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The purpose of purpose?
A bloody good question. Well, this week the new CEO of Unilever – Hein Schumacher – burst the bubble, largely inflated by his predecessor, expressing that true brand purpose doesn’t necessarily boost profit, in fact it can actually sacrifice it. Speaking to investors, Schumacher – the former CFO of The Kraft Heinz Company, who arrived in July – said the idea of corporate purpose could become an “unwelcome distraction” for brands that he believes have underdelivered. The organization has come under attack for focusing on brand purpose and sustainability, “diluting efforts” at the expense of financial performance. Under Alan Jope, Unilever had become synonymous with the idea of placing purpose at heart of all its brands and many organizations followed suite.
I believe this is another example of the marketing community acting in a blind herd mentality. Over the last 10 years purpose has became the must have, one-size-fits-all, approach to answering to all our marketing woes. Every brand was expected, irrespective of whether it was authentic or true, to have it. I’ve had the privileged of working at, and working for, many large consumer facing organizations. Each with a wide portfolio of often diverse brands to launch, nurture and steward. In most cases each company has their own way of marketing that’s applied across all their brands. Whether that’s a brand house – which sounds humble. A brand temple – which sounds grander. Or, a brand diamond – which sounds expensive. They all serve to templatize and provide a generic framework approach to marketing. The problem is, as any good marketeer knows, consumers aren’t generic – lest we forget the marketing 101 of customer orientation.
The results of purpose focused marketing certainly haven’t all been bad. In fact, Unilever can hold their head up high with what they’ve done with Dove and Ben & Jerry’s, which they acquired in 2000. Both brands have flourished by authentically wrapping themselves in the cloak of purpose. But marketeers have to beware the ever tempting allure of the latest panacea and be able to recognize when it’s just another case of the “Emperor’s new clothes.”
There are very few – if any – one-size-fits-all solutions to marketing, because consumers come in many, many different sizes.