Leroyson Figueira, Creative Director at 160over90 introduces an idea for an app that acts as a social purpose tracker making it possible for shoppers to instantly decode a brand’s true social credentials at point of purchase.
Social purpose is a powerful marketing tool that is quickly becoming a key driver in consumer purchasing decision. As purpose starts to translate to pounds, shoppers want to understand the authenticity of a brand’s social credentials. Therefore, we believe that brands increasingly need a social purpose to remain relevant to consumers.
But there’s a problem: how can consumers find out if your brand has a social purpose or not? And if your brand does have a social purpose, are you authentic or just paying lip service?
We set out to solve this problem and created a fictional social purpose tracker that would make it possible for shoppers to instantly decode a brand’s true social credentials at point of purchase. We believe it’s only a matter of time before a real platform like this exists.
Through this exercise, we realised that most brands are not ready for the inevitable moment of increased transparency that will occur when technology catches up with consumer ethics.
What if shoppers could compare the social purpose credentials of products?
Most brands are not ready for the inevitable moment of increased transparency that will occur when technology catches up with consumer ethics.
Leroyson Figueira
We wanted to explore a social purpose app or service that doesn’t yet exist in the real world. In exploring and ideating, we started a conversation around the necessity for brands to have a social purpose.
We started by imagining a simple augmented reality app, which envisages a future where a consumer can point an app at any product, to reveal a brand’s official social purpose credentials. How? The user scans any product, logo or packaging and the brand’s social purpose is immediately revealed. Additionally, the app would include real users reviewing the authenticity of each particular brand purpose.
We imagine that all brands would be scrutinised according to three key consumer criteria, thereby allowing consumers to quickly compare competitor brands:
- Does your brand have a social purpose?
- Am I, your target audience, aligned with your social purpose?
- Is your brand authentic with your social purpose?
1.1 User scans a product 1.2 The app identifies the relevant product or brand
1.3 The brand social credentials are displayed 1.4 How the app components could work
Social purpose marketing is a powerful tool, but it can backfire when used to fool people or exploit issues that are very close to the heart. Consumers are not illiterate about purpose as a marketing mechanic, and they understand that telling the world what you stand for is used to ultimately promote your brand.
Consumers are open to an honest and transparent value exchange: you support something they care about and in return they are willing to evaluate the role of your brand in their lives, based on your credentials.
But frauds will be found out. Consumers will use technology to increase the amount of scrutiny that they subject a brand’s social purpose to and will quickly weed out those brands that are merely paying lip-service. As our app explored, every brand claim could be supported or rejected by real user feedback.
The moral of the story: find a purpose that is true to your brand. It may not be the latest bandwagon, but it will be your bandwagon.
It is plausible that by not having a purpose, your brand will drop to the bottom of the consideration list.
Leroyson Figueira
When considering the pitfalls of getting social purpose marketing wrong, it can be tempting to avoid the ‘What’s my social purpose?’ dilemma. However, we feel that this short term ‘avoidance’ thinking could ultimately damage your competitive edge.
Consider our scenario where a user is scanning your product alongside similar competitor brands. Now imagine that all your competitors each have an attractive social purpose, but your brand doesn’t.
It is plausible that by not having a purpose, your brand will drop to the bottom of the consideration list.
We originally started exploring this service as an app, however we see other scenarios where users could benefit from understanding a brand’s social purpose. The most obvious place would be on the product or packaging. But we think another viable area could be to include it within advertising. After all, it’s at the point of advertising that consumers start to consider if your product is right for them or not.
We envisage a future where brands include credentials on their own advertising, or perhaps the advertising industry even works with large publishers to create a standardised way to show credentials.
So, there we have it, an exploration of how an empowered consumer could soon start using social purpose and technology to find brands suitable for them. The question is: would your brand be ready?
I have spent over 20 years working in the global creative industry in London, Amsterdam, Sydney and Shanghai. I like to champion big human-led ideas and brand experiences that don’t look, or feel, like ads. I have been fortunate to work on some of the most loved brands globally and always put the audience first, by asking, what do they want? How can we entertain them? Always looking for a positive truth in the work we do. Creative Director at 160over90, the world's most culturally connected creative agency - ask me why that claim is true - part of the incredible Endeavor network. Before that at creative agencies large and small, including Grey London, JWT London, Havas and Cake. Fun fact: I can Code.
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