While the retail market has always been subject to fluctuating pressures, global trends and consumer appetites, the shift in focus in recent years has been perhaps the most dramatic. Today’s consumers don’t just buy products based on price but make conscious purchasing decisions based on their perceptions of brand values and sustainability.
This trend had been simmering for a few years before becoming prevalent. Now, brands that showcase authentic social responsibility and thought leadership around sustainability and traceability stand apart, connecting with huge demographics who care passionately about the environment, seasonality and carbon outputs.
We’re discussing the growth in purpose-driven brands, how they can communicate their position through retail brand marketing, and why consumer trends have changed so substantially, often making value propositions a secondary factor.
What Is a Purpose-Driven Brand: And Why Do Consumers Care?
The transition from primarily in-store shopping to online channels, e-commerce and on-demand deliveries has played no small part in shaping consumer appetites. One buyer or household might have hundreds of potential options, products and brands to choose from, all available within a few clicks.
Marketing and advertising are also everywhere. Once confined to print ads and TV commercials, today we see advertising in countless places: displayed on our social media feeds, in pop-up notifications, in website banner ads, and embossed on billboards and buses as we go about our routines.
This overcrowding has meant consumers are far less inclined to ‘inherit’ brand loyalty from their family or to assume that a brand or product they have always purchased remains the best option. Instead, the diversity of choice and the various ways we consume marketing mean there are more alternatives and ways to buy than ever before.
Cutting through that noise and competition requires something different, and one aspect of incredible branding we talk about all the time is personal connections.
Purpose-driven retail brands focus their activities, sourcing, supply chains, marketing efforts and communication styles on a cause or set of values that their target demographics share, shaping the brand’s identity as one that cares about social parity, environmental responsibility or animal welfare, as just a few examples.
Brands whose values resonate with their consumers stand out from competitors because they use their tone and sense of community to create a unique differentiating factor, meaning their product might be more desirable than any other, even if the price points are identical.
The Difference Between Purpose-Driven Brands and Purpose-Based Marketing
A note of caution is essential because consumers have access to infinite data and research online. Customers recognise and are alert to brands that attempt to portray themselves as ethical, sustainable, or eco-friendly when their actual practices fail to live up to those customer expectations.
Retail brands that consider value-based marketing a quick and easy tool to scale often fail because they lack any cross-channel consistency. They must continue to build on the rapports they establish through strong retail branding rather than assuming one on-trend campaign will translate into lasting customer loyalty.
Data collated by Deloitte shows that:
- Purpose-orientated businesses achieve 30% greater innovation and 40% higher staff retention levels than their peers.
- 55% of consumers believe that brands are responsible for acting on issues relevant to their purpose.
- Over 70% of Millennials born between 1981 and 1996 expect employers to act on societal issues and will choose to work for brands that have a genuine purpose.
Articulating a purpose, especially as a profitable company, can be tricky, but by combining action and values with quality products and a distinctive brand persona, companies can drive higher market share gains and scale as much as three times faster than their competitors.
Examples of Successful Purpose-Driven Retail Brands
As always, the easiest way to illustrate a point is to showcase how well-known and household-name brands have created and communicated a purpose and used this as a foundational aspect of product development, packaging, brand identity, and marketing.
Dove, the Unilever-owned beauty brand, is a great example. For years, it has been engaging in work to tackle impossible beauty standards. Its Campaign for Real Beauty was groundbreaking in being the first to feature real-life women rather than professional models or actors.
Since then, it has released countless campaigns and initiatives, highlighting the harms social media platforms can cause, particularly for younger women and girls, and how embracing the natural diversity in body shapes and sizes creates a way forward for inclusion for all.
Chipotle, the fast-food retailer, is another standout case study. In a segment where cheap and cheerful has long been seen as a winning strategy, it turned that idea on its head and became the first national chain to commit to tangible goals to use more organic and local produce.
The company now has a published commitment to using meat that has been raised ethically. It meets and voluntarily adheres to the highest standards of animal welfare, including those that are not regulated or mandatory, with branding focused around ‘The Difference is Real’.
As a third and final example, Passenger, the outdoor clothing brand, positions itself as a responsible company that creates clothing for outdoor living that leaves a smaller carbon footprint. It plants a tree for every order placed, acts as a patron for The Rainforest Trust, and selects organic, recycled materials.
Driving Effective Retail Branding With Missions and Purpose
Transforming a retail brand is a complex task, which is where we step in as brand strategist specialists. We extract the core aspects of your brand essence to unpick the values, propositions, and missions you exist to achieve and find the right ways to vocalise those purposes for your target audience.
Building a platform of trust and clarifying your impacts with authenticity and transparency doesn’t happen overnight. Step one is establishing that baseline purpose statement and revisiting your visual identity, market position, and overarching goals.
If you’d like to learn more about this pivot within retail, how brands have embraced the opportunity to restructure their presence and campaigns, and how to craft a new strategy to place your business at the heart of purpose-driven retail, please get in touch with Flintlock Marketing.
