Brand Purpose 2.0 - Improving Human Happiness
Researchers in the Journal of Consumer Psychology claim that businesses with purposes authentically connected to human endeavours and motivation, provide a sense of meaningfulness, and a way for people to achieve their own personal ambitions and goals.
As we partner with businesses, organisations and brands seeking to positively drive relevance across touch-points, creating a ‘how-to’ guide on how to effect this change was second nature.
1. Raising the bar
Put simply, this is doing ‘better business’ and raising the standards for how business should be done. This can be changing something that’s currently wrong with the way business is done, or improving outcomes for those who benefit from the business products and services. Getting it right is about raising the bar on issues that people actively care about, or which improves outcomes for people. By putting human interests above business interests and metrics, corporations can build authenticity, relevance and connection.
Unspun have committed to reduce the carbon footprint of the fashion industry by creating an intentional business model that harnesses technology and creates a zero-inventory brand. They call themselves a ‘techstyle brand’ which is ‘engineering jeans for the future’. They only produce what is needed and are able to do this at speed and with great precision.
Landsec, the largest commercial property development and investment company in the United Kingdom, recognised that incorporating green spaces in to office developments, creates desirable developments which are better for office-workers’ health and well-being. These are the most desired developments; they happen to also be better for business longer-term because of their attractiveness. Mark Allan, CEO of Landsec, talks about this to the BBC here.
Tony’s Chocolonely didn’t just set out to make quirky premium chocolate, they are on a mission to build a more equitable chocolate company, which includes their supply chain, and are encouraging ‘competitors’ to join up to their Open Chain. As the business states, Open Chain sets out with the goal to ‘end child labour and all illegal labour in cocoa by setting a new industry standard. Together we take responsibility for the chocolate industry to drive structural change towards a more equally divided cocoa chain.’
2. Helping people to live purposeful lives
Business and brands can help consumers to discover, identify with and pursue and expand their own purpose-related goals. Pursuing a personal purpose can lead to a greater sense of fulfilment for people.
People can be at different stages on their finding purpose journey. They may be a) proactively looking for solutions; b) reacting to and positively evaluating solutions that are provided to them or; c) socially learning from others that making certain choices may be the right thing to do.
By enabling people to choose brands which act in line with their values or aspirations (or even help them to discover them), they can feel that they’re living more purposeful lives and having an impact. This works by giving people a sense of direction and goals linked to the broader world, and helps people to feel better about themselves and their choices.
In short, helping people to live purposeful lives is often about a focus on relevant moral issues that matter to the individual. This can be manifested in behaviours such as supporting communities, buying local, recycling, volunteering or; in purchasing choices which align with causes that matter such as looking for fair-trade options or regenerative food production practices.
As well as those brands and businesses that ‘raise the bar’, other brands that help people to live more purposeful lives every day include:
Singular Society, a membership subscription which empowers people to buy affordably better quality, buy less and reduce waste, through offering products such as wine, clothing, household items, as a service rather than as a source of income.
Green Tomato Cars, a taxi service, which was founded in London in 2006, well before the advent of Uber and other hybrid supporting taxi businesses. They dovetail a passion and commitment to making every passenger journey carbon negative, with outstanding service, and a strong philosophy of looking after their drivers in the same way they look after their passengers.
3. Creating a collectively positive impact
When people feel that they have made a choice that has a positive impact on society, the environment or biodiversity, they feel that they’re able to make a contribution greater than what they would have been able to achieve by themselves. This builds a sense of meaningful accomplishment, and often creates advocacy.
Businesses and brands, use their products and services to resolve a problem in the industry that needs to be solved and use consumer/customer buying power to drive change.
Modibodi, Thinx and Mooncup, all share a mission to reduce unreversible environmental waste caused by period products and improve the experience of those who menstruate. People that use these products frequently become brand advocates, although they require a behaviour change, they have a positive impact.
Lemonade is an insurance business that claims ‘Instant everything. Incredible prices. Big heart.’ They aim to disrupt the industry and rebuild trust. Not only do they remove the pain points that many people suffer on signing up to insurance companies or making claims, but also donate profits when people don’t make claims to causes selected by the Lemonade community in their mission to ‘transform insurance from a necessary evil into a social good’. Since launch $6m has been donated.
4. Doing better on a daily basis
Businesses don’t have to be start-ups, business model disruptors, drive behaviour change, or chase ESG targets to drive relevance and help people to feel that little bit better about their choices.
They can help people to do better on a daily basis by contributing to make the world and people’s lives a little bit better. The rule of thumb here is to instil a sense of value-add, or feel-good into the brand or business. This means doing business well both functionally and emotionally; giving consumers a reason to choose your business over any other. When times are tight such as in a cost-of-living-crisis, consumers are more likely to protect spend on value-added products and services.
Oreo cookies continue to support the parent-child relationship and make a point of representing all parents and children, regardless of their gender and sexual orientation. They are very proud of their relationship with Pflag in the USA.
Troidos Bank offers award-winning bank accounts which aim to help people to manage and save their money while having a positive impact on society, the environment and ethical investing. They invest transparently and never in contentious industries.
Dove’s evolution of ‘real beauty’ is the ‘self-esteem project’. This project recognises the harmful impact of social media on young people’s self-esteem. It seeks to reverse this by representing differences in undoctored imagery through #ShowUs, and in representing a wide range of skin, hair and body needs through their product line-up.
Happy Family Organics, seeks to democratise healthy baby and toddler food for all, and participates in democratising organic foods by being available to families on the WIC social support scheme in the USA. They are proudly available via WIC in 36/39 of the US States that allow organic foods. For those that buy HFO, they know that they’re able to support others less fortunate than themselves.
Childs Farm uses Ocean Prevented Plastic in their packaging; working with communities in Indonesia to repurpose plastic that would otherwise have made it into the ocean.
KanKan is a liquid soap brand which sources, produces, and packages their products as sustainably as possible. They source ‘lush natural ingredients, modern signature scents and nourishing product formulas with real daily benefits for happiness and well-being. But it also means ethical sourcing, top-notch environmental creds and endlessly recyclable packaging that looks great in your home, too.’
To summarise, brands can help people to discover, identify with and purse and expand their own purpose, and when they do this, they have the power to create to greater levels of end-user happiness and satisfaction, and be more relevant.
How? Each business will have their own unique super-power do to this, knowing how and where to focus in a timely manner is key. Futureful has a structured approach for brands and businesses who want to successfully ride the new wave of doing business, while authentically representing their roots. This is an incredibly powerful construct when commoditised products and services are on the increase.
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