Purpose Driven Business: Why Your Company Needs a Purpose
As the pandemic seemingly moves closer to its end, companies are reflecting on the impact that it’s had on the world of business. One of the biggest changes that has come from 2020 is the renewed consumer demand for brands to be socially conscious. Following the compounded political, racial, and medical turmoil that the world has faced, consumers seem more motivated to make an impact and find a way to promote change through their purchasing decisions.
But just how important is a social purpose for a company nowadays, and how can one be best adopted and executed upon?
Impact of Having a Socially Conscious Purpose
Greater Customer Connection
Being a purpose driven company allows your customers to immediately have something to base a connection around. However, it is important to know what your target market supports; 70% of millennial consumers will completely stop shopping at a business that does not support their personal beliefs. Although whatever the purpose may be, the customers to whom it does resonate will have a much stronger connection to the brand and are more likely to shop there again.
Better Brand Recall
According to recent studies, around 79% of people can recall specific brands that responded to the COVID crisis by supporting their employees, healthcare workers, or their communities. Taking a stance on such a pressing issue clearly made an impact on consumers who supported the same cause and ultimately boosted companies’ brand images. By applying this same principle to other pressing social issues, brands can improve their image and recall ability, while simultaneously supporting the issues that actually matter to their customers..
Increased Revenue
If the last two points weren’t convincing enough, being a purpose driven company also has been shown to increase sales. Multiple studies have shown that 66% of customers are willing to pay more for a product if it is in support of a social or environmental cause. This increased revenue can also be combined with the greater customer connection to assume more returning customers as well.
Brand Examples
A lot of brands, large and small, took a stand on social issues throughout the pandemic. Here are some examples of how it was done right.
Dove
Here Dove took a stance in support of healthcare workers during the COVID pandemic. They are telling the story of Amanda and the impact of Personal Protective Equipment on the skin. It also follows suit with other campaigns that they have had, where they encourage people to embrace impurities. What they did right was combining multiple causes that they support, as well as optimizing their message for the present.
Source: Campaign
Ben and Jerry’s
Ben and Jerry’s took a risky stand with this image that they posted. This is a fairly alienating stance, however, they likely figured that the support that they would gain would outweigh the potential lost customers. Here, they are clearly making a statement on the Black Lives Matter movement that was reignited in the summer.
Source: Ben & Jerry’s
How to Become A Purpose Driven Business
First Decide if it’s Right for Your Company
Not every company needs to make a statement; in fact, some actually shouldn’t! If your company works with, depends on, or is heavily impacted by politics in any way, it might be really tough to make a statement that may be political without ramifications. Another note to make is that it may be better for a company to make a statement on one cause rather than another. This is something that will have to be explored and analyzed throughout the process.
Find Your Cause
Of course the first step is knowing what you and your company want to support. This can be from a personal passion, a current event, or what you know your customer base supports. It is extremely important to note, however, that making a statement as a company will change your brand image. This could be for the better or this could be for the worse, but even a simple social media post could alter people’s opinions. This shouldn’t be a reason to shy away from making a statement, but rather a reason to be more careful when making one.
Knowing Your Audience
With everything in marketing, the biggest step is knowing your audience. Any company needs to understand the potential risks of taking a public stance on an issue. It is very possible to alienate a portion of your customers, however, it is also possible to make your customer base much stronger. It all depends on how well you know your audience and how they will receive the message. Though it is important to remember that a personal belief may also override any potential negative impacts; after all, it is your brand.
Creating an Implementation Plan
After you’ve found your cause and made sure it meshes well with your audience, the next step is to create a plan of action. This can be from simply making a statement to making donations towards a cause. If you find a cause that would be beneficial to support, then any kind of action that could be taken would show positive results. Larger companies often run campaigns, but smaller companies can do things such as match donations, make statements, or even simply take a pledge to change.
Making Sure That Your Message is Heard
When making a statement, it usually isn’t worth it to keep it small. That’s where a strong digital marketing campaign can help. With StratDev’s SEO and social media services, we can help broadcast a message out more effectively than a company could do alone. Using our data analytics tools, we can see how the message or statement is being received and if it is in any way hurting sales or customer retention in any way, and make tweaks if necessary. Even if you already know that it’s the right choice for your brand to make a statement, it’s always safer to have someone experienced behind you to support your company throughout the process.
