Good Intentions, Bad Business: Why Taking a Stand Using Purpose Driven Marketing Can Backfire on Brands

It is impossible for brands to tap into all of the markets, and sometimes it is hard to reach people who don’t pay attention to old school marketing. As a result, brands will often resort to other methods such as purpose-driven marketing.

The Trend: Brands as Activists

To those who don’t know what purpose-driven marketing is, it’s essentially where a brand promotes more than just the product or service they are offering. They include their opinion on other causes (commonly social causes) into their messaging in order to appeal to like-minded people. For example, in 2018, Nike partnered with NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick for their Dream Crazy Campaign, to both promote Nike products and shine a light on racial injustice. Even though the campaign initially faced backlash and controversy, overtime, Nike’s target market saw what Nike was trying to do and as a result, sales increased.

With that being said, purpose-driven marketing is not always a good thing. When Pepsi partnered with Kendall Jenner back in 2017 for an ad, the results were not anticipated by Pepsi. The ad showed Kendall handing a can of Pepsi to a police officer during a protest and having the protests slowly fade away. However, the ad came off on Pepsi’s target market to be Pepsi mocking them and they came off as unauthentic. As a result, Pepsi was heavily criticized for the ad and they pulled the ad from screens within 24 hours and offered a public apology. So… that raises the question: does purpose-driven marketing help brands or not?

The Risks of Taking a Side

Like everything, purpose-driven marketing comes with its risks. If the message a company conveys through an ad comes across as controversial in any way, consumers will instantly jump on it. This can lead to backlash against the company, resulting in reduced levels of trust between the business and their consumers, and when consumers don’t trust a company, they are less likely to buy their products and begin questioning what else the company may be lying about. Long story short, if the message comes across as controversial, trust between a business and its consumers breaks down.

Now when you put it in that context, it is hard to see why any business would use purpose-driven marketing right? However, most businesses seem to follow Thomas Jefferson’s saying, “with great risk comes great reward.” Even though this can be a calculated risk depending on what message you are trying to convey and for what cause, words can always be interpreted wrong. What sounds right to you may seem like utter nonsense to someone else, which is why there is such a large risk associated with purpose-driven marketing. If the consumers like it, the business reaps the reward. The bigger the cause, the bigger the reward.

A Smarter Approach: Purpose with Precision

Now, there is a much safer option that can guarantee a business little to no backlash, and that’s taking a neutral stance. It isn’t expected from a company to take a side in a social or political issue, so why bother taking the risk? Unless the issue aligns directly with the company’s mission or affects their products and services, there is no need for businesses to get involved at all. At the end of the day, it’s not about staying quiet. It’s about being authentic in this loud and chaotic world we live in today. Staying neutral sometimes is the best card a company can play, showing consumers that this is a company they can trust, arguably the most important quality people look for.