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The secret may well be the soul of the business, but what about trust? Without it, today it is more difficult to consolidate a position in the market and attract new clients or consumers, who demand commitment and, above all, a clear purpose from brands and organisations.
In the era of social media and the immediacy of information, everything is a matter of seconds and trust is often undermined. Viewing the world through a digital window creates a sense of urgency, transversal across generations, but with particular weight among younger ones, who represent an important share of today’s clients and consumers. Brands and organisations are required to do much more than in the past, leading them to create messages that identify their purpose, as a form of strategic positioning, both internally and externally.
But is this something very recent? A decade-old study by Harvard Business Review already made it very clear that 64% of consumers stated that their connection to a brand generally resulted from shared values. Perhaps for this reason, today any marketing strategy that seeks to be successful invests in purpose to generate trust and, ultimately, sales.
Creativity is always a tool that can prove a brand’s purpose. Here, content takes centre stage, in various formats such as videos, to share the organisation’s founding essence, drawing on the emotional dimension and humanising its messages. Ultimately, the aim is to generate closer connection swith clients and consumers, through carefully crafted narratives that place the audience at the centre, often through the participation of real people.
By placing purpose at the heart of brand communication, it is essential to tell authentic stories, examples of courage and inspiration, to amplify what is real. From there, the entire communication strategy can unfold along different paths: advertising campaigns, calls to action, social media, content series (videos and podcasts), among others.
In the 2022 Purpose Power Index, which results from the analysis of more than 200 companies across 50 sectors of activity, we can see some of the companies that have been leading in these areas. We highlight, for example, the art of storytelling associated with Patagonia or the power of action of SeventhGeneration, a Unilever company, which created a petition calling on the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, to declare a climate emergency.
More than stating their purpose, brands need to act, in the name of trust. Audiences, whether converted or not to services and products, want action and leadership on issues such as the environment, human rights, governance, corporate social responsibility, among others.
Today,these topics are integrated into what is known as ESG (Environment, Social,Governance). But it is enough to read the press to realise that, in the currentcontext of crisis, these non-financial sustainability policies, linked to theenvironmental, social and governance pillars, are under attack.
In the United States of America, for example, political polarisation is using ESG as a political weapon between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, particularly with regard to issues related to divestment from fossil fuels, which represent an important part of employment and economic activity in the country.
Data released by McKinsey indicate that more than 90% of companies in the S&P 500 index already report ESG indicators. These are important for reinforcing the trust of:
- Customers: they seek brands with which they identify and share value
- Investors: access to investment is already facilitated by the application (or not) of ESG criteria.
- Financiers: banks and funds favour companies that are at the forefront of sustainability.
- Suppliers: throughout the value chain there are stakeholders looking for partners that implement good practices.
Incommunication, these indicators are also differentiating and trust-building elements. However, many smaller companies do not have the means to produce non-financial sustainability reports and certify the good practices they develop across the various fronts mentioned above. Even so, whenever possible,they should use available and real information, generating trust among the audiences they aim to reach.
We have all heard of greenwashing, when an organisation or brand communicates data or initiatives that attest to its environmental responsibility through incorrect, irrelevant or even fraudulent claims. Do not take the risk, because the potential benefit may prove fatal.
Generation Z (people born between the late 1990s and 2010) is today a major challenge for brands, as it is an activist-minded generation that demands fewer words and more actions.
It exerts a strong influence on other generations, as shown by the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer.
The same study states that 62% of respondents aged between 14 and 26 intend to work in organisations that seek to positively impact society by solving current problems. In other words, this should be one of the focuses for brands and organisations in their pursuit of purpose.
At a time of reflection and on the threshold of a new year, do you need to rethink your communication strategy? Get in touch with us and discover these and other ways of communicating with impact, based on your organisation’s purpose to generate trust among audiences.
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