3 Drivers of the Brand Purpose Movement
Guests of the ANA's Beyond Profit podcast offer an array of insights that illuminate the purpose movement, including its origins and the demands it places on companies. For instance, recent guests have identified three main drivers inducing organizations to embrace brand purpose.
Consumers
"Increasingly, consumers want to buy products that they feel relate to their values, and indeed studies of consumer preferences are indicating that they have a higher willingness to pay for products that reflect their values. For instance, consumers are more willing to pay for sustainability branded products than they are for conventional product."
Employees
"The employees are actually starting to question and have questioned over time, 'how am I making a difference beyond profits to my company?' And so companies have had to think more about it, particularly as recruiting has gotten more challenging and more competitive. While companies used to be able to live by the mantra, 'first do no harm,' now candidates are looking for the companies who are doing the most good."
— Nicole Ferry, partner and executive director of strategy at the brand agency Sullivan
Investors
"[We're seeing] the rise of impact investing and ESG investing. And despite all the attempts to try to besmirch it as 'woke capitalism,' I think that when you look past all of the paranoia and hype, what you're seeing is investors saying, 'Yeah, the companies that are going to give me the most returns are going to be the ones that are most ethically managed, are going to be the ones that have sustainability at their core. They are the ones that are going to be best protected against this barrage of societal and environmental crises that we seem to be coming up against almost every single day.'"
— Afdhel Aziz, founder and chief purpose officer at Conspiracy of Love
The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the ANA or imply endorsement from the ANA.
Morgan Strawn is a senior manager of editorial and content development at ANA.