Welcome to the October edition of TrinityP3’s e-news
At the recent Festival of Marketing, it was reported that long-time critic of brand purpose, Professor Byron Sharp, director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, argued that the widespread adoption of social purpose could lead to brands becoming too similar and consequently being picked off by private labels. Effectively, that the pursuit of purpose could lead to the death of brands.
He is not alone. Mark Ritson has a highly sensitive BS detector when it comes to marketing. His recent target was Channel 4 and their “patchy methodological puffery making the case for brand purpose”.
Ritson went on: “This week’s fluff came from Channel 4 and reinforced the fact that our marketing knowledge base is increasingly constructed from undercooked, overstated research that is all about the headline and not about the rigour. The subsequent press release proclaimed that ‘Channel 4 finds purpose-driven ads resonate most with young viewers’ but its research showed no such thing’.
So, this week we look at Brand and Corporate purpose, with a reflection on our own company, a podcast on the importance of ethics from our partner in the UK and a terrific article from a series by Dr Chris Arnold on the matter. We hope you find it enlightening, or at least thought-provoking.
Why our corporate purpose is more than a brand
There is much discussion in the marketing world of the importance of brand purpose. But from our own experience, organisational purpose, or corporate purpose trumps brand purpose every time. Why? Because our purpose is more than a marketing exercise. It goes to the heart of everything we do. It is used as a guide by which all our activities are evaluated and measured. It is an intrinsic part of our strategic platform. Read about how the TrinityP3 corporate purpose defines who we are, including our brand here
.
Is your organisation aligned to your purpose?
Discover how Evalu8ing can be used to assess the alignment to purpose and values.
In this episode of the Managing Marketing podcast, listen to Jeremy Taylor, the Co-Founder and Director of Connect2 and the Business Director of TrinityP3 UK, discuss the role of businesses and brands in defining and acting with ethical purpose beyond simply delivering increasing shareholder value. Whether delivering environmental sustainability, acting with good social responsibility, or making ethical business decisions to minimise harm to others, it is all about good business conduct. You can listen to the conversation and read the transcript here
.
Listen to the perspectives on Managing Marketing
There are more than 200 podcasts and articles on Managing Marketing, including brand purpose and more.
Turning a corporate purpose statement into a brand proposition is rarely straightforward, which presents a real challenge, especially if it doesn’t align with customer values.
Maybe not surprising when you consider that most corporate purpose statements are designed to keep the shareholders happy, not the customer.
There is a big difference between the corporate mindset (protected by corporate comms and CSR) and the brand one (cherished by marketing and sales).
There is also a big difference between cause-related marketing, linking up with a charity like WWF, RSPCA, Childline, to support a ’cause’ and purpose-driven marketing. While one can overlap with another, and a cause can be relevant to a brand’s purpose, some brands make the mistake of thinking cause-related is purpose.
Purpose-driven marketing also requires a different methodology from traditional communications. Read Dr Chris Arnold’s perspective here
.
Most in Demand for this Month
The TrinityP3 team helped our clients on the following projects last month:
Designing a global briefing process for a major sports brand
Assessing marketing structure, capability and process for a fast-growing Australian online retail marketer
Identifying the emerging media and martech requirements of a national utility marketer over the next 2-3 years
Benchmarking and assessing 12 months of production costs for a large ANZ television advertiser, as groundwork for improving efficiency and creativity in 2022
Delivering independent commercial assessments of two incumbent agencies for a state-based energy marketer
Managing roster alignments and agency optimisation for two major advertisers in Canada
