Why Purpose Marketing can learn from Promotional Marketing?

With the world forecast to heat by 7 degrees by 2050 and populations rapidly exceeding the capacity of our planet, citizens and consumers are increasingly aware and concerned about the societal and environmental issues we face. Many consumers are looking to brands who have the power to make a difference in addressing these sustainable goals at scale; but brands note there is a gap between what consumers say they care about and what they actually do. Ultimately, brands are driven by consumer consumption because without consumer spend, brands are unable to operate.

This means in order to reach our Global Sustainability Goals we need to close the gap between brands sustainable agendas and consumer behaviour. There is a need for brands to encourage customers to change behaviours and act on these initiatives through brand choice. To achieve this, brands need to engage consumers in the purpose-led causes they care about with clear messaging and demonstrable action.

This will demonstrate that purpose can ultimately drive business outcomes – for the planet, for people and for profit.

By analysing 30 million consumers on social media, Starcount has proven that 15% of consumers in the UK now care about a societal or environmental issue. So, if there are millions of consumers who care, how come they aren’t making brand choices to reflect their concerns? How can brands make their purpose agendas a motivator for consumers to choose them? The answer is Purpose Marketing… 

Let’s look at the well-established technique of Promotion Marketing…

Brand marketers are aware that promotions are a huge driver of short-term sales KPIs. If you give consumers discounts, they are more likely to choose you in their next purchase. The reality is their reason for choosing you as a brand is you’re tapping into their mindset to make the most cost-effective choice – and if someone is cheaper than you, they will switch spend to that brand next. These customers are promotionally-promiscuous. There are a lot of them, but they aren’t loyal to your brand – they are loyal to their cause – saving money. 

There is a huge opportunity for brands to create the same level of choice in Purpose-led consumers. Of the 30 million consumers analysed; there are a similar number of consumers in the market who care about environmental issues at 5.8 million, societal issues at 2 million – as there are those who care about saving money at 9 million. 

The reality is brands haven’t yet succeeded in Purpose Marketing, it certainly doesn’t yet have the same effect on consumer spend as Promotional Marketing . This means there is a huge untapped opportunity and headroom for spend to be seized from these customers. 

Brands that reflect causes we care about switch from being a choice based on price or other factor  and now become an emotional choice based on purpose . 

There is a huge untapped opportunity. The number of consumers that care about saving money are of the same magnitude as those who care about the planet and people – so the opportunity for profit is significant. The reason it’s not working is brands haven’t cracked Purpose Marketing… but when they do, the size is not only substantial… but sustainable – for people, planet but also profit. 

Or be like Co-op and target both the purpose and promotionally-driven…clever.