A VIEW FROM AYESHA: PURPOSE IN TOUGH TIMES

As part of Ayesha’s column in Campaign, she writes about how in a crowded marketplace, every brand has to stand for something. And if that means taking a stance on social issues, so much the better.

Originally posted in Campaign magazine.

The managing director of Iceland, Richard Walker, has been doing the rounds of news and current affairs programmes recently.

He’s concerned about the impact the cost of living crisis is having on his already struggling customers, and he’s worried that scarcity of raw materials will make delivering on the sustainability element of his brand purpose much harder.

(Having phased out palm oil completely, Iceland is now forced to seek sustainable sources again to replace sunflower oil – of which Ukraine was the major exporter.)

Listening to him I was struck by two things. First, how impossibly difficult the trading environment is for many of our clients. Between spiralling costs driven by the scarcity (or disappearance) of raw materials, rocketing energy costs and supply chains buckling under the strain of missing lorry drivers, they are caught in a perfect storm.

Add to this a squeeze on consumer spending that may last many months, and it’s likely only the strong will survive.

Second, I was also struck that in discussing this maelstrom Walker should mention his brand purpose. In the midst of short-term crisis management, his commitment to the long-term purpose of Iceland continues unabated.

While he jokes that his father (Iceland founder Malcolm Walker) tells him to “stop trying to save the world and get in the shops”, clearly he views purpose as being essential to the health of his brand.

Iceland is not a brand often accused of woke-ism. It has a proud reputation for down-to-earth business nous and commitment to its customers. So it is interesting that the concept of brand purpose, and particularly purpose as it relates to sustainability and social good, is now so much part of the marketing vernacular that it is a core strategic pillar for the discount retailer even in times of hardship.

Recently an activist investor criticised Unilever in general, and Hellmann’s mayonnaise in particular, for their public commitment to brand purpose, saying: “The Hellmann’s brand has existed since 1913 so we would guess that by now consumers would have figured out its purpose (spoiler alert – salads and sandwiches).”

Very witty. But actually, no.

“Salads and sandwiches” (or at least, making them taste better) is the purpose of the Hellmann’s product. In fact it is the purpose of all products categorised as “mayonnaise”.

The role of the brand is to distinguish Hellmann’s mayo from all of the other (usually cheaper) mayos competing for share of sandwich. That gets harder in times of economic hardship.

For Hellmann’s to keep doing this effectively, it needs to stand for something: ideally something its consumers, retailers, producers and salesforce all buy into and admire.

It needs a purpose.

Not every brand purpose needs to involve saving the world. Many highly successful brands exist for the purpose of bringing pleasure into people’s lives.

And that is a good – and much needed – thing. But increasingly businesses recognise that they exist as part of society, and that they can either contribute to society’s problems, ignore them (effectively the same thing), or try to help solve them.

Andy Last, founder of purpose and sustainability consultancy SALT (and my colleague at MullenLowe Group), just published the second edition of his excellent little book Business on a Mission: How to build a sustainable brand. The publication is a timely reminder of the commercial benefits of a social purpose at a time when threats to brand health have never been greater.

Andy points out that, despite the proliferation of brands jumping on to the social purpose bandwagon (many offering platitudes, earnest advertising and little more), successful social purposes have strong, consistent and deceptively simple characteristics: alignment to corporate strategy; a strong link to the product or service; a clear commercial interest; a narrative for the brand story and a driver of engagement across the organisation.

Successful social purposes are not “wokewashing”: they’re the bridge between growth strategy and social context.

Like the founder of Iceland, William Hesketh Lever was a canny businessman who believed in making a healthy profit. But he also cared deeply about the social context of his time – overcrowded poverty-stricken slums rife with cholera and typhoid.

Realising that neither charity nor legislation were solving the problems, he had the business ingenuity to manufacture a previously luxury item (good quality soap) at a price everyone could afford, and to market it as a brand with a social purpose. Lifebuoy Soap saved countless lives and made him a fortune.

In troubled times, a relevant social purpose is not a luxury. It can be a lifeline for a brand.