David Farinella is Principal/Creative Strategist at Farinella LLC, an independent creative communications agency based in Emeryville, CA.
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Welcome to the era of picking sides. It doesn’t matter if you’re a regular peep walking down the street or rep a Fortune 100 corporation, it’s no longer enough to mind your own business.
There are positives and negatives to attaching your company to a particular cause. What flies in the San Francisco Bay Area might not fly for our friends in other areas. And vice versa. Yet, we’ve seen a growing sentiment that brand activism — sincere, authentic and actionable — boosts a company’s profile, impacts the bottom line and raises morale.
Our agency’s position is that growing the bottom line should not be the only reason a company decides to take a stand. Rather, we feel that brands should take a stand because it’s in the company’s core DNA.
Why Brand Activism Is Important
Let’s look at the numbers.
A recent survey by Gartner identified three significant areas that will impact consumer values and buying behaviors in 2021: life realigned, the wealth gap and seismic civic engagement.
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Analysts explain that seismic civic engagement has changed how consumers look at brands: “Equality is now the value for which there is the highest level of identification for U.S. consumers. This marks the first time ‘loyalty’ has been bumped from the top spot of consumer values in the U.S. in over a decade.”
Gartner is not the only consumer-watcher suggesting that consumers are changing how they pick brands. With data from research company Opinium, Marketing Dive reported that “almost three-quarters (71%) of U.S. adults said brands have a role in responding to the issues of racial injustice and police brutality.”
How to Build a Brand Activism Plan
Brand definition and building work need to serve as a north star for all companies. It should be done at the genesis of your branding work, but it’s not too late if your company hasn’t done the work yet.
Here’s how to get started:
Step One: Interview and survey as many people as possible in your company to ascertain their beliefs. Some folks might not want to be “on record,” so offer an anonymous option wherever possible.
Step Two: Synthesize the responses into a core belief statement and pass that around to as many people as possible for perspective. Building consensus here is a great way to boost morale and foster connection.
Step Three: Create actionable steps based on the core belief statement. Companies that wish to be catalysts for environmental change, for example, can institute an office recycling program. If racial justice is your focus, you could create volunteer opportunities or ask management to begin regular donations to organizations working to fight for justice.
Step Four: Communicate, update and remain flexible. One thing we know about our world today is that a week or month of activity won’t dent the issues we’re facing. Keeping your team informed will help keep them engaged.
Successful brand activism matches the brand definition. Ensure you’re aligned and great things will happen.
Brand Activism Done Right
The George Floyd murder in the summer of 2020 was a signal event around the world.
Brands from McDonald’s to Target took to social platforms to denounce police brutality and pledge support for racial justice. Some tapped into longstanding brand activism campaigns. Many shared nebulous, reactive statements. Others ducked.
One company that activated an effective, sincere and on-brand response was Nike.
In the days following Floyd’s death, Nike released a spot called “For Once, Don’t Do It,” which turned Nike’s slogan of “Just Do It” on its head in a thought-provoking call to action.
I’m not here to argue the “goodness” of the spot but about what we learned from what Wieden + Kennedy, Nike’s agency, delivered: Brands must build a clear and consistent strategy of addressing social and economic issues, especially before hopping on a “newsy” moment.
Nike has been in the fight for a while. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Just Do It” (30 years, what!?), Nike showed its commitment to racial justice with a spot featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The company’s Equality campaign preceded the Kaepernick ad by a year.
But how did this activism impact the brand’s perception?
An Ace Metrix study showed that 60% of respondents received the “Don’t Do It” ad as empowering, and it scored positively for purchase intent. And Nike sales increased 31% after the Kaepernick ad.
There you go.
Brand Activism That, Um, Wasn’t Great…
Where Nike and a handful of other companies spoke out, hundreds of others offered mealy-mouthed statements and some missed the mark altogether.
Take Disney and this Twitter post that went live on May 31, 2020.
It didn’t go well. Many consumers were quick to post about Disney’s alleged history of racism and anti-Semitism.
Instead of taking time to reflect on the magnitude of the moment and their role in perpetuating racism, Disney jumped on the bandwagon with no real substance to offer. It would’ve been better if they focused on doing the internal work instead and reporting on what that would look like for them. Consumers are smart and can sniff out brands that aren’t getting down in the nitty-gritty of brand activism.
The Bottom Line
While it’s too late into this article for a TL;DR note, here’s the thing: Brand activism is not about posting vague statements of solidarity. It’s about action and long-term strategies.
Rather than rushing to make a statement, it’s important to do the work. Make it a pillar in your brand definition process. Demand that your agency or CMO creates that work.
Companies have a tremendous opportunity to bring people together and build a better world. Doing so will serve your brand’s reach, loyalty and bottom line. Plus, it might help you sleep better at night.
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Author: David Farinella, Forbes Councils Member
