Is purpose marketing bullsh*!t?
Should purpose have a role in marketing?
Atalante are huge fans of Mark Ritson but we have to admit to being surprised at seeing ‘purpose’ and Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle in his top 10 list of Marketing Bulls&*t.
We agree purpose should be an internal driver of culture and how a business behaves, not just towards its consumers but also towards its employees, suppliers and partners. While brand strategy and communications should focus on how a brand meets a consumer need.
Most often these are not the same thing.
When brands talk about purpose without it linking to a consumer need, or if the purpose that the brand supposedly supports is flimsy and not truly lived, consumers will see through it. It's this surface-level approach to purpose which gives it, and Simon Sinek's Golden Circle, a bad name.
Mark Ritson pulled back the curtain on several brands where purpose is clearly the work of clever creative rather than a heartfelt, living and breathing ethos. Take the SSGA Fearless Girl campaign launched to promote gender diversity. It followed research that showed companies with gender diversity in their leadership teams outperformed those without it. In the same year they became embroiled in a row about their own gender pay gap.
But just occasionally, a brand's purpose is genuine. It drives their actions, culture and the way they make and sell their products, and it aligns with a real consumer need.
The organic category is one which provides several examples of brands and businesses living their purpose. According to the Soil Association, the organic sector grew 12.6% over the last year despite the economic conditions and it having a sizeable price premium. There's no doubt that the pandemic fuelled much of this growth as consumers were made more starkly aware of health and sustainability issues and wanted to make better choices for the planet. Organic farming and production is a purpose-led movement which meets this need.
Yeo Valley is one of the biggest brands in the organic category. They focus on and actively promote their organic credentials and ‘put nature first’ philosophy and neatly communicate it in their commercials.
As a result, they have been rewarded with 13.5% growth and a place this year in Britain’s top 50 brands. It’s not just a marketing campaign cooked-up to follow the zeitgeist; Yeo Valley have always been organic, are very passionate about it and have always been extremely active in promoting organic farming and its positive impact for the planet, even when consumers were more skeptical. Not simply to sell products, but because they believed it was the right thing to do.
Farming in a way that protects nature and puts nature first has been their purpose from the start and it has guided the types of product they produce and how they produce them. It’s a source of competitive advantage as their products are considered by many as superior in terms of quality and taste.
When most consumers just saw organic as the ‘posh aisle’ Yeo pivoted on family owned, taste and naturalness credentials and even took organic out of their product titles to maintain accessibility and focus on what their consumers wanted and needed. They stayed organic (and we suspect would attribute the superior taste and naturalness of their products to being organic) but talked about taste and naturalness – attributes they could deliver better than anyone else in the yogurt category.
As planet and ethical farming has become more important for consumers, Yeo Valley have been able to tell a compelling story that has always been there. It is the reason to believe in their taste and naturalness and has the added dimension of being better for the planet which is becoming a driver for consumers when choosing which brands they buy.
Adrian Carne, Managing Director, Yeo Valley Organic said: “At Yeo Valley we always put the consumer first and believe that being trusted is key to our brand success. That’s why we live our purpose everyday and this in turn gives us our competitive advantage and USP.”
Another great example is Atalante favourite: Who Gives A Crap, the toilet paper brand which is 'good for your bum, good for people and good for the planet'.
The brand was specifically set up with the purpose of providing toilets for people that need proper sanitation. 50% of profits go to raise money for this cause. It's a good product and it is recycled but this isn't significantly different from other brands on the market.
What makes it distinctive is the brand's purpose, the way it uses its profits and the fact that this proposition fulfills a need other toilet paper brands can't meet. Its customers probably don't have time to go on rallies or to raise money directly for charitable causes and Who Gives A Crap provides a simple solution - a hassle free product swap which isn't a compromise on quality. By focusing its brand message and targeting people who literally 'give a crap', it's found an audience willing to pay a significant premium.
Link to Who Gives A Crap's website by clicking here or by clicking on the image above.
Purpose shouldn’t be marketing bullshit.
It should be a behind-the-scenes guiding light for brand and company culture. It should be consistent and long term. If a brand’s purpose meets these criteria and aligns to their consumers’ needs then it has a legitimate place in brand communications.
But beware. If your brand’s ‘purpose’ was conceived by an agency as part of a marketing campaign to garner warmth and affection and it isn’t something you genuinely live within the company, or even if it’s the aspiration but you’re not there yet, then don’t be surprised if you get called out.
The problem with bullshit is that it stinks and consumers will smell it a mile off!
