There have been more books written about the power of purpose than any time in history. You’ve read them. You’ve heard speeches about them. You know, the ones that speak of how brands are not what they sell but what they stand for. The popular advice that brands should be of greater value than the sum of their parts, that the most powerful brands put something back into the world… you get the idea.
Sure that all sounds good – even feels good – but it’s too often an alibi for a company vision that doesn’t see past its own boardroom. The notion that purpose precedes all else fails to respect the first great principle of marketing success – make it about them, not you.
Change For Good
While having purpose is hardly an objectionable position, the more effective strategy requires more than just a shift to being customer-centric. Brands need to get there with a finer focus, acting as agents of positive change. To see marketing as the impetus to propels others forward. To inspire positive action steps for the betterment in people’s lives.
The premise of inspiring consumer actions of positive behavioral change to create brand affinity is grounded in the psychology of human behavior. This idea is so much more than the notion of feeling fresher in the morning, or offering push button solutions that solve everything. Rather this approach requires showing the connection between brand and the betterment of the human condition… as that connection is what is most motivating to consumers. It’s raw emotional territory where the battle for today’s consumer hearts and minds will be won.
Why?
The brands that are most committed to positive behavioral change become the most rewarded.
A study by DiGo/Market Theory states that positive behavior change brands gain in three huge ways:
- They spend less to acquire each customer.
- They earn higher lifetime value per customer because they buy more frequently and for a longer period of time.
- They have more loyalists and advocates who spread the word so brands are less dependent on paid media.
Who are your Creative Catalysts?
Yet brands often can’t get there alone. Internal bias is often too strong (and organizations too encumbered) to peel back to the core of the brand offering that most directly influences positive behavioral change and communicate it effectively. Done well, this moves the most people to commitment marked by lifelong loyalty.
“Finding and articulating higher level meaning in brand marketing requires high functioning client-agency partnerships.”
At ROJEK, we believe that the road map to the customer destination marked by the most positive change starts with hiring the right agency partners. Ones who are aligned in positive potential. It’s a better-together way to work.
Our agency recruitment process is based on understanding and leveraging shared values among people, teams, and the organizations they work for. It’s called CultureFit™.
We find the right agencies among the universe of industry choices that will align, illuminate, and elevate the most important parts of your marketing investment. We’ve been doing it for over 30 years. The unique agency sourcing process is empathy-based, energetic and positive (aka most clients love it). But we don’t do this without using real-time cultural assessment data.
Where Does Your Culture Rank?
What Advertiser – Agency Cultural Fit Isn’t
We’ve never believed that cultural fit is a feel-good nice to have, about agency like-ability or even a creative beauty contest. It’s never done justice with one question on a final agency presentation score-sheet. It’s not an after-thought or even a tie-breaker.
It should be revealed upstream in the agency sourcing process so nobody is asked to invest in something that doesn’t fit, as the risk of cultural disconnect is the leading indicator of agency-advertiser relationships that don’t last. Cultural fit is the frame of reference for all that follows, including inspired work that excites people and moves them to better outcomes.
The ROJEK model reduces risk in hiring or changing agency partners. It investigates the alignment of current cultural state of brands and agencies with that of their desired states. It highlights the triggers for accelerated positive growth as well as the identification of relationship hurdles that will get in the way. It provides a path for brand and agency to start a relationship in a way that is immediately productive out of the gate and builds value over time.
Let’s Connect!
Have a warm and happy fall. If you want to chat about the resources you need for the year ahead, or how ROJEK’s CultureFit™ can help your brand define a path to more powerful marketing partnerships marked by positive change, reach out to Lorraine Stewart or Michael Goldberg.
"Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I knew you, I have been changed for good."