The goal of most marketing is to get customers’ attention. The objective is to stimulate your audience’s attention and involve them in some exchange, whether you want them to donate, click, or buy.
Marketing professionals argued in the 2012 Forbes article “The Attention War” that for businesses to acquire new customers, their material must meet three criteria. The criteria include providing entertainment, creating interest, and sharing guidance.
The claim was that businesses needed to be approachable to stand out from advertisements, merchandise, and content glut. They needed to connect with consumers by creating a community, welcoming customers into the community and providing solutions.
All of this is still true in 2022, but the previous ten years have brought a new dimension to the discussion. Beyond being enjoyable, engaging, or useful, many consumers look for businesses that demonstrate a dedication to a cause that has importance to them personally. According to a recent study, nearly 8 out of 10 Americans identify more deeply with businesses that reflect their beliefs.
Importance of Purpose-Driven Marketing
Here are some advantages of purpose-driven marketing:
1. Drive Social Change
Customers are four to six times more inclined to patronize, support, and protect businesses with a clear mission. Additionally, they need assurance that their support businesses are making a difference. Purpose-driven firms must be open with their audience to demonstrate that their marketing efforts are actually enacting social change. To put it another way, this entails documenting your brand’s contribution to the cause you support.
Many brands accomplish this by addressing problems and gathering data to share the impact they have had over a specific time. Since the task is hectic for a business to handle, a social impact agency came forward with experts to support this change.
2. Move in the Path of Success
Everyone in your organization knows that one of your primary goals is to make a profit, but having a reason for working beyond the bottom line inspires employees to strive for profitability. Simply put, companies with a purpose outperform their competitors, draw in more clients, and develop better employees. On average, employees driven by a higher sense of purpose and obvious social incentives are more productive.
The secret to the success of purpose-driven businesses is that they win hearts and minds rather than just selling goods and services. Customers today are more aware of social issues, such as environmental concerns and charitable causes. They are more likely to respond favorably to a business that demonstrates its commitment to being a part of a larger social and environmental context to improve stakeholders’ lives.
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Realign Digital Marketing to Your Brand
Remember that marketing with a purpose is a two-way street. Your marketing initiatives affect your clients and help to identify your company as a whole. Why are you acting in this way?
Consider the line of products from Adidas and Parley, for instance. Adidas’ purpose-driven marketing campaigns focus for this collaboration is the ocean plastic scourge. Their advertising video addresses today’s biggest issue and delves deeply into how ocean plastics harm our oceans’ ecosystem.
Adidas successfully realigns its brand by turning the issue into a solution and producing plastic-based high-performance sportswear. The takeaway from this is that the cause you support becomes your brand’s narrative, which motivates people to support, patronize, and invest in your company.
Connect with Your Audience Through Mutual Cause
Finding a cause that matters to your audience is one of the best ways to employ purpose-driven marketing to engage with them. Ensure that the cause and your brand are compatible at the same time.
You must become familiar with your customers and their interests. The customer journey may be mapped out as the experience the target audience wants. You can provide the expected experience through data-driven creativity. Finding a cause that resonates with your audience and using the correct facts can make all the difference in getting people to engage with your brand’s goal.
How Purpose-Driven Marketing Works?
American consumers are aware of the impact they have over brands through crowdfunding, social media live streaming, online reviews, and orchestrated boycotts.
In 2018, more than 85% of American customers purchased goods with a social or environmental benefit, and nearly 90% of consumers were compelled to boycott firms due to irresponsible business practices. According to Statista, more than 80% of American customers inform their family and friends about a company’s act of kindness.
Transparency and authenticity are prioritized by purpose-driven brands in their business practices, giving them the freedom to adapt to trends and, ultimately, succeed in a cutthroat environment.
The Impacts of Purpose-Driven Marketing
Initiatives for social good were frequently viewed just a few years ago as community duty rather than as actions that would improve business success.
Business Roundtable changed 22-year policies and defined the primary purpose of a corporation in 2019. The group includes 181 CEOs of America’s largest firms. The previous statement, which was almost entirely focused on maximizing shareholder return, has been replaced by the new one. The revised statement states that in addition to serving shareholders, businesses should provide value to their customers, invest in their employees, treat their suppliers fairly, and support their communities.
COVID-19 resulted in a shifting culture affecting consumers’ behavior. American consumers are speaking out more than ever about their wants now. According to their ideals, people were spending and boycotting. This was only accelerated in 2020 by the epidemic and the racial justice reckoning.
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Conclusion
Everyone seeks to identify with something greater than themselves. Consumers, and millennials, in particular, want their purchases to have a positive impact. If your brand matches its beliefs, purpose-driven marketing may be a powerful tool for increasing brand loyalty and luring new customers. Who knows, your brand might even improve things in the world.