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Brands will increasingly need 'purpose': WFA study

Marketers vote Unilever as 'purpose leader' followed by P&G and Coca-Cola

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Brands will increasingly need 'purpose': WFA study

Brands will increasingly need 'purpose': WFA study

Marketers vote Unilever as 'purpose leader' followed by P&G and Coca-Cola

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | March 13, 2013

publive-imageNew research released by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and Edelman show global marketers overwhelmingly agree that “purpose” will be increasingly important to building brands in the future. The research was presented as part of the Global Marketer Conference in Brussels, which marks WFA's 60th anniversary. However, the research also demonstrated a number of areas where there appear to be disparities between marketers' and consumers' perceptions of purpose and the extent to which it is a driver of purchase decisions.

Over the past five years, Edelman's Good Purpose survey has explored consumer attitudes around social purpose, including their commitment to specific societal issues and their expectations of brands and consumers. WFA's research aimed to see the flip side of the coin: to what extent do marketers believe consumer decision-making is prompted by brand purpose, where there are gaps and business opportunities. WFA's survey received responses from 149 senior marketers representing 58 companies in over 40 countries for companies representing over $US70 billion in ad spend.

Marketers strongly acknowledged the growing importance of “purpose”: 88 per cent agreed or strongly agreed it would be 'increasingly important to building brands'; 83 per cent that it is 'important for a brand to have a sense of purpose'; and 81 per cent that it was 'a business opportunity'. However, when comparing WFA research with Edelman's, marketers appeared to underestimate the extent to which consumers said they supported good causes (46 per cent of marketers said consumers support good causes vs 60 per cent consumers) and the proportion of global consumers who thought it was OK for brands to support good causes and make money at the same time (56 per cent vs 76 per cent).

Significantly, the biggest gap that the Edelman and WFA research identified was in terms of marketers' perceptions of which region's consumers are most motivated by purpose. When asked for which continent has the greatest proportion of consumers who say they make purchase decisions based on good causes, 58 per cent marketers chose Europe, 36 per cent chose North America, 5 per cent Asia and 1 per cent South America.

Conversely, Edelman's research identifies the rapid growth economies of China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, UAE and Brazil as being the most bullish on “purpose”. Consumers' passion and action on behalf of purpose stands in contrast to consumers in more mature markets, like the US and Western Europe. Consumers in the former also say they are more willing to pay more and more often for purpose-infused brands.

Marketers agreed that purpose needs to be top down with 80 per cent saying that the CEO and 74 per cent saying the CMO should be involved in designing and shaping purpose. Only 53 per cent of marketers thought all employees should be involved; but as many as 88 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that “purpose needs to pervade the entire organization and have buy-in from all business functions”.

When asked if the brands they worked for generally had a sense of purpose, 49 per cent marketers agreed or strongly agreed but only 38 per cent felt they had been successful in effectively communicating purpose.

When asked to pick a purpose leader out of the Ad Age top 20 global marketers, 23 per cent respondents chose Unilever. Coca-Cola and P&G were tied second with 16 per cent each of the votes. McDonald's came fourth with 11 per cent.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

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