We are told we are living in a post-purpose world and brands have moved on from tethering themselves to lofty causes to build brand loyalty. However, this year, Charlie’s Bar in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, has taken the social media world by storm with a £700 advert tackling the issue of loneliness. Dubbed ‘better than the John Lewis Christmas ad’, this short tale has had eyes welling up across the globe. In it, an elderly man is seen solemnly visiting a grave before walking to town, where he is ignored by passersby until he is befriended in a bar by a couple. The advert concludes with the words of Irish poet William Butler Yeats: “There are no strangers here. Only friends you haven’t yet met.”
Most ads this Christmas (the Superbowl of British advertising) are not about much more than having a decent roast dinner and opening presents. Maybe the impact of the Charle’s Bar advert should make us think again about purpose-driven communications. There’s often anxiety about purpose-washing, with green-washing, rainbow-washing and other disingenuous approaches eroding trust. Hellman’s mayonnaise taking on food waste springs to mind. Now Unilever’s CEO has confirmed that the company will no longer be force-fitting purpose onto their brands. Mayo will simply be allowed to help make a decent sandwich, rather than tackling societal issues.
It is true that brands today should go beyond purpose – having a clear vision of the change they want to see and then striving to make it a reality. This must be lived and breathed throughout the organisation – how the company acts, who the company hires, who they engage with and the products they sell. Genuine commitment, transparency and concrete actions are essential to avoid falling into the trap of communications ‘washing’ and build authentic relationships with stakeholders. Take Coop’s alternative to a Christmas advert for example, opting for a community donation campaign as opposed to a high-production ad.
In healthcare, we don’t need to tenuously link brands to causes. Every pharmaceutical company’s mission is ultimately to improve the lives of patients. However, this is not always easy for pharma to communicate and make a reality in a genuine way that doesn’t appear tokenistic or clichéd. This is even the case when communicating internally to pharma employees, particularly for the many roles that feel far removed from patients receiving care. However, it is essential – a McKinsey report warned that companies should help their employees find purpose or watch them leave.
Without successfully embedding what a company stands for internally, you will see not only an impact on employee retention and engagement, but also an impact on external perception. Your employees are your biggest asset and the face of your company to the world.
So how do you build a purposeful connection with your employees? As an agency specialising in behaviour change, 90TEN ensures that all-purpose-driven communication is built on insight and collaboration with changemakers across the organisation. Without understanding what a company’s purpose means to an individual or team and the behaviours they can adopt in their day-to-day working lives, you will lose employees along the way.
90TEN’s EMBED model has been specifically designed to help businesses explore the emotional, rational and environmental factors at play to change their culture and internal behaviours. A critical element of the EMBED model is our ability to gain a better understanding of the internal dynamics of the business, the factors driving resistance and how to overcome them. The model reveals what employees genuinely think and feel and identifies how best to mobilise employees around a common purpose.
The aim is surely to emulate the example observed by President J F Kennedy during his visit to NASA. Upon asking a janitor what he was doing, he was told, ‘I’m helping to put a man on the moon, Mr President’. The janitor understood something that many employees struggle with their entire career: the purpose of his work and the value of his own contribution to achieving it. This Christmas, let’s give the gift of purpose to employees, showing them how their behaviours can drive positive change and make a real difference.
