Accenture Strategy Managing Director Explains the Rise of Purpose-Driven brands.

Purpose should be the focal point for brands to find success. A strong cause helps improve adding good in society, along with showing consumers what your brand stands for. It is essential for brands to make a relevant connection with their consumers, and to take action towards their purpose.

In a recent interview with Forbes, Bill Theofilou elaborates on the importance of purpose-driven brands and how companies can find success. He believes that purpose is the reason why companies exist and inform every business decision. With a defining tone, Theofilou, suggests that for companies to activate their brand purpose, they need to ask themselves simple questions such as:

Why does the brand exist?

What role does it play in customers’ lives?

What challenges does it solve?

How would the world be different without it?

Nike, Dove, and Lego view their consumers more than just buyers. Instead, they see them as people who invest in a relationship with their brand. Developing meaningful relationships provides authenticity in a day and age where consumers won’t accept anything less. Customers are smart and can easily see if a brand doesn’t follow through on promises, making it more imperative for brands to stick to their initiatives.

Theofilou believes purpose and profit are not mutually exclusive because companies that stand for providing social good have a higher chance of achieving success. If a brand offers a keen perception and connection to consumers, then results can be driven to be even higher than profit-driven brands.

To be effectively fruitful, companies must establish the prerequisite for competitiveness in the market. They need to understand the sense of belonging through a clear purpose to drive engagement, loyalty, and growth.

Theofilou emphasizes that being disingenuine isn’t profitable. A brand’s purpose must be real. Otherwise, people will direct their disposable income elsewhere.

Kellogg’s Partnership with Make No Kid Hungry.

Millions of kids start their school days on empty stomachs because there isn’t enough food at home, or breakfast provided at school.

Kellogg’s doesn’t want to have any kid go hungry before school starts and have been taking the right steps for the past six years to make this vision a reality.

They are passionate about providing nutritious breakfast for hundreds of thousands of kids across the US. Since 2013, Kellogg’s has partnered with No Kid Hungry, a non- profit organization geared towards preventing food insecurity.

With No Kid Hungry, Kellogg’s is making it easier for schools to make free and reduced-priced breakfasts part of the regular school day.

Breakfast provides a child with a full stomach, making it easier for them to concentrate in class versus fighting a growling stomach. With their annual donations of over a million dollars to No Kid Hungry, Kellogg’s can help schools afford to pay for kids to eat breakfast. They firmly believe in this initiative because of the importance of what breakfast can give to a growing child every day.

The company mission is also contributing to Kellogg’s Breakfasts for Better Days cause, committing to help end hunger. This will include the expansion of educational nutrition programs so that millions of children can reach their full potential.

Ethical Brands can be Affordable.

With the misconception that every purpose brand such as TOMS, Patagonia, and Nike are expensive, here are three brands that prove this stigma to be incorrect.

These three brands created business models around being purpose driven, whereas more prominent companies such as Molson Coors, Nike, and Kellogg have had to revert to repurpose themselves to consumers. Hence, making these brands the new wave of entrepreneurial ventures based with purposeful meaning towards providing good to society.

Avocado Green Mattress makes vegan mattresses that consist of organic latex, cotton, and wool. Their purpose is to provide affordable beds made without toxic chemicals.

Cleaning products are filled with chemicals that are harmful to the home. Dropps is trying to change the game, providing natural, affordable cleaning products for every room in your house.

Sex trafficking is becoming a louder and louder issue, and it won’t be quieting off anytime soon. This is why Starfish Project is taking it in their own hands to inspire hope to sex trafficked victims. By purchasing their jewelry customers will contribute to Starfish Project’s community outreach programs. These programs help provide shelter, food, education, and counseling.

This power trio of brands doesn’t take any shortcuts when it comes to their ethics. They make products that stay true to their purpose and are working hard to provide more accessibility to more consumers.

Remember,

“The Zos Knows”

-David Zosel 

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