Sum Up

Having a purpose and being culturally relevant can help define your brand and the content you produce. By finding passion-driven topics that can win over the hearts and minds of your target audience, whatever that may be, you give people something to engage with beyond your products, into an area they feel strongly about, and gives you the chance to own a “cultural moment.”