DDB Influences 6.16
Welcome back to a fresh summer edition of DDB Influences!
July 2016
In this edition:
- Brands With a Meaning: Finding and living your purpose
“Purpose” might be one of the most inflationary used words in the industry, but that doesn’t mean it has lost its meaning. In moving from theory to praxis and finding those ideas that are true to your brand, we’ve outlined a few reasons for purpose-led activities and ideas on how to get there. - Disrupting Food: The Craft Revolution is changing the way we eat and drink
What started out in the beer scene has taken on a whole life of its own. The Craft Revolution is increasingly challenging the status quo of the traditional food industry with a David vs. Goliath tonality and fan base. We’ll tell you why this is more than just a short-lived niche trend for hip urbanites.
1. Brands With a Meaning: Finding and living your higher purpose
“All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.”(Bill Bernbach)
That brands need to offer value to peoples’ lives is certainly nothing new — it’s the foundation of some of the world’s strongest, unique and most profitable brands. But with 9 out of 10 consumers expecting businesses to do more than just make a profit, “purpose” is becoming a whole new meaning where we have come a long way since Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle. Today it’s no longer enough to have a tightly defined theoretical framework — we need to get real and do things in praxis. We need more purpose-led brand activities that create real value to people, beyond just communication. Because what good does that catchy purpose in your brand book do unless you live up to it?
„The brand that screams the loudest no longer commands the most attention; the one that offers something genuinely useful does. […] Instead of throwing money at yet another branded content campaign, go back to the original notion of a brand.“ (Jasmine De Bruycker, Creative Strategist)
What’s the influence?
“Purpose” has been a buzz word within the advertising industry for some time now, almost ritually reoccurring at every big award show. Even some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley are investing efforts in finding more meaning and purpose in their business models. But with advertising professionals suffering from “cause fatigue” and consumers’ increasing demand for brand authenticity, our purpose-led activities have to be tightly linked to our brand core. We can’t just stick another cause-related topic to our brands. What we need to ask ourselves is how we can land more purpose-led activities that are true to ourselves, our business, our brands and our products — that’s when the magic starts to happen.
“That’s really the next frontier — bringing purpose and product together […]” (Juliana Azevedo, VP/Global Feminine Care at P&G)
Finding your purpose — and reaping the benefits
If done right brand purpose will most certainly boost your bottom line. According to WARC, brands are more likely to achieve true ad effectiveness if they perform long-term brand-building with the creative work being directly engaged with a social cause.
Unilever is already betting big on purpose with the “Crafting Brands for Life” portfolio strategy. According to the company, brands with purposeful marketing grow at twice the rate as others in the portfolio. Unilever CMO Keith Weed is one of the most avid proclaimers of the business benefits of meaningful, purpose-led brand activities.
It turns out that having no clear sense of brand purpose might be downright dangerous — it should be seen as an investment that mitigates risk and avoids consumer misunderstanding.
“There’s nothing more dangerous for a brand than leaving an information vacuum out there as to what they’re doing in the world. People can either project into that vacuum that they’re doing nothing, or misinformation can fill that vacuum. Purpose is an important way to differentiate yourself and make sure you’re on the right side of public opinion.” (Simon Mainwaring, We First Branding)
So how do we land purpose-led brand ideas?
There are different ways to land unique and authentic purpose-led ideas with no real right or wrong approaches, just as long as you stay true and authentic to your brand. Below we’ve listed a few thought-starters to provoke further thinking and discussion.
Tap into your agency’s creative magic
Start by reviewing your agency relationship. Are you really letting them in on your purpose? Have you extensively explained and discussed it with them? And do you let them co-innovate value propositions beyond just communication? Creatives are born problem-solvers and will jump at a well-defined brand purpose and think of ways how to create real value to your consumers — be it a new product idea, the website UX, a digital extension to your product or a social cause campaign. So start viewing your agencies as co-innovators and business incubators.
“Cannes Lions is no longer about campaigns but game-changing systems. […] The industry should stop seeing itself as a provider of communication campaigns, and start seeing itself more as a giant network of new business’ incubators”. (Nacho Zuccarino, Head of Creative, Google Argentina)
Hire people outside of your comfort zone
Otherwise hiring a philosopher might give you the edge you are looking for. Silicon Valley is already harnessing the power of liberal-arts majors in order to blow more meaning, value and purpose into the techy products. With an eclectic mix of scientific coders, mathematicians and philosophers, they too are betting on the purpose-game. And Patagonia, a brand synonymic with purpose-led marketing even has its own Director of Philosophy, putting their money where their mouth is.
Go beyond the path-to-purchase
How does a typical day look like for your customers? What are their challenges and hurdles in day-to-day life? And where can your brand help to add real value? We tend to focus a lot of attention and effort on the customer journey, which focuses on getting people to buy. We also need to invest time in looking at the actual lives of our customers and see how we can manifest our purpose in a way that really matters. Outlining your target groups’ daily lives is also a great source of inspiration for innovating beyond your current core business.
With the promise to be “the most customer centric, innovative and efficient European network carrier“, KLM is known for its innovative services that add value throughout the travelling lives of their customers. From the LinkedIn co-op „Meat and Seat“ and the Facebook integration „Must See Map“ to the recent „Layover With A Local“, KLM looks at new ways how they can bring their purpose to life.
Look to the UN for inspiration
Amanda McKenzie, CMO of Aviva, suggests brands should look to the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development as a guiding compass and blueprint for purpose-led brand activities. By looking at the 17 goals set by the UN, brand owners can ask themselves where they can make a difference and create real value with their products and services. Keith Weed has already described the goals as “the to-do list for the planet” — and for business.
Seeking inspiration from brands around the world
Björn Borg — Six Shades of Human
Björn Borg defines itself as the brand that “stands up for love in all its beautiful forms“ with a „willingness to challenge the (fashion) industry“. On the international Racial Discrimination Day they launched the „Six Shades of Human“ — a collection of nude colored underwear for all skintypes, in order to fight racism and stereotyping in the industy.
Three Sweden — #datadonate
Swedish provider Three is dedicated to “challenging and changing mobile” with tariffs like “All You Can Eat Data”. In February they launched #datadonate: an initiative to convert unused 4G data into humanitarian aid, where data is turned into money and donated directly to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
DB Breweries — Brewtroleum
One of the big winners during this year’s Cannes Lions was the Brewtroleum campaign from DB Breweries — turning leftover brewing yeast into biofuel. The idea highlighted how DB is doing its part to be environmentally friendly in a typically beer-humorous way with the tounge-in-cheek message: “Save the world while drinking beer”.
Tesla — accelerating the transition to sustainable energy
Tesla is known for being one of the most innovative forces in the automotive industry right now. And the company has a very clearly defined purpose — “Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy” — and nothing leaves consumers doubting this when CEO and founder Elon Musk released 56 of the company’s patents to the public.
What’s your next purpose-led activity going to be?
By:
Oskar Valdre // Senior Strategic Planner, DDB Germany
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2. Disrupting Food: The Craft Revolution is about to change the way we eat and drink forever
The traditional food industry is at a crossroads: Saturated markets, a lack of innovation, a shattered public trust due to continuous food scandals plus the increased health and quality awareness of a large segment of the population make food coming out of fabrics look like an historic aberration.
At the same time, classic food retailing has come back to life after years of stagnation — thanks to the new competition from organic supermarket chains like denn’s and online delivery services like Foodist.
REWE, EDEKA and Co. are making room on the shelves for small brands and local products, thus turning the craft rebellion into a proper revolution.
What’s the influence?
It has never been easier to launch a food or beverage brand than today. Bionade, ChariTea and Fritz-Kola have paved the way and proven that even giants like Coca Cola can be attacked successfully. Right now, the same is happening with beer, spirits, coffee, burgers, chocolate, and so on. Consumers are embracing the new variety and they love the sense of connection and authenticity that small craft brands are giving them.
Why this is more then a short-lived trend? Five answers
DEMAND: Food is the new fashion, and for some it’s even a religion. Posting your plate on Instagram has become a popular sport, and discussing the best gin & tonic recipes is an appropriate small talk topic these days. A good example for the huge potential of craft products is the development of US craft beer, which now accounts for 12% of the market. And US brands seem to be optimistic, that something similar might happen in Germany, too. Stone Brewing, one of the leading US craft breweries, is just about to open a huge brewery in the south of Berlin to conquer the German and European market.
MARKETING: No one has to explain young food entrepreneurs the importance of storytelling, design and customer care. They know what matters and how to use the tools. Most of them are digital natives and born marketing pros. Thanks to social media and with the help of highly engaged influencers, food startups are able to create broad awareness even with tiny marketing budgets.
OUTSOURCING: In today’s food world, you don’t have to build a brewery to launch a beer. Young founders benefit from a broad network of specialized service providers, which enable them to build extremely lean companies. From production to packaging to distribution — all business components that would require massive investments and maintenance costs can be outsourced. This allows founders to focus on all the business aspects, where their personality, passion and story will make the difference: Sales, marketing and customer care.
DISTRIBUTION: For decades, supermarkets were competing on price. Today, they rival for trendy local food brands, enabling those to reach a mainstream audience at an early stage. And there are more opportunities to build your distribution from scratch: The online food retail is just taking off in Germany. And local markets are enjoying a renaissance in bigger cities, some of them also offering home delivery services, like Markthalle Neun in Berlin.
COLLABORATION: Craft food brands are on a mission: “It’s us against the industry.” This spirit and the shared passion for the product facilitate different forms of collaboration, be it in purchase, production or marketing. One example: Jointly organized festivals like the Berlin Beer Week or fairs like the Next Organic create a forum for the craft scene and allow smaller brands to present its products to a broader audience.
What happens next?
New brands and products will continuously flock into the market. Many of them will fail. Some will build a loyal fan-base and cultivate their niche. And few will conquer the mass market (with or without the help of investors) and make life hard for the old food industry giants. Eating has never been more disruptive than today.
By:
Matthias Rech // Senior Strategic Planner, DDB Germany
