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Putting the ‘P’ in marketing
If there’s one word that stole the show at this year’s WFA Global Marketer Week in Brussels, it was ‘Purpose’. Indeed, even a survey carried out by the WFA and Edelman found that some 83% of marketers believe that brands should have a ‘purpose’.
Brands need to put purpose into their marketing – they need a purpose to thrive. And that’s exactly something that Diageo’s global chief marketing officer Andy Fennell highlighted during his presentation to a room full of chief marketing officers. “We simplify things. We ask ‘What’s the brand’s purpose’? We don’t talk about the benefit anymore,” he said.
But do marketers fully understand this idea of ‘purpose’? The WFA survey found that 88% of marketers feel that purpose will be important to building brands and 81% feel that purpose is a business opportunity. But what is purpose? Well, it’s giving consumers a broader understanding of your business, creating programmes and doing something meaningful for society.
And which brands are doing this best? Global marketers themselves vote Unilever, P&G and Coke as leaders in the pack in terms of ‘Purpose’.
The idea of ‘Putting the P in marketing’ all started in the morning of the conference, when Johnson & Johnson global marketing group vice-president Kimberly Kadlec said that the brand has introduced 4 ‘P’s’ into its marketing mix – Purpose, Presence, Proximity and Partnership – which of course, has only been relevant since social media took the world by storm and completely reflects the consumer expectation that brands should be offering consumers more than just product. “You need to go back to basics,” she said. “How do we add value? If you add value you really will grow your business.”
Other highlights from the conference included a presentation from Ogilvy Group chairman Rory Sutherland, who posed the question: “Is the next big technology not a technology at all?” He argued that the next big thing isn’t tech at all, but psychology and encouraged people to read economics.
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