Finding a foothold in purpose-driven marketing
The world of business doesn’t leave much room for hurt feelings or slowing down to help the underdog. Marketing plays an integral role in building an audience for your business’ success, pushing your brand to its limits in order to earn attention, maintain interest and draw a profit. From the outside looking in, marketing is fixated on strategizing ways to help others get ahead in business and in life. As an insider, I’ll be the first to admit, a great deal of humanity in the industry gets lost in the plight for improving ROI. It can be seen as a heartless, money-driven field and the materialistic society we live in today only fuels that fire.
Defined simply by the American Marketing Association, marketing is “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” It’s intensely focused on the products and services that have value to consumers, often without taking into account the human value of those whose hard-earned dollar keeps the wheels turning on business and, in turn, the marketer’s profitability.
Purposeful business
A 2018 Cone/Porter Novelli survey revealed that 78% of Americans feel that companies should support a social cause in addition to making money, and 77% of Americans feel a larger emotional connection to companies with a cause. Simply put, purpose-driven companies are more attractive. People want to feel good about what they’re buying to justify spending money in the first place and you, as a business professional, have the unique ability to fulfill that need.
Over the past few months, COVID-19 has called many people to sit back and think about the things they’ve formerly taken for granted. With more free time, fewer commutes to the office and greater opportunity for introspection, many consumers have shifted from a fast-paced, materialistic way of living to one fueled by something deeper. People are buying with their heart more than their heads, following the inclination to invest in products and services that are fair trade, ethically sourced and serving a greater good with the profits––and who can blame them?
Your people and their purpose
Not only does the purpose behind your product make a difference in customers’ attitudes toward it, but the front-facing people in your company or agency play a huge part in the way customers view both you and your service. A close-knit team composed of individuals with a common purpose drives the initiative for putting forth greater effort in your work. This passion for what you do fuels the fire and energizes the cause that customers are looking for.
It’s critical to build a team of authentic, compassionate professionals who know what it means to network effectively and with the highest integrity. As mentioned in part five of our previous blog series, you should enjoy the people you work with––and that includes the marketing professionals you involve in your business.
Business can be beautiful!
In the journey to climbing the ladder in the business world, many businesses may come across as lackluster in their work; redundant or colorless in their day-to-day processes. The world of business is an opportunity for people to express their strengths while putting out products or services that give them life. Through strategic branding and messaging, you can take advantage of the opportunity for consumers to know your “why” to better understand your product and foster a desire to support your cause and your story. People-driven marketing helps you to share that story in a way that is engaging and clear without losing track of that heartbeat.
Here at Four Columns Marketing, we pride ourselves on the personable, people-focused businesses we get to serve. We want to drive people to rally behind your brand, your business and what it offers to the world. When you feel good about the work you’re doing, it really shows. However, it’s just as obvious when a business’ heartbeat is dwindling, or simply nonexistent.
