Finding Purpose in the Pandemic - Changing the Path of Purpose Marketing for Posterity | Marketing for the Future
Marketing for the Future
Finding Purpose in the Pandemic - Changing the Path of Purpose Marketing for Posterity
In the final instalment of the first season of our purpose marketing series, we consider the effect COVID-19 had on brand transformation and what the future of purpose marketing is.
As we come to the end of our first season of our purpose marketing series, we can’t fail to mention the disruption wreaked upon the world that affected every aspect of our existence, marketing included. Just as COVID-19 steamrolled our private and personal lives, ruthlessly forcing the world to adapt to new regimes, so it wreaked havoc on brands who had to re-evaluate and re-align their product and communications accordingly. Here’s a look at a few companies that have almost completely reimagined and readapted their mission, steering away from profit-driven, commercial goals in order to actively serve humanity during a time of global crisis.
The fashion industry was one of the first to step up to address some of the shortages during the past year and half, directing their factories to make hand sanitiser or personal protective equipment. There was little time to assess the reputational benefits of these actions, with most leaders seemingly acting on instinct to plug a gap that they were primed to fill. Notable examples include LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey) who distributed free hand sanitiser in France, and ordered 40 million masks to combat the PPE shortage; Prada who at one point amped up mask production to 5-6 million a week; Nike who donated over $25 million to coronavirus relief efforts around the world and made donations of over 32,5000 sneakers to healthcare providers in the U.S. Chanel, Burberry, and Armani and more who all stepped up to provide PPE.
Fashion wasn’t the only industry to focus its gaze on how it could help. Breweries around the world put their heads together to figure out how they could contribute. Craft brewer Brewdog offered all of its bars to help with a quick rollout of the vaccine in Scotland and the UK, and offered a commemorative can of beer to anyone vaccinated. This gesture comes almost a year after they switched production to hand sanitiser, or rather - ‘Punk Sanitiser’, a move that was also championed by drinks suppliers worldwide such as Heineken, Pernod Ricard, Carlsberg, Anheuser-Busch and Absolut to name a few.
Another familiar name that rose to the challenge presented by the global pandemic, was Dutch corporation Philips. They doubled their ongoing production of hospital ventilators and aimed to achieve a four-fold increase by the end of the third quarter. The Philips Foundation donated a range of diagnostic imaging, patient monitoring and respiratory therapy equipment and supplies throughout the pandemic, supporting responses worldwide. Their social media output focuses solely on relaying their healthcare efforts, providing interviews and insight reports from healthcare professionals around the world, producing videos celebrating the Everyday Heroes of COVID-19. It’s tough to think of a better example of a company that grew into its purpose more than ever in the past year, and continues to deliver on its mission to improve people’s lives through not just meaningful, but life-saving innovations.
But purpose must be sustained beyond just the COVID-19 reality. The pandemic signals a turning point in history and a call to action for brands who might not have realised their change-making potential so that they can proceed into the future with a new set of goals and an increased sense of mission.
Having delved into the highs and lows of purpose marketing throughout the ten instalments of this series, we’re left with a number of conclusions. If the product or service you provide is naturally aligned with a purpose, the only task remaining for your brand is to communicate that purpose in an authentic and compelling way. As we learned from Ben & Jerry’s for example, you can serve up a spoon of activism alongside your product, as long as your efforts to effect change and implement purpose come from a place of sincerity and your business doesn’t contradict your messaging. It is vastly better to take small and meaningful steps than it is to make promises that can’t be fulfilled or that are exposed as empty. If there is one thing to remember from this series, it is that there should always be authenticity, transparency, and personality behind purpose-marketing campaigns.
Although the ongoing pandemic has been a difficult challenge for many companies, it has also been an opportunity to reevaluate priorities and rediscover our intrinsic missions. We hope that this series can serve as a helpful guide to brands and individuals who wish to embark on a more purposeful journey. Most of all, we hope that the case studies and insights interwoven throughout these articles have been inspiring examples of how to make change happen within any field of organisation - all you need is to take the first step.