BCLC continues to embed social purpose into its business and earlier this year commissioned Forrester Consulting Ltd. (Forrester) to study how other social purpose organizations are translating their purpose into their marketing strategy and practices.
In an era of change where consumers are buying based on belief and seeking stronger connections with brands than ever before, social purpose companies like BCLC must fundamentally shift the way they communicate their brand. BCLC wanted to understand how leading purpose-driven enterprises have made this shift away from traditional marketing practices and embraced social purpose at every level.
Forrester interviewed two groups of individuals on their experiences articulating and operationalizing social purpose and how those experiences impacted their marketing strategy and practices. These groups included 11 marketing leaders in organizations that have a declared social purpose and four academic experts on social purpose organizations in the US, the UK, and Canada.
Forrester’s final report, Marketing on Purpose: What Marketing Looks Like in the Purpose-Driven Enterprise, provides BCLC and other companies with a roadmap for embedding social purpose into their marketing process. It offers eight recommendations that can guide teams in their pursuit to activate purpose in their marketing. A few of them include:
- Marketing’s job is to influence behaviour, not values
- Be transparent every step of the way — both internally and externally
- Be consistent in words and actions
“This paper reminds us that effective social purpose marketing is a long-term promise that requires a consistent strategy and a clear implementation framework,” said Peter ter Weeme, BCLC’s Chief Social Purpose Officer and Vice President, Player Experience. “The knowledge and recommendations in this report can enhance the way we collectively tell our stories and reach our audiences, further advancing the social purpose community and encouraging new companies to consider the same transformation. Together, we can work in tandem toward addressing society’s challenges of today – toward the greater good.”
Marketing on Purpose is now available for free online at: corporate.bclc.com.
Watch the following video from BCLC to learn more about the insights and recommendations included in the paper, as highlighted by Peter ter Weeme and study participants Bridget Russo and Denise Taschereau:
