The LinkedIn post that pis*sed me off, a lot.

I read something on LinkedIn that pis*ed me off. This may have been a rather intense reaction, but it illustrated the massive delta in the two types of businesses that exist.

It was a post debating whether purpose should be added to the 4 p’s of marketing.

For those not familiar with the concept the original P’s are

The author of the post argued that purpose should be added into the mix and a commentator responded that people don’t care about purpose, they buy purely on price.

My biggest bugbear in this exchange is that it reduces purpose into a marketing ploy, a tactic to be implemented and communicated at a surface level with the sole reason to get people to buy more products.

We are seeing more and more companies jump on the sustainability and purpose-driven bandwagon, as studies are demonstrating that there is a commercial upside :

4x more likely to buy from you

4.1x more likely to trust the company  

6x more likely to defend you against public criticism  

4.5x more likely to champion your company and recommend it

Source: Zeno Group 2020 Strength of Purpose Study

Covid19 has accelerated this trend and we are seeing more and more consumers are being conscious of how and with whom they spend their money. 

What these companies that are using purpose messaging as a marketing tact, fail to realise is that purpose is not a surface level thing. It is a reflection of the business existing for more than just the desire to sell products, but rather use its power to benefit people and the planet. Purpose needs to be baked into the DNA of the businesses, it needs to funnel through the entire supply chain, be embedded into policies, and be part of how the business lives every day. Elin Roberts, the co-founder of Better Nature, outlines when she was a guest on Sprowt-cast how they have created pledges and policies in the business to hold themselves and their suppliers to account.

As consumers become more educated and considered, the businesses that are ‘purpose-washing’, and do not live and breathe the principles that they are claiming will be called out and named. A case in point is Brewdog, a company that on the surface was a beacon for being a purpose-driven business, but underneath was not operating in the same ways. Whilst I have every hope that Brewdog as a B-corp will radically listen, learn and take action, other businesses who do not have the same foundations will have a lot to answer to and see their credibility lost.

It’s safe to say that I don’t believe that purpose should replace one of the 4’ps. And nor do I agree with the fact that consumers buy purposely on price, they buy on value, but that is a post for another day.

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Sprowt is a marketing consultancy that helps purpose-driven challenger brands that believe in the triple bottom line - people, planet and profit - stand out and scale. 

We take the tried and tested methods of building distinctive, memorable brands and apply them with a challenger lens, to grow the brands that matter into the household names of tomorrow.

Because we believe the world needs brands that care.