Brands that focus on non-commercial and non-profit projects as part of their regular day-to-day activities may get positive business results. However, on condition that the activities are performed in a credible way and relate to the brands’ core business. The marketing expert Peter Field said that at the Communication Summit held in Prague in the previous week. He returned to his Prague audience at the invitation of the organiser Blue Events after seven years.
At the beginning, Field mentioned that a brand’s focus on non-commercial and non-profit activities such as sustainability, health, the environment or social development (the so called brand purpose) makes sense as long as the activities are authentic. As part of research under the British IPA, Field compared 47 brands with a brand purpose and 333 brands with no brand purpose. The primary results were not too encouraging for brands engaged in non-commercial activities. On average, higher business effects were found in brands without a brand purpose. However, a more detailed review indicated that the differences in results depended on how the brand purpose was approached. If it resonates with the brand and it is aligned appropriately with a product, it shows better results than brands without non-commercial activities.
Specifically, the research revealed that:
- 50% of brands with a strong brand purpose managed to attract new customers compared to 30% of brands with no brand purpose.
- 41% of brands with a strong brand purpose have achieved a large growth in a market share compared to 26% of brands with no brand purpose. Brands that failed to meet the precondition of appropriately selected and implemented non-commercial activities were lagging behind significantly with 0%.
- In brand parameters, a successful brand purpose was reflected in higher credibility of brands, their greater distinctiveness and awareness.
- “If you are not trustworthy, or you are hypocritical, and your brand purpose does not relate to your business, it will not work,” says Field. On the other hand, the right brand purpose may bring new dimensions to a brand within a category. Field indicates lack of credibility as one of the key reasons why brand purpose fails. This is accompanied by inconsistency with the overall brand behaviour and the lack of capability to connect the reason for the activity with product selection. “If you do not resolve the problem, you only support scepticism and cynicism,” he added.
- Field identified four key areas where a better brand purpose may lead to high effectiveness:
- Physical availability: It is established based on close cooperation of brands with distributors who ideally share the same view of specific activities. Skittle may serve as an example. The company replaced its coloured rainbow packets with white-and-grey ones in Tesco stores to express its support to the LGBT community.
- Mental availability - aligning with product virtues: Aligning activities with a product must be credible, e.g. a brand and its alignment with farmers and sustainability activities.
- Growing penetration:Activities opening the opportunities for further brand growth by association with category “entry points”.
- Public challenge: Alignment of activities with important challenges and issues on the market. Bisto is an example with its mission to bring separated families and friends together.
- The fact that brands should focus on what is intrinsic to them when it comes to social activities was confirmed by Havas’ research entitled “Meaningful Brands”, which was presented at the conference by Michal Vlasák from the local branch of Havas Prague. Unfulfilled expectations seem to be crucial. On one hand, people expect that consumers will act in favour of the planet. On the other hand, it should be noted that most consumers (71%) are tired of empty brand promises. “Consumers are tired of brands pretending to act for the benefit of the planet. Only 36% are satisfied with specific steps taken by companies that are supposed to change the world for better, and only 34% of consumers think that brands are transparent,” said Vlasák.
Communication of social responsibility may inspire controversial reactions. Komerční banka became convinced of that. Before last Christmas, the bank urged people to reduce their consumption of carps in a video with influencer Lucie Zelinková. This was interpreted by some consumers as the bank dictating to people what they should consume at Christmas. At the conference, the bank’s head of communication, Hana Kovářová, described the background of this and many other spots made before Christmas.
The “carp” video was one of many that dealt with the topic of more planet-friendly behaviour and it was part of the bank’s more comprehensive set of activities in the field of sustainability. “We wanted to use influencers to ask people in a nice and gentle manner to get involved. There were more topics: food wasting, clothing recycling, energy savings and lower consumption. We took a big hit,” she described. In terms of costs and efficiency, the campaign achieved above-average results with a reach of 11 million but it had to apply crisis communication. The bank has learnt a lesson from its last year’s experience. The tension in society caused by the lengthy Covid-19 pandemic might play a role in the perception of the video whose purpose was different from how it was perceived. As Komerční banka’s experience showed it would have been better to select a topic that brings people together.
Other recommendations were:
- Pre-test
- Be prepared in terms of data and facts
- Check crisis management
- Pluck up the courage to try new things
- Learn from mistakes
- Do not give up when activities make sense
Komerční banka and its parent Société Générale have long been involved in CSR and ESG activities and have invested millions of Euros in them. Last year, the bank launched a campaign “O CO2 jde?” in which the topic of climate change was brought to the public. Despite the negative experience with the Christmas video, the bank managed to improve its public perception as a socially responsible and environmentally friendly company by eight percent year-on-year.
Ikea also includes social responsibility in its communication. It is an example of an approach under which a company selects a topic where it can make an impact given its business focus, described Marek Vomočil, PR leader of Ikea for the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. At the same time, it is an example of communication on the Czech market that has a positive impact on the brand as such. In its communication, Ikea decided to draw attention to the issue of domestic violence. Up to 175 influencers participated in the communication. “Above all, it was important that the selected influencers believed in the topic and that they were active personalities who could inspire other people,” said Marek Vomočil. Google searches on domestic violence increased by 500% thanks to the campaign and the topic resonated in more than 20 countries around the world. Ikea received several awards for its campaign. “The project has had some impact on increasing confidence in Ikea, although we can hardly argue that this was the only reason,“ summed up Marel Vomočil.
Source: mediaguru.cz
