Taken together, ongoing market uncertainty, shifting consumer sentiment, and digital transformation are demanding a fundamental evolution in the operational ethos for purpose-led brand development. In our rapidly changing landscape, the ability to adapt while maintaining meaningful connections is more crucial than ever.
- Edelman reports that 84% of consumers say that they need to share values with a brand to buy it.
- Accenture demonstrates 72% of consumers feel they can personally impact the world and their communities through behaviors and buying choice.
- And Havas Meaningful Brands found 77% of brands could disappear, and consumers wouldn’t care. However, brands that align with meaningful causes can create stronger connections with their audience.
Yet, despite a clear—and consistent—demand for deeper engagement, many brand leaders continue to address these desires with the same methods that largely have failed to resonate emotionally. For me, the data is more than the usual call for change. It underscores an increasing pressure for genuine metamorphosis and suggests an essential question: How can brands nurture meaningful relationships with the people who define their very existence—whether they be employees, customers, investors, or broader stakeholders?
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In my work with brand leaders across sectors over the years, I’ve consistently seen that the answer lies in adopting human-centric values alongside sincerely bringing purpose to life. Time and again, I’ve witnessed how integrating intuition, creativity and humanness into the fabric of brand development and organizational culture profoundly elevates emotional connections with people, regardless of their segment or stakeholder classification.
At its core, this is about embracing a more harmonious style of brand leadership—one that is centered on healing, acknowledging our collective harm—the cumulative impact of systemic issues, shared traumas, and cultural or organizational damage—and our individual traumas and micro-traumas. Unearthed during the pandemic and remaining part of today’s Zeitgeist, these issues highlight the need for repairing our interconnectedness, bridging many levels of division.
The Necessity For Change In Brand Operations
Change has become a cycle in and of itself. And to stay relevant, brands are required to unceasingly evolve. As the human face of a business, a brand’s evolution should be about much more than adopting new technologies and innovating new product lines. It should also encompass a fundamental and necessary shift in the ways in which it communicates, and builds relationships—and, importantly and perhaps more challengingly, in the way it operates daily.
To create real value, the principles underlying purpose and sustainability must be core elements embedded into day-to-day activities, influencing how we think, behave, and interact with one another. Practically, this means embracing increased transparency, ethical practices and committing to integrating purpose and sustainability narratives into overarching brand storytelling, rather than seeing them as independent campaigns. By doing so, brands can guide us into a more sustainable, equitable, and prosperous future. Yet, courage is needed to step into what feels relatively unproven.
Decline In Employee Engagement And Diversity In Leadership
There’s little doubt that the level of transformation necessary for sustaining meaningful relationships with customers, employees, investors and broader stakeholders requires responding with more than new marketing tactics or even refreshed brand strategy. Elevating emotional connections to strengthen relationships demands a significant shift: genuinely valuing individuality and incorporating a deeper, more intentional approach to accepting multiple layers of difference across diverse human experiences.
Recent studies, including reports from Gallup, The Conference Board and S&P Global, depict a troubling decline in employee engagement and a stagnation in diversity within corporations, even as employee satisfaction rates have risen. Gallup’s data highlights that employee engagement has fallen to its lowest since 2013 costing the global economy $8.9 trillion annually, while The Conference Board’s findings indicate that job satisfaction has declined across all subcomponents related to the day-to-day experience of workers, suggesting a growing disconnection from foundational elements like belonging and purpose. Meanwhile, S&P Global reports a decrease in the share of executive roles held by women from 12.2% to 11.8%, signaling a concerning trend that could delay gender parity in leadership until 2055 or beyond. Yet, research from McKinsey consistently highlights that companies with greater diversity are 25% more likely to have above-average profitability.
The Role Of Intuition And Creativity
Increasingly dominated by data and analytics, the role of intuition and creativity in decision-making is easily overshadowed. Nonetheless, human elements are critical for navigating the complexities of a modern, chaotic landscape. Balancing data-driven methods and intuitive approaches naturally opens a door to living purpose through more breakthrough and resilient brand development. In fact, Forrester has found companies that foster creativity see 1.5 times higher market share growth, highlighting the competitive advantage of integrating human elements into decision-making.
Neuroscience reveals that our most innovative moments typically occur in a state of relaxed alertness, known as the Alpha brainwave state. Fostering environments that encourage this condition unlocks greater potential for competitive advantage through imaginative problem-solving. Unleashing intuition and creativity enhances agility, nurturing intentional risk-taking that leads to success—ultimately strengthening adaptability to rapid market changes, talent retention and, thereby, growth. Through living these behaviors themselves, brand leaders support more independent thinking and encourage it in others.
Valuing Individual Contributions
Another cornerstone of building a purpose-led brand that resonates on a deeper, human level is acknowledging the unique value every person brings. This is about celebrating people’s unique strengths and contributions as integral to the success of the whole organization, ultimately enhancing engagement and cultivating a more genuine sense of belonging—key ingredients for both individual well-being and a thriving corporate culture.
Cultivating an environment where every team member is recognized as vital to delivering the collective mission enriches people’s work lives and strengthens their commitment to a brand’s success, with organizations experiencing a 31% lower voluntary turnover due to strong recognition programs according to a 2023 Achievers Workforce Institute report. In hybrid workplaces, platforms where individuals can share their insights and innovations, and be recognized for those contributions, encourage a sense of ownership and pride that transcends basic job functions. This boosts individuals’ sense of meaning while simultaneously encouraging a more collaborative and stimulating environment.
Embracing A New Brand Leadership Paradigm
The current landscape increasingly makes it clear that a more human, intuitive, and creative approach to purpose-led brand development is essential for the survival and success of modern organizations. The challenge lies in embedding these characteristics in strategy and across team dynamics, ensuring they permeate all aspects of operations. Doing so will enhance organizational health and contribute to a more equitable and sustainable world.
Adopting humanness, interconnectivity, inclusivity, transparency, respect and harmony lays the groundwork for a future where integrity and empathy are at the core of our relationships with brands, with one another, and with ourselves. Brand leaders who embrace this paradigm move beyond traditional win-loss frameworks, ensuring both long-term business success and holistic well-being. The time to act is now, and the path forward is clear: elevate brand relationships by ushering in a new era of purpose and humanity.
Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Anne Bahr Thompson, Author Do Good, Embracing Brand Citizenship to Fuel Both Purpose and Profit.
At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define or redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change, including defining a vision that propels their businesses and brands forward. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.
Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education
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