REGGIE Award Winner David Baldwin Explores the Ins and Outs of Purpose Marketing

John Paquin Brand Purpose has become a lightning rod for companies and part of our amp8220culture warsamp8221 but it wasnamp8217t always that way Is that a result of the ambitions of marketers the shifts in society or simply a cultural amp8220perfect stormamp8221David Baldwin The issue here is a misunderstanding of what purpose is Most brands seem to have mistaken amp8220purposeamp8221 as uniquely social activism Thereamp8217s an opportunity to finetune back to what purpose always meant which is focusing on the higher order need your business exists to fulfill for its customers Sometimes this might very well be social activism as in the case of a brand like Patagonia But purpose lives on a spectrum some businesses solely exist as a transactional event between a customer and the company some live on and have a much broader remit I wrote this article about this very subject herePaquin Speaking of marketersamp8217 ambitions weamp8217ve seen some prominent examples recently of retreats Target moving their Pride display to the back of the store Starbucks taking down Pride flags even in The Village ABBud Light of course and thereamp8217s more Even ChickFil A came under fire This certainly has caused other marketers to reconsider their own plans Do you think these responses to the Rightamp8217s brushback signal a general retreat in the marketing community Were they overreaching in the first place Not the right fit or strategic choice for the brandsBaldwin The issue today is that it can be dangerous to live your purpose given the political climate Weamp8217re living at a time where at its most cynical a movement might take advantage of a brand standing up for a group of people that are a segment or subsegment of its customer base just to score political points fan outrage and incite people to threatening violence The Free market is now sometimes armed and angry Itamp8217s hard to fault a company for putting the safety of its employees first during these times At the same time if youamp8217re going to support a movement like Pride Month donamp8217t be performative and retreat at the first sign of trouble Walk the walkPaquin You stress the power of brand building from scratch which feels the very opposite of socalled amp8220purposewashingamp8221 Can you talk a bit about that Is there a way to insulate a brand from the backlash How do the brandsamp8217 amp8220valuesamp8221 come into playBaldwin You must have alignment throughout a company and do something we call amp8220Branding from the Inside Outamp8221 versus a purpose campaign that lives in the marketing department only and leaves employees of a company scratching their heads The alignment is to align your company from top to bottom and from side to side around your purpose whatever that is Then you can talk about it When you talk about it first you can get whacked by not only the people who are standing against whatever beliefs you may have but also by the very people you thought you were supporting because you backed away at the first sign of troublePaquin amp8220Brand Purposeamp8221 and amp8220CauseRelated Marketingamp8221 seem to have become a bit conflated in the minds of some marketers Can you talk about the distinctions and synergies between the two Must a successful Brand Purpose aspire to amp8220Doing Goodamp8221 in society or is there a case to be made for one more grounded in product performanceBaldwin Purpose should be authentic and endemic to a company not something made up in a conference room Otherwise itamp8217s all just performativePaquin Canshould a brandamp8217s Purpose evolve over time much as we might ladder up to a higherorder Benefit StatementBaldwin Brands should always look for ways to expand upon their purpose if their company is going into new markets new categories or to new audiences That said they should still stay true to the original vision Amazon is a great example of this they started out as a book seller and are now so much more than that but theyamp8217re still aligned around delivering excellence to their customer as quickly as possible These are my words but Iamp8217d guess theyamp8217re pretty closePaquin Many of the worldamp8217s leading companies have taken very different stances on the issue of Brand Purpose Some feel that the industry has gone too far while potentially not paying enough attention to amp8220growthamp8221 Is this about longterm vs shortterm growth What advice would you give companies under pressure to meet stockholderamp8217s demandsBaldwin It39s not that companies have gone too far it39s that theyamp8217ve conflated purpose with something itamp8217s not always supposed to be I was talking to a food client about purpose and they said amp8220Oh weamp8217d never get politicalamp8221 And I said amp8220Oh man why would you Thatamp8217s not what Iamp8217m talking about Weamp8217re talking about the purpose that exists for which is to make people happy and fulfilled through their products They mistook the word for social activismamp8221 We need to do a better job as advertisers to make these distinctionsPaquin You won a Gold REGGIE this year for Ponysaurus Brewingamp8217s amp8220Lt Governoramp8217s Fund for the Fabulousamp8221 while wearing both hats as client and agency head The campaign is sharp witty and does not hold back from taking on a state governor amp8211 no small thing these days Yet thereamp8217s been littleno blowback and the business has thrived Whatamp8217s the lesson here for other marketersBaldwin Iamp8217ll answer this question with a warning first So much purpose work the social activism kind seems to be created to win awards and thatamp8217s a huge problem Itamp8217s skewing what clients even believe we think advertising even is what we think is important and what purpose advertising serves in the marketplace So while we did win the Gold REGGIE this year we didnamp8217t do this to win awards we saw a need we might be able to support because we are a very inclusive company and our whole reason to be is to build and support the community by bringing people together for a beer Thatamp8217s it It just so happens that the story is quite powerful Weamp8217re seamlessly supporting our product our brand and our customers while being incredibly creative Thereamp8217s a great quote about advertising from the Shaker community that says amp8220Never make anything unless it is both necessary and useful But if it is both necessary and useful donamp8217t hesitate to make it beautifulamp8221 I canamp8217t think of a better description of the attempt to make impactful advertising We saw a need and we fulfilled it and it has created awareness and distribution because of interest in the product for our brandPaquin And finally of course whoamp8217s amp8220winningamp8221 the Culture Wars and what would be your advice to those reconsidering their plans going forwardBaldwin Iamp8217d advise staying out of the culture wars altogether unless doing it is important to your brand It probably isnamp8217t That said your purpose is important to understand because it can help you operate more efficiently because youamp8217ll always know where youamp8217re going and why youamp8217re going there Getting purpose will help you be more efficient in the marketplace and with your own employees Brands that really understand purpose know that their brand can drive their entire enterprise not just their communications And thatamp8217s a big differencePosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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REGGIE Award Winner David Baldwin Explores the Ins and Outs of Purpose Marketing

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