Talk to some of the commercial brands and advertising people, and there’s a whiff of anxiety in the air.
A recent invitation-only symposium in London attended by ICE, brought together senior players from a variety of global agencies and brands. Ostensibly it was set up to share ideas, celebrate achievement and showcase innovation driven by “the power of commercial creativity to make our world a better place”.
The tone of the conversation was refreshing: many brand marketers are clearly frustrated by an industry obsessed with commercially important
but ultimately, meaningless detail driven by what is implied to be – but never explicitly referred to as – exploitative greed. They want to put their talents to better use and “make a difference”.
A blend of factors has been driving this change. Back in the mid Noughties, I remember talking to a senior planner at an ad agency who liked the idea of applying her skills to behaviour change and social marketing because she was fed up with interminable conference calls about how much whitening formula ABC1s in the Middle East want in their toothpaste. If the symposium is anything to go by, that frustration is even more prevalent today.
So, we were treated to a showcase of sustainability products and how they are being marketed; case studies of valuable pro-bono community development work in Afghanistan, and a passionate plea for the industry to wake up and respond to consumer demand for ethical business practice.
But summing up, the film producer David (Lord) Puttnam hit the nail on the head for me. What matters is authenticity, he said. He was (tellingly) the first to mention “honesty”. Most major global brands have made mistakes in the past – particularly in the past 30 years when commercial imperative overlooked issues like environmental impact, sustainability, human rights violations or child exploitation. And so customers regard the brands as contrived, disingenuous, phony.
On the sensible premise that people would rather buy something real from someone genuine, rather than something fake from someone phony, Gilmore & Pine suggest that when deciding to buy, consumers judge a company’s authenticity as much as, if not more than, price, quality and availability.
They hold up Starbucks as an excellent example. No other company, they argue, “more explicitly manages its perception of authenticity, making direct appeals to authenticity in every way”.
And there’s the modern problem. The perception of authenticity vs the reality of the company’s behaviour. You can’t just manage how your authenticity is perceived: it’s about being authentic. It’s no coincidence that sales at Costa Coffee rose by 7.1% in the last three months against the backdrop of protests and boycotts of its closest rival, Starbucks, over its UK corporate tax stance.
How the mighty can fall. As Seth Godin puts it, “If it acts like a duck (all the time), it’s a duck. Doesn’t matter if the duck thinks it’s a dog, it’s still a duck as far as the rest of us are concerned.”
Increasingly, brands that are inconsistent are going to get found out. But once caught, the impact on the brand and reputation is really difficult to reverse, especially for global brands who often lose control over the local actions of subsidiaries or their supply chain.
So, commercial marketers who want to make a difference need to take a long hard look at their brands. Don’t apply commercial creativity to simply shifting ‘nicer’ products. Apply it to the brand’s values and all it stands for.
An authentic organisation is one where identity, image and actions are in concord with each other. Apply that to your own organisation and your clients. And be brave enough to challenge them. That will start to make the world a better place.
Richard Forshaw, ICE Creates Ltd (richard.forshaw@icecreates.com / 07540 412 304)
