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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Engage on a deeper level by disrupting the typical business development script Authentic Marketing offers a forward-thinking approach to achieving an entirely new level of engagement with today's purpose-driven and skeptical audiences. The heart of this process involves finding the soul of your organization. When moral purpose becomes central to your organization, it can deliver benefits to both the bottom line and mankind: a profit meets purpose proposition. This path requires a reinvention of today's dated business model, abolishing the inefficient, siloed approach of developing a business strategy first and then later creating separate strategies for marketing, HR, manufacturing, R&D, etc. The new integrated model fuses a tight integration of business, technology innovation and engagement strategies, all of which are bound together by a company's moral purpose. When moral purpose is central to an organization's core, everything branches out from a place of authenticity. Rather than a siloed CSR effort, you develop employee and customer relationships based on real--not curated--connections with a brand's moral mission. You build true engagement, trust and evangelism. And, along the way, your customers will actually help to co-create your brand. This book shows you how to transform your business by putting moral purpose to work for your stakeholders and the planet. * Embrace a new model that integrates business, technology innovation, and engagement strategies with moral purpose as the glue that binds them together * Learn the key steps to find your moral purpose Discover how to engage audiences with a transparent, authentic marketing approach that forges powerful connections and builds trust. With a world of options at their fingertips, today's purpose-driven customers want a brand they can identify with and trust. Authentic Marketing shows you how to make your brand more human, more likeable, more genuine and guides you on how to connect with audiences on a moral level. This process will build a new level of engagement that will benefit both your long-term value and the world.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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Authentic Marketing
How to Capture Hearts and Minds Through the Power of Purpose
Larry Weber
Cover image: © Max Krasnow/ShutterstockCover design: Wiley
Copyright © 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.
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ISBN 9781119513759 (Hardcover)
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ISBN 9781119513773 (ePub)
To my family, Your love and support I carry with me every day. Thank you.
—LW
CONTENTS
Cover
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Authentic Marketing and the Power of Purpose
Chapter 1: Profit Meets Purpose: Find Your Company’s Soul
Beyond CSR
Authentic Marketing: The Driver of True Engagement
Good Momentum
IBM: Legacy Values Working for Good
Patagonia: Pioneering Sustainability
The Call for Action-Driven Businesses
A New Strategy Model for a New Era
Soul Searching: Exercise to Find Your Moral DNA
Notes
Chapter 2: The Era of Social Consciousness: Where Technology Meets Humanity
Social Media, Cultural Game Changer
The Call for Values
Higher Expectations of the Private Sector
Technology Innovations as a Force for Good
Notes
Chapter 3: A Better Strategy Model for a Better World
Shortcomings of the Current Model
Four Driving Principles of a New, Integrated Strategy Model
Strategy Is Always On
Notes
Part II: Authentic Marketing: Key Components
Chapter 4: The Evolution of Marketing: Moving from Manipulation to Authenticity
Production Era
Sales Era
Marketing Era
Relationship Marketing Era
Digital Engagement Era
Enter Authentic Marketing
Notes
Chapter 5: Search for Truths to Drive Constituency Mapping
Building Your Data Toolbox
A Prospective View of Data
Additional Tools and Technologies That Deliver Key Insights
An Inside Out Approach to Constituents
Notes
Chapter 6: Humanize Your Brand
Use Technology to Show Your Human Side
Achieve Deeper Engagement
Notes
Chapter 7: Move Beyond Storytelling to Storydoing
Your Brain on a Story
Move to Storydoing
Build Ongoing Stories
Effective Techniques
Notes
Chapter 8: Use Data-Telling to Anchor Objectives and Validate Progress
Walmart Sustainability Index
TOMS
Dow Chemical
Siemens
Levi Strauss
Notes
Chapter 9: Infuse Trusted Voices in Paid, Owned, and Earned Media
Put Earned Media First in the Paid, Owned, Earned Equation
Focus on Your Inner Circle of Influencers
Trust and the CEO
The Credibility of Earned Social Media
Owned and Paid Media: The Supporting Cast
Content Across Paid, Owned, and Earned
WATERisLIFE #FirstWorldProblems
Investing in Trust
Notes
Part III: Reinventing Good and the Energy of Your Company’s Soul
Chapter 10: Creating a Purpose-Driven Culture
Answer the Generational Mandate
Lead with Purpose
Partner for Purpose
Inspiring Words from CEOs
Notes
Chapter 11: Measuring the Legitimacy and Managing the Value of Purpose
Measuring Corporate Purpose
Other Key Findings from the 2018 Global RepTrak® Report
Additional Paths to Tracking, Monitoring, and Measuring Purpose
Expanding the Measurement Matrix
Notes
Chapter 12: Make a Plan
1. Put the New Strategy Model into Play
2. Establish Your Purpose Supply Chain
3. Launch Your Purpose
4. Live the Purpose Promise
5. Measure the Impact
Notes
Chapter 13: Purpose Is Everything
Notes
About the Author
Index
Eula
List of Illustrations
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1
The public’s strong reaction to “Dieselgate.”
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1
Moral purpose brings together a company’s business, technology innovation, and e...
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1
Ad to treat toothaches from 1885 in the Production Era
Figure 4.2
Philip Morris ad from 1950s
Figure 4.3
Farrah Fawcett promotes Wella Balsam shampoo in the 1970s
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1
Southwest Airlines’ Transfarency tweet
Figure 6.2
Patagonia’s Don’t Buy This Jacket Black Friday ad
Figure 6.3
T-Mobile’s provocative ad
Figure 6.4
Hydroflask fun and adventurous photo
Figure 6.5
Charmin shows its lighter side on Twitter
Figure 6.6
JetBlue’s tweet makes us smile
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1
Warby Parker’s website copy
Figure 7.2
IKEA’s Let’s Play for Change
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1
Walmart’s visual clearly conveys the company has reached its sustainability goal...
Figure 8.2
Walmart’s visual about the number of suppliers who participate in the Sustainabi...
Figure 8.3
TOMS One for One® Shoe Count
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1
Lockheed Martin Field Trip to Mars Virtual Reality Bus
Figure 9.2
Lockheed Martin Field Trip to Mars VR image
Figure 9.3
Image from WATERisLIFE video to raise money for Haiti
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1
Basis for measuring reputation: RepTrak® Model
Figure 11.2
Identifying the attributes with the RepTrak Model that drive reputation
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
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Foreword
For the past 15 years, I have had the pleasure of running companies that specialize in leadership networks and professional networking, giving me the unique opportunity to meet literally hundreds of Fortune 500 executives. I’ve had the privilege to hear first-hand their aspirations, fears, leadership philosophies, and challenges in an era that is unprecedented in its speed and scale—where technology has upended the way we interact, buy, operate, and sell.
Through this experience, it has become clear that companies and leaders are in a furious race to stay relevant, and it is no longer good enough to just make money. Operating with ethics, making judgment calls with a social conscience, and staying authentically relevant are critical for survival in business today. Yielding more than increased sales and shareholder wealth is now a key element of that imperative.
Fast forward to the present, where I am now in the thriving hub of Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the amazing opportunity of serving as CEO of Reputation Institute, the data-driven reputation advisory firm. In this new role, I was invited to chat with one of the legends in the universe of PR and brand management—Larry Weber—to exchange ideas on the need for companies to “infuse a sense of purpose into the soul of their organization.” It was a very intriguing and timely discussion, given that we are embarking into an era of corporate mistrust where consumers are crying out for companies to take the lead in doing good for the world—while also delivering on their goods and services. As the leading company in the domain of mining, measuring, and managing reputation, and as a purveyor of reputation intelligence, Reputation Institute has a deep understanding and expertise in this realm.
As we were having our exploratory conversations, Larry was deep into the throes of writing Authentic Marketing: How to Capture Hearts and Minds Through the Power of Purpose. This is his sixth book, and it offers readers the opportunity to discover the critical role of moral purpose for companies and to better understand the need to integrate core competencies, business operations, technology, and engagement strategies around that purpose. What struck me in our discussions about the book—and the topic of using purpose as a central guiding principle for companies—was the inspiring and fluid way in which Larry engages with concepts of ethics, morality, integrity, and purpose. He feels it, knows it, and sees the gaps that marketers, brand owners, and C-suite executives need to fill to embrace it. It is no longer a world where the purpose of a company is merely rhetoric or represented by a poster of platitudes with no sense of direction, alignment, or commitment to deliver on it.
Larry has seen with clarity the inspiring movie in 3D vision where companies use purpose effectively to elevate their brands, stakeholder engagement, and long-term value to new levels … but he has also witnessed the flip side of when companies don’t. His book encapsulates these experience-driven insights that help organizations discover the intersection of profit and purpose.
The subject of using purpose to drive decision making is key to companies and their leadership teams—and has become a strategic imperative in remaining relevant for future employees, customers, investors, and influencers. Staying relevant means keeping up with trends, adapting to new environments, and constantly reinventing your business by taking mental shortcuts to act upon large amounts of information and embrace new ways of thinking. For leaders, marketing and brand professionals and their colleagues, infusing purpose into the soul of your business is an inspirational raison d’être that should guide decision making, drive actions, and motivate companies to rethink how they tell their stories, the channels through which they deliver them, and the way they use data and technology to do so. Larry guides the reader to think about the potential revenue impact of a successfully demonstrated commitment to purpose and highlights the importance of storytelling and visual expression that is relevant for the world we live in today.
Larry brings a wealth of knowledge, connections, and foresight to the topic of purpose. He has the trust of global clients who have shared their stories with him and the undisputed wisdom as someone who has been at the frontier of building brand and marketing ecosystems for years. As a leader, he has not only proven his own ability to help clients stay relevant with his firm’s focus on technology, but also has a track record of predicting those trends that define the future.
Kylie Wright-Ford, CEO, Reputation Institute
Acknowledgments
Writing books evokes profound appreciation. I am grateful to the many who took the time to share their thoughts and experiences with me, further developing my initial observations into themes and, ultimately, chapters. First and foremost I would like to thank Laura Feng, a writing partner extraordinaire! Thank you with all of my heart.
I would also like to thank all those who gave their generous time and insights: Andrea Wood (Best Buy), Matt Furman (Best Buy), Diana O’Brien (Deloitte), Andy Frawley (V12 Data), Mark Fuller (Rosc Global), Tony Cervone (General Motors), Dianne Ledingham (Bain & Company), Wendy Miller (Bain & Company), Jon Iwata (IBM), Alex Jutkowitz (Hill + Knowlton), Jeff Bradach (Bridgespan), Stephen Hahn-Griffiths (Reputation Institute), Kylie Wright-Ford (Reputation Institute), Jay Manson (Reputation Institute), Vicki Adang ( John Wiley & Sons), Richard Narramore (John Wiley & Sons), Jeff Grogan (Racepoint Global), Brenda Littlefield (Racepoint Global), and Seth Hatfield (Racepoint Global).
Finally, a standing ovation to all the clients and colleagues I have worked with over the years who have helped build a narrative that is only getting richer because of you.
Larry
Introduction
Almost 40 years ago, I began a career in marketing, not knowing where it would take me. Today, the answer is clear. Authentic Marketing is the result of a series of evolutionary changes brought about by digital communications, social media, and the Internet, along with a generational mandate that companies operate with strong values, more humanity, and a moral purpose to do good for the world.
Companies today have an unprecedented opportunity to transform their businesses around a purpose that is a true extension of their DNA. It’s the intersection of where profit meets purpose and the essence of doing well by doing good. As they discover a new foundation in moral purpose, their stories will be told and shared in a powerful light with transparency and impact, which is the heart of authentic marketing. Through this, they’ll experience deeper and more meaningful engagement with customers, as well as attract a workforce motivated by purpose. Most importantly, they’ll find these efforts will not only enhance their long-term value, but also make a difference in the world, which is the answer to society’s ask.
I sincerely hope companies everywhere will embrace this change and we collectively can reinvent good around the world.
Larry Weber
Boston, Massachusetts
Part IAuthentic Marketing and the Power of Purpose
CHAPTER 1Profit Meets Purpose: Find Your Company’s Soul
Every so often the business world awakens to a new reality. We’re in the midst of one today that directly addresses a question keeping most CEOs up at night: How do I deliver long-term, sustainable value that motivates employees, engages customers, strengthens my brand, and delivers the profitability my stakeholders demand? The answer is simple, yet transformative. As we move through the 21st Century, companies need to find their moral purpose—something that lives within the soul of their business, which can translate into a form of good that is beneficial to both their bottom line and to mankind. Profit meets purpose . . . the clarion call of today.
Companies rising to answer this call are well positioned to become the iconic brands that define this era, which has moved beyond digital to one of social consciousness. Proof of this profound shift came from a surprising call to action from BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink in his 2018 annual letter to CEOs, which sent shock waves through the financial community:
Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose. To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society. . . . Without a sense of purpose, no company, either public or private, can achieve its full potential. It will ultimately lose the license to operate from stakeholders.1
Laurence Fink, BlackRock CEO
As the head of a firm that manages more than $6 trillion in investments, this influential investor is completely changing the dialogue and, in the process, sounding the alarm to the C-suite. “It may be a watershed moment on Wall Street, one that raises all sorts of questions about the very nature of capitalism. . . . But for the world’s largest investor to say it aloud—and declare that he plans to hold companies accountable—is a bracing example of the evolution of corporate America,” said New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin.2 He added that Fink’s argument in part rests on the changing mood of the country regarding social responsibility.
Proving that point are findings from an April 5, 2018, Covestro survey of U.S. Fortune 1000 CEOs on business and purpose.3 The survey found that a full 69% of senior executives say the act of balancing profit and purpose is having a positive, transformational impact on business, with half or more reporting such impacts as they integrate a purpose-driven approach into various functions. Four out of five (80%) agree that a company’s future growth and success will hinge on a values-driven mission that balances profit and purpose, and 75% believe these types of companies will have a competitive advantage over those that do not.
Beyond CSR
What we’re talking about here is a reinvented good, which is markedly different from simply implementing a traditional CSR effort—typically a siloed initiative that is completely separate from a company’s business focus, product development, marketing, etc. By contrast, this “better good” is centralto the organization’s core mission. It is a fundamental value that is infused into the company’s bloodstream so that it runs horizontally through every facet of the business—from R&D and marketing to finance and HR.
Discovering a moral mission requires a little soul searching. Typically, it involves an exercise that serves to identify an intrinsic value embedded in a company’s DNA, which is a logical extension of the business that can do good for the world. The end of this chapter provides an exercise on this process, but I’ll offer the example below to help bring it to life.
A few years back, I asked Sam Allen, chairman and CEO, Deere & Company, what he wanted his legacy to be at this venerable company, which has been in operation since 1837. His answer was not to simply sell more green tractors than the previous CEO. His vision was to, yes, continue to have Deere deliver profitability to stakeholders by selling plenty of those machines, but moreover to elevate the brand by delivering a higher value to its customers and the world. The strategy, which moved Deere into an entirely different category than its competitors, was to use software to enable farmers to maximize their yield, ultimately helping them feed an ever-growing planet. With the population expected to grow by two billion, this enabled Deere to address a major world issue. This was Deere’s moral purpose.
This purposeful moral path is analogous to Aristotle’s eudaimonia, a Greek word that often is translated to mean the state of having a good in-dwelling spirit. Aristotle’s concept was that a man who possesses excellence or virtue in character does the right thing at the right time and in the right way. Similarly, companies that follow this path of “right” will prosper on multiple levels, as it will fuel business prosperity and deliver an entirely new level of engagement with stakeholders.
Deloitte sets an excellent example of a large, global network that is embracing this new form of good. I spoke with Diana O’Brien, Deloitte global chief marketing officer, about the company’s robust WorldClass, 50 million futures initiative, which is focused on empowering millions who have been left behind to succeed through education and training.
What makes Deloitte unique is the belief that we’re really only as good as the good we do. We empower our more than 260,000 people around the network to go out and make an impact that matters for clients, people, and communities. Professionals are asked to share their core skills and experiences to reach the goal of preparing 50 million futures for a world of opportunity. That’s the rallying cry. It’s accessible, available to everyone, and understood around the globe.
Authentic Marketing: The Driver of True Engagement
What excites me most about this infusion of good into business strategy is that it creates a natural by-product of authentic marketing—the most powerful form of marketing I have witnessed in my entire career. Digital media and the Internet put us on this journey toward a more genuine form of marketing. These disruptive forces indelibly changed marketing from a one-way, shout-it-to-the-masses, no-listening environment, to a dialogue-driven, engagement-centric approach that put the power in the hands of consumers—where it belongs. The addition of moral purpose is the essential missing piece in this equation—the tipping point, if you will, that forges entirely new levels of engagement between companies and constituents.
Companies doing this new, deeper good will experience marketing that is far more transparent and organic, as it will be largely done at the hands of constituents who are eager to share positive stories across social channels. In this sense, they will serve to co-create companies’ brands. It unleashes the true power of earned (social and traditional) media—the most important media, in my opinion, and also serves up powerful narratives for owned and paid media. Most importantly, it helps companies establish trust with constituents—the fundamental component of engagement and brand loyalty. Chapter 4 provides the essential skills of an authentic marketing program.
Good Momentum
Look around and you’ll see this form of good is starting to take hold across all industries—from agriculture to automotive—and all around the world—from Beijing to Bangladesh.
Fortune, for example, has been covering this business phenomenon for the past three years in its Change the World list (with help from its partners at Shared Value Initiative) profiling more than 50 companies around the globe that are “doing well by doing good.” These organizations use a profit model to solve a host of global problems, from climate change to world hunger. Companies are chosen based on three criteria: (1) measurable social impact on special societal problems, (2) business results of profitability and contribution to shareholder value, and (3) degree of innovation in its efforts and whether others are following the lead.
Among the companies in Fortune’s September 2017 list is Unilever, the $30 billion Anglo-Dutch consumer products giant. The article highlights that what CEO Paul Polman is most excited about is the 1.8 million people who apply for a job there each year, many of whom are millennials. What’s the appeal? You guessed it. Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan and its “bigger purpose” as a business are the primary draws among roughly 60% of applicants, who feel it gives them an opportunity to make a bigger difference in the world than they could do on their own.4
This example highlights another critical outcome of having a social purpose. It has strong appeal to not only the population in general, but millennials in particular—an audience more than 80 million strong that accounts for an estimated $1 trillion of current U.S. consumer spending, according to an article in the HuffingtonPost.5 The article also notes that 73% of this generation is willing to pay extra for sustainable offerings. Moreover, a full 81% expect companies to make public declarations of their corporate citizenship.6
Covestro’s survey on business and purpose found that 77% of new hires and 76% of current employees are the primary drivers of demand for purpose-driven companies, followed by customers. A full 86% of CEOs/C-suite executives confirmed that today’s top talent is more inclined to work for companies with a demonstrated commitment to social issues compared to ones that don’t.7 This underscores that doing good is no longer a nice “extra,” but an essential action that is expected of every company in every industry—one of the new requirements to attract top talent.
Another standout name on Fortune’s Change the World list is the nation’s largest retailer, Walmart.8 According to Fortune, the company is using its muscle to make its supply chain greener by pushing its “tens of thousands of suppliers to gradually get rid of controversial chemicals, like formaldehyde in wood resin-based products, in about 90,000 household items.” This effort is an extension of the retailer’s longer-term sustainability campaign. The company has “diverted 82% of materials that used to be considered waste away from landfills, compared with 64% just a few years ago.”
IBM: Legacy Values Working for Good
Technology giant IBM was also spotlighted on Fortune’s list for its stellar efforts to close the STEM skills gap in public schools, addressing the shortage of highly skilled employees in America. Recently, I had a fascinating interview with Jon Iwata, IBM senior vice president and chief brand officer, who currently chairs the company’s newly created Values and Policy Advisory Board, which recommends policies and principles for IBM. Iwata frames our conversation on IBM’s societal purpose by going back to the very early days of the company, demonstrating its deep roots of following a strong value system:
The company was founded on fundamental beliefs, which can be traced back to Thomas Watson, Sr., who became IBM’s first CEO in 1914. Like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Phil Knight of today, Watson had deep beliefs about IBM’s purpose and what it should stand for. He institutionalized those as the company’s Basic Beliefs. Although that phrase has since passed out of our vocabulary for various reasons, the idea remains that our company is set apart by what it believes and stands for.
For example, IBM’s longstanding commitment to what most recognize as “diversity and inclusion” today goes back to the company’s belief in “respect for the individual.” That has always meant that we see an individual not as a man or woman. We don’t see an individual based on race, ethnicity, or disability. And, therefore, we demonstrate respect for each individual and work to help each person fulfill his/her potential in society and in IBM. We’re proud that IBM was the first major company to hire a disabled employee and the first to promote a woman to vice president.
The idea that new technology creates societal implications is not new. For example, technology will always have an impact on jobs. Some occupations go away—typing pools have gone away, as have human “computers.” However, entirely new occupations and jobs get created. Fifty years ago, were there coders and software engineers, cybersecurity analysts, even CIOs? IBM has felt a responsibility to not only create new technology, but to also ensure that the new technology is adopted and applied in ways that earn trust. Helping people develop new skills is part of that. Today, we’re doing it again with AI—what we call “new collar jobs.”
Our view is not to say, “Don’t worry about the jobs that go away.” It’s to understand requirements of the new jobs—and the new requirements of existing jobs, which are often overlooked. Moreover, it’s to take the additional step of creating curriculums, of engaging educational institutions, whether its MIT or a high school in New York City, to create the new curriculum and teach new skills so that workers—young future workers like kids or existing workers—can move to the new.
We don’t have to do that. We choose to do that. Is it the right thing to do? It’s the right thing to do for IBM because we’ve always felt we do not just stop by creating the new technology. We go the additional step of anticipating and then addressing it so that we can have a positive impact.
Patagonia: Pioneering Sustainability
The term sustainability is almost synonymous with Patagonia, a true pioneer with a fierce dedication for the past 40 years to lead the clothing industry in the adoption of sustainable processes. On the company’s website, you’ll see its moral purpose embedded throughout every aspect of its business and articulated loud and clear in its mission: Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.9 Its latest initiative, Patagonia Action Works, is an environmental activist effort to get supporters more involved in politics. As an outdoor gear retailer, Patagonia is an obvious fit for doing good for the world, but any brand in any industry can and should find its moral purpose.
Smaller companies are popping up all over that are launched with a moral mission. For example, on a recent trip to London, I walked into a store called Gandys. As soon as I entered, the sales person told me the story of the brand—a business created by two siblings who, while traveling the world with their parents, sadly lost them during the tsunami in Sri Lanka. These orphan siblings later formed Gandys in honor of their parents and to support their “Orphans for Orphans” foundation, which helps underprivileged children affected by the tsunami. The salesperson told this moving story before she mentioned the current sale or anything about the merchandise because it was—first and foremost—what the brand was all about. Guess how we reacted? We all wanted to buy a t-shirt, backpack, or sweater to support its mission.
The Call for Action-Driven Businesses
So why this and why now? It’s simple. The world needs more good. People can no longer rely on government to solve some of the planet’s thorniest problems, like world hunger, climate change, public health issues, and poverty . . . the list goes on. Yet, our planet has more complex problems than ever before. Because of that, people are looking to the private sector to step up, take action, and address issues that matter most to them. This is the thrust of Fink’s message to CEOs.
Many companies are doing this, some in unexpected ways. One example that stunned the business community and struck a nerve in the health care arena was the January 30, 2018, announcement that Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are partnering to form an independent health care company for their U.S. employees.10 This new organization is being formed to address a pressing issue in health care—helping people find “simplified, high quality and transparent health care at a reasonable cost,” according to the press release. This unprecedented move illustrates how companies are moving into nontraditional territory, taking on bold new initiatives to address frustrating problems that are a top priority.
