Generosity for Greater Business — And Society — Good.

As marketers at Sew, and as marketers in general, we devote incredible resources to building price, product, and even social impact strategies as a way to create corporate success. But today, the standard discounts, incremental product evolutions, and even corporate social responsibility efforts — though worthy — are all expected and rarely special.

That’s why with today’s ever evolving business landscape, I want to explore the one constant we can confidently invest in is human behavior. And how what we’ve felt for a millennia, we now know to be true: Generosity is a powerful human tool with the capacity to forge stronger relationships and greater loyalty. I believe the above mentioned business strategies are all made more consequential and meaningful when underpinned by a genuine spirit of generosity. By reframing the way we think about giving, beyond the more classical approaches with corporate social responsibility, when mapped to a brand we can produce incredible prosperity for both the businesses we lead and the society we live in.

Generosity isn’t just about promotional codes, product enhancements and philanthropy. It’s about being deeply additive. It’s about caring for people. Generous brands are endlessly curious about their consumer, and constantly striving to bring value. Whether it’s in educating, entertaining, or empowering, a generous brand places mutual gains above one-dimensional profits and, instead of investing in what needs to be done because it needs to be done, invests in doing what’s right because it’s the right thing to do.

Before we dive into why generosity is a powerful brand strategy, I’d like you to try something… Think about the last time you gave something to someone — whether it was a gift or a bite to eat on the subway, a meal from the grocery store or a ride to work. What was the experience like? What did you give up? Time? Money? Other resources? What did you come to understand about the person you gave something to? How did your relationship with that person evolve after the gift was given?

When we give someone a gift, material or otherwise, we go through an amazing process. We exercise sacrifice, through which we learn both about ourselves and what we’re willing to give up. We practice consideration and empathy about and for the person or group of people we’re giving something to. We run through a series of exploratory questions: what do they already have? What do they need? How will they use it? Will it help them advance to where they want to be? Will it make them smile? We also exercise vulnerability, which creates an emotional bridge connecting us with the person or people receiving the gift.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of giving is the neurological reaction that happens when we’re generous. When a person receives a gift from someone, that person’s mind lets out a rush of oxytocin, which increases the person’s propensity to trust another human being. In a fascinating body of research, Paul Zak discovered that “oxytocin amplifies our empathy for others and motivates a desire to help them.” Moreover, it drives reciprocity. When oxytocin levels are increased, we’re 80% more likely to be generous ourselves.

So, why should a brand be generous?

When a brand cares more about price, products, and profits and less about people and purpose, it’s easily forgotten. Global consumers say if 73% of brands disappeared tomorrow they wouldn’t care. US consumers are even more brutal, saying 92% of brands could cease to exist and they wouldn’t miss them. Additionally, consumers are exposed to more content and information than in any other time in human history. To be in that coveted arena of a consumer’s working memory, as marketers we need to make more than a consistent set of impressions and do more than hope for the best at the moment of purchase. We need to care for our customer’s well being more than retargeting them as they travel around the web.

A generous brand creates more than a point of differentiation and desire: it creates trust, an emotionally substantive, deeply human bond that transcends place and time. Trust breeds loyalty, advocacy, and grace — it reorients your brand’s relationship with your consumer from a transactional to a transformational one. It redefines your brand’s role in a consumer’s life from one fighting for their attention to that of a powerful partner and advocate. Most importantly, it gives your brand the opportunity to make mistakes in order to make long-term business, consumer, and societal prosperity possible.

Now, what does generosity actually look like in practice?

A generous brand is compassionate. It moves a person from their current state to a better future state by evaluating where the person is at (resources and needs) versus where they want to be (short-term aims, and long-term aspirations). Seeking to to know its consumer, a generous brand doesn’t just ask but continually explores the breadth and depth of these two questions: What does my customer need? Where do they want to go and how can we help them get there? It earnestly invites and cultivates vibrant conversations and invests in substantive efforts to build meaningful relationships with its customers. What’s more, the importance and impact of this is only corroborated by the fact that more engaged and deeper customer relationships yield better business returns — in fact, they eclipse the value of a powerful brand.

A generous brand isn’t afraid to be vulnerable and make mistakes in pursuit of their purpose. To be deeply additive, a brand has to be okay with missing the mark from time to time — how else is one supposed to know what doesn’t work? It’s the reference points gained in moments of trial that make incredible triumphs possible. Generosity results in greater levels of reciprocity. Generosity generates grace. A reverence for this grace and goodwill will accelerate truly exciting new competencies, innovation, and scale for your brand.

A generous brand leads and believes in greater possibilities. As a brand, Elon Musk embodies this idea — he opened Tesla’s patents to everyone. As a result of that and many other actions, his companies have captured the hearts and minds of a core group of consumers across the world. He has a certain image of the way the world should be, and he strives to achieve that end, giving time, energy and money in order to give other people the fuel to build a greater future.

For Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank, it’s about giving deserving people the credit to capitalize on their courage, challenging them to rise to their potential. In return, those people demonstrate their respect with a repayment rate of 95%. For GoPro, it’s about going with consumers to the outermost edge of their own unique possible, inspiring us all to go further. In return, GoPro consumers give fanatic enthusiasm, which earned the brand a valuation of $2.25B. For Panera Bread (Panera Cares), it’s about giving consumers the choice to pay what they feel the meal is worth, and to pay more than the MSRP so that others who can’t afford a meal can come in for a sandwich when they’re hungry. In return, millions of Panera Bread consumers flocked to Panera Cares locations, giving more than the MSRP so that others can have more, too.

Ultimately, generous brands don’t compete for millimeters in a race to the middle. They, alongside their community, rise to the top with a shared cause for positive societal progress by encouraging greater connectivity and collaboration.

Though those are just a few examples, I think they help illustrate how being a generous corporate citizen doesn’t drain or deplete your businesses’s resources. Instead, a corporate strategy rooted in generosity adds to your brand and business in immediate and often incalculably meaningful ways. Ultimately, generous brands don’t compete for millimeters in a race to the middle. They, alongside their community, rise to the top with a shared cause for positive societal progress by encouraging greater connectivity and collaboration. Pursuing a zero-sum game leads to a lonely, boring end. Instead, let’s choose to pursue an infinite sum, where we’re collectively supporting a horizon that’s expanding, enriching, and evolving. Elements within the business landscape will always be in flux. Elements of human behavior, like generosity, will always be a more reliable investment; acts of generosity and their effects have existed throughout humanity for millennia, in business, religion, politics and everyday society. The brands that will be celebrated in the future will be the ones that make generosity, caring deeply about helping their consumers and employees succeed, a business priority.

If this is at all interesting to you, I’d love to talk more about it.

• Have you seen other examples of generosity in action?
• Are you currently enacting generosity-rooted strategies or tactics?
• Have you explored this in the past?
• Were there any particular pain points? What about successes?

Looking forward to continuing the conversation, here on Medium or Twitter. Or if you’d like to learn more about what we’re up to at Sew, hit us up or cruise on over (if you’re in or are ever in Los Angeles)!