Putting purpose into marketing
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The document discusses findings from a study on consumer attitudes toward corporate purpose. Some key points: - A survey of 8,000 consumers across 16 countries found that consumers now expect companies to have a clear sense of purpose beyond profits. - When quality and price are equal, social purpose is becoming an increasingly important factor for many consumers when choosing brands. - The study found that societal attributes like listening to customers and treating employees well are more important to building consumer trust than operational or financial attributes. - Many consumers are willing to pay a premium for brands that support good causes, and say it's acceptable for companies to both support causes and make money. Regions like India, China, and some European
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Putting purpose into marketing
- 1. Putting purpose into marketing 6th March 2013, Global Marketer Week Will Gilroy, WFA Jeremy Cohen, Edelman
- 2. Edelman’s 5 th GoodPurpose Study Global consumers attitudes to ‘Purpose’… CANADA CANADA INDIA INDIA 500 500 500 500 BRAZIL CHINA CHINA BRAZIL 500 500 500 500 US JAPAN JAPAN US 500 500 500 500 UAE UAE UK UK 500 500 500 500 FRANCE GERMANY GERMANY FRANCE 500 500 500 500 ITALY ITALY NETHERLANDS NETHERLANDS 500 500 500 500 INDONESIA INDONESIA BELGIUM BELGIUM 500 500 500 500 MALAYSIA MALAYSIA SINGAPORE SINGAPORE 500 500 500 500 Edelman Berland surveyed 8,000 consumers across 16 countries, aged 18+
- 3. An Evolving “Consumer” hungry concerned vocal empowered Able and willing to reward and punish brands 3
- 5. 88% ‘ Purpose' will be increasingly important to building brands 83% It is important for brands to have a sense of 'purpose’ 81% ‘ Purpose’ is a business opportunity Source: WFA Brand Purpose research; Jan 2013; Base 149 respondents
- 6. What is ‘Purpose’? Please select the three most important to you Source: WFA Brand Purpose research; Jan 2013; Base 149 respondents
- 7. What is purpose to consumers? Societal Drivers Dominate Most Important Attributes that Build Trust 1 Listens to customer needs and SOCIETAL feedback ATTRIBUTES 1 High quality products or services MORE 3 Treats employees well IMPORTANT TO BUILDING 4 Places customers ahead of profits FUTURE 4 Takes actions to address issue or crisis TRUST 6 Has ethical business practices 7 Has transparent and open business 8 Communicates frequently and honestly 9 Works to protect/ improve environment 10 Addresses society's needs 11 Positively impacts the local community 12 Innovator of new products Societal 13 Highly regarded, top leadership Operational 14 Delivers consistent financial returns 15 Ranks on a global list 16 Partners with third parties
- 8. Cynics vs. believers… What proportion of global consumers say they regularly support good causes? Source: WFA Brand Purpose research; Jan 2013; Base 149 respondents
- 9. An opportunity? What proportion of global consumers say they regularly support good causes? Marketer’s perception Consumer reality
- 10. An opportunity? What proportion of global consumers say they regularly support good causes? Marketer’s perception Consumer reality
- 11. Consumers calling on business to address societal issues
- 12. It’s ok to do good while doing well… Proportion of consumers who say it’s OK for brands to support good causes and make money at the same time? Marketers’ perception Consumer reality Source: WFA Brand Purpose research; Jan 2013; Base 149 respondents
- 13. It’s ok to do good while doing well… Proportion of consumers who say it’s OK for brands to support good causes and make money at the same time? Marketers’ perception Consumer reality Source: WFA Brand Purpose research; Jan 2013; Base 149 respondents
- 14. Regular support of good causes What proportion of consumers say they buy a brand that supports good causes, at least once a month?
- 15. Social Purpose as Purchase Trigger When quality and price are the same, Social Purpose most important factor +26% Growth from 2010 •Japan (+100%) •China (+79%) •Netherlands (+43%) •Germany (+36%) •India (+43%)
- 16. Consumers Prefer Purposeful Brands +39% +34% +9% 2010 2008 2010 2010 2008 2009 2012 2009 2012 2009 2012
- 17. Regionality of ‘Purpose’ Which of the following regions has the greatest proportion of consumers who say they make purchase decisions based on good causes?
- 18. The new ‘purpose’ “bull” markets INDIA BELGIUM CHINA BRAZIL ITALYFRANCE MALAYSIA NETHERLANDS INDONESIA VS JAPAN GERMANY UAE US UK
- 19. “Bull Market” consumers more willing to pay a premium for Purpose
- 20. Possible to measure purpose … but hard Is it possible to measure the impact of 'purpose' on…? PR & positive reputation (93% agree) Consumer engagement (91%) Employee satisfaction (90%) Brand equity (86%) Customer satisfaction (71%) Sales (54%) Source: WFA Brand Purpose research; Jan 2013; Base 149 respondents
- 21. ‘Purpose’ needs to be top down Who should be involved in designing and shaping 'purpose'? Source: WFA Brand Purpose research; Jan 2013; Base 149 respondents
- 22. Look outside the organisation for help
- 23. Relatively little pushback against purpose Source: WFA Brand Purpose research; Jan 2013; Base 149 respondents
- 24. 49% Brands I've worked for have generally had a sense of 'purpose' 38% Brands I have worked for have been successful in effectively communicating 'purpose' Source: WFA Brand Purpose research; Jan 2013; Base 149 respondents
- 25. Purpose Leaders… Source: WFA Brand Purpose research; Jan 2013; Base 149 respondents
- 26. You Are Not Alone
Editor's Notes
- At last year’s Global Marketer Conference in New York City, marketers gave us a clear message. [show clip] The message is clear. For brands to be successful in the future, they will increasingly have to have « an ideal at their centre » They will have to stand for something. Have a ‘purpose’. To Jeremy
- The goodpurpose® study is Edelman’s annual global intellectual property research study that over the course of five years explores consumer attitudes around social purpose, including their commitment to specific societal issues and their expectations of brands and corporations. The survey was conducted in 16 countries with 8,000 adults (ages 18+), and is the only global, longitudinal study of its kind.
- So we at WFA saw the Edelman research and wondered: to what extent are consumer and marketer perceptions of brand purpose aligned? Do marketers understand what drives consumer decision-making around purposeful brands? Are there gaps, are there business opportunities? We wanted to see the flip side of the coin and compare results. So we polled our members. The topic struck a chord: very quickly, we received 149 responses from senior marketers from 58 major brand owners from over 40 countries. Marketers representing over US$70 billion in ad spend.
- And this is what they- YOU – told us. Overwhelmingly, marketers told us that ‘purpose’ is – and will be increasingly – important 88% agreed that purpose will be increasingly important to building brands 83% that it is important for a brand to have a ‘sense of purpose’ And 81% that purpose is a business opportunity. Perhaps this in itself confirms Edelman’s claim that purpose is the new 5th ‘P’ in marketing
- But before going any further, we wanted to try and define what we mean by « purpose ». What does it mean for a brand to have a purpose? Because people tend to think of different things. On asking marketers what they thought purpose was, top of mind was: « Creating programs to positively impact communities » with 65% agreeing Then « protecting the environment » and « ethical business activities »; both with 56% agreeing It is worth noting that « Listening to and acting upon customer needs » and « safeguarding employee welfare » were not top of mind for marketers when thinking about ‘purpose’
- We then asked our members what proportion of global consumers say they regularly support good causes. Of course, it is important to add the qualifier that we are asking marketers for the number of consumers who SAY they support good causes. But we thought this would be a good entry point into identifying the extent to which marketers were in tune with global consumer sentiment. Interestingly, the results showed marketers loosely fall into two camps; the « cynics » and the « believers ». Roughly half of marketers said that less than 50% global consumers support good causes and roughly half estimated at more than 50%. Singificantly, the question polarised opinion to some degree; large numbers of marketers think that relatively few consumers said they support good causes at one end of the spectrum and, at the other end, roughly the same number saying they thought significantly more consumers support good causes.
- On average, marketers estimated that 46% global consumers said they support good causes. But what did consumers say? To Jeremy
- 86% of global consumers believe that business needs to place at least equal weight on society’s interests as on business’ interests Less than a third (28%) believe business is performing well in addressing societal issues
- We then asked respondents: what is the proportion of consumers who say it’s OK for brands to support good causes and make money at the same time. Marketers thought that 56% of consumers say it’s OK for brands to support good causes and make money at the same time. But what did consumers say?
- To Jeremy
- Factors responsible for driving purchase intent linked to environment, communities, ethical business practices, etc. Gap between what is currently driving purchase intent and what consumers say is most important to them represents an opportunity for brands to more fully capitalise on their organisational purpose When quality and price are equal, the most important factor influencing brand choice is Purpose. Across the globe, the prominence of Purpose as a purchase trigger has risen 26% since 2008. Purpose is outpacing design/innovation & brand loyalty…. infusing a brand with an authentic and aligned Purpose provides distinct competitive advantage. Q48. [TRACKING] Now, if you had to choose between two brands that were the same in quality and price, please rank the following remaining factors from 1 to 3 in the order that would affect your decision when selecting a brand where 1 is the most important factor and 3 is the least important. 10-country global total (excludes Belgium, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore and UAE) (% WHO RANKED SOCIAL PURPOSE FIRST) Note: In the question, “social purpose” is defined as: Benefits others through charity or selfless acts
- We then wanted to understand how ‘purpose’ plays out regionally. Which of the following regions has the greatest proportion of consumers who say they make purchase decisions based on good causes, we asked. As you can see, respondents overwhelmingly chose consumers from Europe and North America as the most ‘purpose driven’ Only 5% of marketers chose Asian consumers and just 1% marketers said consumers from Latin America. This despite the pool being globally representative with a significant number of respondents hailing from these geographies
- Asking respondents if they thought it was possible to measure the impact of purpose 93% agreed it is measurable on PR and positive reputation 91% on consumer engagement 90% on employee satisfaction … Even a bullish 54% agreed it was possible to measure the impact of purpose on sales But only 18% said it is « easy » to measure the impact …
- Who should be involved in designing and shaping purpose? 80% said that the CEO should be involved CMO 74% Only 53% said all employees However, marketers overwhelmingly (at 88%) agreed with the following sentence: Purpose needs to pervade the entire organisation and have buy in from all business functions. This sentiment very much echoes the words of Jim Stengel in the video we showed up top «Businesses that will thrive going forward will be those that have an ideal at the centre and activate that across the entire business system»
- And marketers agreed that purpose CANNOT ONLY come from within the organisation. A half of respondents (51%) thought this means that it is important to work with third parties, such as NGOs and governments , to give brand purpose credibility. But as many as 69% marketers agreed that “purpose needs to be shaped through the involvement of people outside the organisation , including customers and the supply chain” 69% percent also agreed or strongly agreed that social media are essential to engaging people with ‘brand purpose’ and to ‘help shape it as part of an ongoing dialogue’
- As a cynical Brit, i was perhaps most struck that only 38% of respondents said they had experienced consumer scepticism and pushback against brands with purpose. That despite as many as 57% marketers agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement that « not every brand is suited to having a sense of purpose without it feeling contrived » I guess that goes back to how we define purpose at the outset. Interestingly, Latin American marketers were those who reported experiencing the greatest degree of pushback, followed by Asian marketers, then European marketers. Counter-intuitive findings perhaps for what we have come to accept as received wisdom in this town – and certainly more broadly across the continent
- Now, do you think you have worked for brands with a sense of purpose? 49% of respondents agreed that they had generally worked for brands with a sense of purpose. The glass half full or half empty? I let you draw your own conclusions Certainly, respondents felt they had been less successful in communicating ‘purpose’ with only 38% agreeing that brands i have worked for have been successful in effectively communicating purpose. I’m tempted to correlate this against another question where 56% of respondents agreed that « it is relatively new for brands to communicate ‘purpose’ as part of their brand marketing communications » As a notable aside, as many as 44% of respondents interestingly agreed or strongly agreed that « the company I work for is fundamentally re-evaluating its corporate positioning in light of a renewed sense of purpose »
- Finally, we gave marketers a list of Ad Age’s top 20 global marketers and asked marketers to select which brand owner best embraces purpose 23% of marketers voted for Unilever, 16% for Coca-Cola and P&G and McDonald’s was in fourth with 11% of the vote As you can see from this word cloud, a large number of other companies were mentioned. And many respondents made unprompted mentions of other, often smaller, companies they believed had been cutting edge in embracing good purpose, including companies from Greece, Pakistan, South Africa, Brazil and India to name but a few. The full write up of these results will be shared with respondents and will be available on the conference website for you to download. They include responses to other questions, some interesting regional breakdowns and the case studies from the brand purpose leaders you mentioned. Which leaves me just to thank our members who entered into this study in such numbers – and with such enthusiasm (the drop off rate on responses from the first to last question was less than 5%)– and to you here today for listening. Thank you very much