The importance of activating purpose during Covid-19

The struggle for business survival is very real and this crisis will impact every person, every town, every nation and every business around the world.

We are seeing brands and businesses being forced to make tough decisions (despite government intervention and support) and things are changing daily, and they may well get worse before they get better.

As a branding person who talks about finding ‘purpose’ a lot, (i.e. the reason your business exists beyond making money), I’ve been very proud how a raft of businesses are stepping up and activating their social purposes. We referenced Brewdog (making hand santiser) and Gtech (making ventilators) as great examples of businesses that have adapted their processes to help wider society.

But I guess the wider question we wanted to prompt is:

• What role should brands be taking in this time of crisis?
• And do their actions appear genuine or are they simply trying to profiteer?
• And ultimately whatever their motive, does it matter as long as they do their part?

Often any attempts to help can appear false and disingenuous, and any form of commercial activity can appear as profiteering. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t!

When we worked with Sutton Coldfield Chamber of Commerce to launch the Eco Pledge, Chamber President Katie Hale said, ‘I don’t care why businesses get involved. If it’s profit-driven or altruistic, I don’t mind as long as they do.’

Whether selfish or genuine, at this stage does it matter? We’re glad businesses are working together for whatever motive. But ultimately we think the ones that are driven by a genuine purpose (other than money and good PR) will be the real winners and the ones that REALLY gain longer-term from customer/client retention and loyalty.

A global crisis means brands have to dig deep and prove themselves. The more intelligent and agile brands are going to be the ones that realise they need to activate their purpose now. They will need to show clearly and authentically what their role is outside of making money. Perhaps short term loss for long term brand loyalty.

With consumers (and employees) being savvier than ever and a gradual erosion in trust since the banking crisis, we are increasingly looking to companies to solve societal issues.

Happy to chat to any business owners about how they can help and provide any advice I can to help businesses stay afloat.

Our thoughts go out to anyone who has been impacted by COVID-19.