Liz, I wanted ask you about this
notion of purpose based marketing.
What does that mean and what are sort
of the best practices for your clients?
>> Well it seems like it could
be a buzz word at the moment,
everybody's talking about it.
But it's actually really deeply
important and it's a generational shift.
I'm mentoring a young woman in
the industry who's been only working for
12 months and
already I'm seeing a difference.
She's asking what her client's purpose is,
and what the purpose of
the company is she's working at.
And it's this generational shift to drive
to what are you doing beyond making money
and shareholder value.
What is your purpose as a company?
And so that's something that at Dentsu
Aegis we're working to help our clients
define and then to activate.
>> So when you say purpose,
if you're making soap, you're making soap.
How do you define purpose?
Or how do you create purpose or
how do you understand purpose because it's
not necessarily always evident, is it?
>> Purpose is an all encompassing word.
It's about if you are a soap manufacturer,
it's more than just making the soap.
It's how do you make the soap.
People and
I want to know where you source the soap.
What are the working
practices behind that?
So there's a new initiative
started called sustainable brands.
And Dentsu signed up as one of the seven
founding sponsors along with PNG and
several other companies, Nestle waters,
because people now want to know,
are your brands doing good.
And so there's a big group now called
Brands For Good, and we're part of that.
And that's about actually showing tangible
proof that you're developing products in
a sustainable way.
And then you're gonna market them
to people in a sustainable way.
>> So how do you market
the purpose of a company?
Is it integrated in terms of a broad
marketing mix or something specific or
I mean as a general question, but
how do you get that point across?
>> Yes, I mean purpose and
social impact marketing.
Before is bolted on at the side and
there's a specialism, but
now it has to be that sort of red
thread right through everything.
And it has to stand at the core
of what a brand stands for and
what a company will push out and
will market.
It's now got to be the sort of solid
foundation on which brands are built.
>> And let me ask you finally about,
we've talked a lot over the years
about cause marketing and
brands associating with important causes.
Tell us your thoughts about how brands
should consider associating with causes.
What their commitment should be and
maybe some caution that you may have.
>> Yeah, the worst thing a brand can
do is in an unauthentic way attach
themselves to a cause because It
seems like a good idea at the time.
It's a sort of fleeting transitory thing.
If it comes from a place of authenticity,
a place where the brand is anchored,
if a brand has concerns about water usage
or plastic usage or child labor laws or
any of these causes that are inherent in
how they bring their products to market,
then they should get after that because
it's integral to their business.
So the most important thing is be
authentic and bring your brand to
the cause and partner with them rather
than sort of bolting things on.
