Activate Brand Purpose

Tap into the rise of the conscious consumer. Activate your brand's purpose and turn it into meaningful action, to show your customers what you truly stand for.

SHORTLISTED: Business Book Awards 2022 - International Business Book category CATEGORY SILVER WINNER: Axiom Awards 2022 - Business Commentary Category The greatest challenge facing leaders is activating and actioning purpose based brands to the people who matter inside the company and out. Recent statistics prove that more than 87% of consumers would purchase a product because a company advocated for an issue they cared about, and more than two-thirds would refuse to do so if the company supported an issue contrary to their beliefs. We live in an age of activism - the conscious consumer is more socially aware than ever before, and this is reflected in their buying habits. Yet, activism on behalf of brands is lagging. While many claim to be 'purpose driven', far too often this purpose is relegated to a plaque above the CEO's desk, and never goes any further. Or, worse, the 'purpose' is transparently used as a marketing ploy, but never acted upon in any real way. Activate Brand Purpose shows readers how to transform their brand's purpose into meaningful action by sparking a company wide cultural movement, beginning internally and permeating externally. Regardless of whether your purpose is lofty and socially conscious, or all business, focus on galvanizing people, and they will respond if you can prove that you care about that purpose, and that you're working to realize it, rather than simply chasing the next dollar. This book contains a clearly explained, proven framework that will make this happen.

The secret to movement marketing? Your customers want to make a difference “Scott Goodson and his StrawberryFrog colleagues have found the secret to plugging into Purpose with a capital P: find out what moves people to action, then create a way to support and enhance that movement with your product, service, or craft. I call that a winning strategy.” —Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind “Want to change your customers’ buying habits? Want to change the world? Stop marketing, read this book, roll up your sleeves, and start a movement.” —Sally Hogshead, author of Fascinate and creator of HowToFascinate.com “Essential stuff. One of the smartest thinkers on branding on one of the most important developments in that critical intersection between culture and marketing.” —Adam Morgan, author of Eating the Big Fish and The Pirate Inside “A well-researched and insightful book that will hopefully spark a movement against traditional, stodgy marketing. A must-read for the new generation of marketers who will be defining tomorrow’s marketing landscape.” —Boutros Boutros, Senior Vice President, Emirates Airline About the Book: Movement marketing is changing the world. It’s the new way forward for anyone trying to win customers’ loyalty, influence public opinion, and even change the world. In Uprising, Scott Goodson, founder and CEO of StrawberryFrog, the world’s first cultural movement agency, shows how your idea or organization can successfully ride this wave of cultural movements to authentically connect to the lives and passions of people everywhere. We are in the midst of a profound cultural transformation in which technology is making it easier than ever for anyone to share ideas, goals, and interests. Working with companies and brands ranging from SmartCar to Pampers to Jim Beam to India’s Mahindra Group, StrawberryFrog and Goodson have led a paradigm focal shift away from one-on-one selling to sharing. Using client case studies and contributions from a global team of movement marketing forerunners—among them, political guru Mark McKinnon; Lee Clow, creative chief at TBWA/Chiat/Day; Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki; and Marty Cooke, who helped make yellow LIVESTRONG bracelets synonymous with the fight against cancer—Goodson details why and how individuals and companies are embracing the movement phenomenon. He then applies these insights to practical steps that you can take right now to reach people through what matters most to them, including: Stop talking about yourself—let the movement control your message Home in on the core objectives of your concept or brand—and align these values with what people are for (or against) “Light the spark”—create a culture within your organization that can embrace and drive a movement Leverage your assets—content, events, expertise, connecting platforms—to give people tools to spread your gospel Adjust concepts to travel across borders and link people across cultural boundaries The examples and guidance in this book will prepare you to find, connect to, and even lead the next big movement. What happens next is up to you. Get up. Go out. And create a brand Uprising of your own.

Most of us have an intuitive sense of superior branding. We prefer to purchase brands we find distinctive—that deliver on some important, relevant dimension better than other brands. These brands have typically achieved positional advantage. Yet few professionals have had the formal training that goes beyond marketing theory to bridge the “theory-doing gap”—understanding the specific techniques and strategies that can be used to create brands that attain positional advantage in the marketplace. Positioning for Advantage is a comprehensive how-to guide for creating, building, and executing effective brand strategies. Kimberly A. Whitler identifies essential marketing strategy techniques and moves through the major stages of positioning a brand to achieve in-market advantage. Introducing seven tools—from strategic positioning concepts to strategy mapping to influencer maps—Whitler provides templates, frameworks, and step-by-step processes to build and manage growth brands that achieve positional advantage. This book presents real-world scenarios, helping readers activate tools to increase skill in creating brands that achieve positional advantage. Brimming with insights for students and professionals alike, Positioning for Advantage helps aspiring C-level leaders understand not only what superior branding looks like but also how to make it come to life.

A proven methodology for building a purpose-powered organization Some ideas are bigger than others, and the Master Idea—your company's purpose—is the biggest. Whether addressing communication between leadership and associates, suppliers to manufacturers, sales force to customers, or brand to consumers, The Story of Purpose details a proven methodology for businesses, small to large, how to build a purpose-inspired organization to positively impact employees, customers, and the bottom line. It reveals the process for uncovering what makes a company distinctive and guides you to discover the fundamental force behind the organization that no competitor can replicate or replace. The Story of Purpose incorporates stories of purpose from Procter & Gamble, McDonald's, Newell Rubbermaid and many more purpose-driven companies. These stories come to life in a comprehensive book that promises to guide, inspire, and transform your organization Offers a blueprint for creating powerful internal and external messages for current and future customers, employees, and shareholders The Story of Purpose will leave you asking yourself "what gets me up in the morning?" instead of "what keeps me up at night?"

What happens when businesses and their customers don't share the same values? Or, for that matter, when employees of a company don't share the same values as their executives? Welcome to the world of Brand Activism. Companies no longer have a choice. Brand Activism consists of business efforts to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, and/or environmental reform or stasis with the desire to promote or impede improvements in society. It is driven by a fundamental concern for the biggest and most urgent problems facing society. Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action is about how progressive businesses are taking stands to create a better world.

Desire is big business. If companies can create true desirability for their brands, customers will not only express preference and loyalty, they also show a willingness to act as brand champions, participate in online communities, co-create innovative ideas, and show the sort of commitment that is normally associated with fervent employees. However, desire doesn't just happen. Brands need to nurture it by offering both security and surprise. This isn't just about marketing, but rather a reflection of an organization-wide culture and perspective. Using international case studies, Brand Desire explains how companies can engage customers emotionally and create value for them. Managers can successfully build and maintain brand desire through specific strategies and tools, such as: · promoting a principles-driven organization that is grounded in its heritage and distinctive competences; · creating a supportive culture that encourages the active participation of people in brand development; · providing an opportunity for people to communicate more with each other and to encourage socialization through communities and events; and · offering outstanding experiences: being consistent in delivery, from first communications through to after-sales service and support. In a crowded sales environment, brand desire can elevate any product or service so that it stands out from the crowd – and stays there. Brand Desire demonstrates how desirable brands are about desirable experiences, and shows what companies can do to maximize those experiences for their customers.

How can marketers navigate the growing array of marketing specialties, multiplying media options and data sources, and increasing content saturation to improve effectiveness and return on investment? How can they provide consumers with seamless experiences of value across channels that overcome behavioral barriers and actually deliver results? In The Activation Imperative, William Rosen and Laurence Minsky provide a straightforward guide for marketers to move beyond building brands to activating them—from simply projecting what a brand is to optimizing what it does—to move people closer to transaction. Drawing on years of research and experience with the world’s most sophisticated brands, Rosen and Minsky share a unifying cross-discipline marketing approach designed to impact critical behaviors and more effectively drive business results. They reveal how today’s more personalized and trackable communications illuminate tremendous diversity in paths-to-purchase and explain how to leverage this data to develop more effective strategies and creative targeted to individual inflection points. With actionable advice and best-in-class examples, Rosen and Minsky offer marketers a road map to manage today’s increasingly fragmented marketing landscape to more effectively and efficiently build brands and business.