How Socially Impactful Brands Drive Revenue

If people believe they share values with a brand, they will stay loyal to your brand.

Howard Schultz

Social Impact = Relevance = Revenue

The title may read a tad ambitious (just a smidgen), but the brand impact is as impactful as it sounds!

This year’s NO B/S Conference in Melbourne facilitated a discussion between the branding sector’s brightest minds and sharpest talents. Naturally, our Brisbane branding company found ourselves in attendance at this prestigious meeting of the greats.

Michael Ventura, an Applied Empathy Advisor, lead a watershed dialogue on impactful branding, and its undervalued significance in revenue creation, declaring that “consumers only care about how your story fits into their story”.

Brand impact measures positive brand awareness, engagement and perception. It encapsulates the positive, society-wide footprint your company wants to leave on the world.

Audiences react and respond to activities your brand engages in. Anything you say or don’t say, do or don’t do, is open to interpretation in the public purview. For better or for worse, your brand’s reputation is beholden to what they think, 24/7. This directly ties into your brand’s targeted impact.

Brands that align their values with their consumers will likely gain more revenue, but the operational word here is “likely”. Actions speak louder than hollow promises. Values mean zilch when they aren’t appropriately followed up by real action.

Cutting to the chase, a long-term impact arrives from an authentic commitment to achieving your brand’s mission, looking beyond the temporary “feel-good emotions” that flowery language stirs. Earning the lifelong trust of consumers and prospects is paramount to attempts to scale your business.

However, the brand impact we’re alluding to goes beyond your products’ or services’ use values.

Social Impact Matters Most

In traditional economics, businesses are assumed to only incur private costs in the production and sales of goods and services. Unfortunately, that is one foolhardy picture that excludes its environmental, political and economic expenses.

Regardless of industry, all business activities impose indirect costs on society. And these social costs are not always denominated in convenient “$” figures.

Environmentally, all-natural commodities are finite and our environment is susceptible to pollution or irreversible human harm.

Consider this: In the global garment industry alone, 2700 litres of water is consumed to produce one T-shirt! To make matters worse, 70 billion barrels of petrochemicals are used to produce 57% of the world’s garments; eco-toxic substances that release noxious fumes (including carbon emissions) upon crude refinement.

Tragically, the wholesome facade underpinning the fashion industry can periodically, belie even more political and business malpractices. Fast-fashion icon, Zara, was exposed for paying its Istanbul-based seamstresses less-than-liveable wages to sew its garments.

These half-glass-empty statistics reveal the consequential, hidden price of human industry. Both the environment nor society can provide us with an endless stream of utility.

With 2 in 5 Australians showing a consistent interest in conscious consumption, they are enthused to make a real difference with real brands willing to make a difference.

Mr Ventura’s remarks mirror that revelation, emphasising the impact of environmental and political sustainability on consumer buying decisions.

Their cost-benefit analyses not only consider how a product or service benefits them, but how it benefits the environment, society and the economy. Their decision-making calculus is, therefore, strongly influenced by a company’s mandate to do better for the world.

Everyone has a responsibility towards the environment and society. Corporations are no longer exempt from this. Attempts to mislead would threaten to undermine your brand in the eyes of circumspect consumers.

Pivoting into Sustainability

The sordid state of international affairs is how mainstream news would describe where we find ourselves in human history. That’s exactly the kind of poor attitude that we want to eliminate!

Instead, your brand’s primary messaging should kickstart a revolution fuelled by optimism, focusing on what we can change rather than what we can’t change. Every first step matters, for what is real change but a multitude of first steps?

However, determining which ethical objective/objectives to pivot into boils down to your brand strategy’s core competencies. Breaking down the value chain into its constituent components reveals areas where sustainability goals could be directly addressed.

Cafes that procure coffee beans from plantations in developing economies could commit to paying a Fairtrade premium to farmers, accommodating price fluctuations that threaten to destabilise their wages.

Moreover, fashion houses can pledge to transition to carbon-neutral manufacturing, relying on alternative green-energy sources and developing new, recycled textiles.

In Mr Ventura’s speech, Audi was cited as a shining illustration of an enterprise bold enough to embrace sustainability as its USP.

In 2021, Audi unveiled its Vorsprung 2030 plan to electrify its entire fleet of cars. By 2030, Audi hopes to fully manufacture its cars using clean-energy sources, and recycled and reclaimed commodities.

Bold and impactful proclamations, if followed up by genuine efforts to execute them, speak to the hearts of ethical consumers. Assertive words and affirmative action are thus, the relevant qualifiers for converting prospects into sales.

A dominant position and a steadfast obligation towards meeting sustainability and ethical goals reflect a market leader ready to attain its first-mover advantage. Address the root concerns of your customers, and you’ll be channelling news streams of revenue into your brand.

Marketing Still Comes First

When it comes to favourable brand impact, the visibility of your sustainable pursuits matters dearly. As a creative agency, gaps in your digital footprint are mended through a comprehensive, web development strategy. We can charter an exact roadmap for enacting sustainable shifts across your brand’s internal processes.

Moreover, the global impact that your brand wishes to make should be loud and clear for all consumers to see and hear. Your brand’s sustainability slant should be clearly framed throughout all digital and traditional marketing channels — touchpoints covered in detail during the ideation and strategising stages.

Additionally, internal processes exposed to environmental and political risks are fertile soil for catalysing sustainable change. In a collaborative effort, the astute members of our creative agency will identify outlier opportunities across your business for achieving real-world impacts.

Being a Brisbane digital and brand agency, Vesanique’s expertise lies in amplifying your brand voice on the airwaves, positioning your brand’s mission as a message of sustainability that resonates with consumers. By establishing an assertive position on sustainability across all touchpoints, we can paint a vivid picture of your brand’s virtues.

By piquing their inquisitiveness, we can draw their fleeting attention to the pledges you’ve taken across the omnichannel. However, the onus still falls on you to fulfil your oaths, for impact strategies are irrelevant and worthless if they aren’t sustained throughout.

But first steps first! We can pave the way for your business to leave a positive, indelible mark on the marketplace. Let’s take the world by storm and lead the world by example! Shoot us a call or a message, and we’ll set up a meeting of the minds to discuss the meteoric impact you’d like to leave on the world.

Let’s talk, don’t be a stranger.