Increasingly, more and more people are thinking about the choices they make. The brands they buy, the media they consume and the services they use. People are looking beyond the features and benefits of the product or service, and considering what a brand stands for. It’s not just the value the brand delivers to the consumer, it’s the values and the purpose of the brand that matters. Some people are saying that brands need to shift from “Marketing to Mattering”, but I’d argue that successful brands embrace both strategies. Marketing is essential to communicate how brands are delivering on what really matters to consumers.
Unilever PLC, the corporation behind brands such as Dove, Ben and Jerry’s, Vaseline and Axe, has integrated social and environmental purpose in its brand marketing for more than a decade. Its strategy, in the first iteration, was called the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP), and launched in 2010 as a corporate sustainability program. As the plan was executed, the company quickly realized that the purpose-driven marketing was also a highly effective branding and growth strategy.
As a brand leader in many consumer product goods (CPG) categories, Unilever didn’t adopt purpose-driven marketing as a fad. Its purpose-driven brand marketing strategy was based on consumer insight and quantitative research across multiple markets, which demonstrated consumer preference for brands that took a stand on social and environmental issues.
In a 2017 research study of 20,000 people across five different countries, it found that one-third of consumers were buying brands based on their social or environmental purpose. This wasn’t just people saying what they might buy or consider in the future, it was actual purchasing behavior. Mapping this consumer preference against the presence of purpose-driven brands in major CPG categories, the Unilever management team identified an untapped potential opportunity of more than $900 billion for brands that made their sustainability credentials clear to consumers. And it wasn’t just a preference expressed by millennials in London, Paris, or New York, the study found that consumers in markets as diverse as India, Brazil and Turkey were even more inclined to buy purpose-driven brands than consumers in the US and the UK. The conclusion was clear: integrating purpose into marketing strategy could drive business growth. It differentiated brands, provided value to consumers and proved to be powerful across multiple markets and product categories. Brand purpose was not something to bury in a report on the company website, marketing what matters to consumers was a highly effective brand growth strategy.
Business results vindicated the purpose-driven strategy. In 2018, Unilever’s 28 Sustainable Living Brands – those taking action to support positive change for people and the planet – grew 69 percent faster than the rest of the business and they also delivered 75 percent of overall growth.
The original Unilever Sustainable Living Plan ran from 2010 to 2020. The program yielded results across nine areas of Unilever’s business operations. It also generated learnings and highlighted future opportunities. This culminated in the development of the Unilever Compass, a unified program which integrates social and environmental purpose; brand and innovation strategy; and, business growth goals into a single plan.
Unilever’s experience shows how a company can adopt a purpose-driven brand marketing strategy which makes a positive social and environmental impact, and also drives business growth.
Disclosure: Force For Good did not work with Unilever on the USLP. It’s highlighted as a best practice in sustainable marketing.
Image: Unilever