An Open Letter to B Corp Marketers:
It’s funny how the ways we choose to promote sustainability are often the furthest things from sustainable. Marketing – as a business tool – is not sustainability; yet many of our other business functions are. As a career marketer and environmentalist, I have struggled with this concept.
Today’s marketing departments are charged with communicating the social and environmental values of an organization in order increase its financial return. But they are mostly left out of implementing triple bottom line initiatives. Typically, we are not contributors to sustainability, but merely communicators of our company’s values and practices of sustainability.
Most current advertising and branding is merely phatic anyway– its only function is to serve as a lubricant for commerce (it does not have much, if any, social value). I argue that we (marketers, strategists, designers, writers, etc.) need to move into a post-phatic era of marketing and promotion. A move towards promotion, that does more than simply promote. We need to capitalize on opportunities of “additionality” when we promote.
Here’s how:
Imagine a campaign that does more than promote a company, product or service. Imagine a promotion that has intrinsic social value. How much good could the marketing community do if we architected programs with corporate, civic and cultural value as the goal?
Corporate Return on Investment = Standard marketing metrics of sales increase, brand recall, household penetration, etc.
Civic Return on Impact = The physical positive impact of a promotion as measured by mouths fed, tons of litter removed, carbon avoided, voices empowered, etc.
Cultural Return on Intention = The cultural shift towards sustainability as measured by the positive language shift of your customers and prospects.
I’m not talking about corporate philanthropy, clever (and important) NPO partnerships, cause marketing, crowd-sourced branding, long-tails or affinity programs. I’m talking about promotion that serves, simultaneously, the civic, the cultural and the corporate body.
When successful, we can look our CMOs, clients and our children straight in the eyes and point to financial return, social impact and environmental progress for the best of the best of these promotions.
If careful and successful, these campaigns will create greater loyalty with the conscious consumer, elevate authentic brands to heroic status, build organizational reputation and provide financial return on our investments.
Cultural commentator Marshall McLuhan pointed out that, “societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate, than by the content of the communication.” I agree and argue that if we put as much creative thought into the nature of our promotion, as we do to the content of the promotion, we can develop an irrefutably positive change in the marketing industry for good.
Join independent designers and strategists from Fortune500 companies in taking the following pledge:
“Wherever and whenever possible I will develop promotion that has social significance. I will architect campaigns that have corporate, civic and cultural value.”
Visit www.morethanpromote.com to take the pledge.
John Rooks,
President and Founder
The SOAP Group
John Rooks founded The SOAP Group to blend communication and environmentalism into one discipline. John has worked with Fortune 500 Companies, Federal Agencies, Start-Ups and International NGOs helping them understand sustainability imperatives and architect communication strategies.
He blends an understanding of culture, language, messaging and the environment into creative communication opportunities that activate sustainability and social justice. He is a frequent writer and speaker on the intersection of Sustainability, Language and Culture. He blogs at www.ecohegemony.com
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