Last week, enso hosted our fourth BIG TABLE dinner. We brought together cultural leaders from some of today’s most influential brands to discuss how companies can leverage the power of people to make a positive impact in the world.
Our moderator Carol Cone, purpose-economy pioneer, led an open and honest dialogue amongst brand leaders around their strategy to rally citizens for both business success and social impact.
Here are some key take-aways from the evening about the future of people-powered brands:
People are more powerful than ever and they truly have an ability to change the direction of a company. To create a brand that is authentic, you must build an internal community that believes in what you’re doing.
Oftentimes, too much is lost in translation between a visionary founder’s story and the thousandth or hundred-thousandth employee. Make sure your teams know your mission, and understand that they are part of something bigger than a product or services company. TOMS does this through effective storytelling and sending employees on giving trips; Reebok does it by encouraging employees to get active throughout the day and asking them to tag social content with #fitasscompany so they can aggregate and celebrate their employees fit lives. Inspire your employees so they’re equipped to become the best external advocates of your company values.
educate citizens around your mission:
While most brands continue to seek cultural relevance through a carefully crafted product narrative, some brands are embracing people as part of their core business, growing exponentially and disrupting industries. Don’t just tell people about your mission. Find a tangible way to connect citizens to this mission and provide a call to action that everyone can rally behind.
Museums used to just present information to the public. Now, cultural institutions like The Broad and Hammer Museum are figuring out how to engage the public in a dialogue with their collections and exhibitions. They are moving the art-going experience away from a curated institutionalized perspective towards a more relatable, digestible art experience for the public.
Alex Capriotti, Director of Marketing and Communications at The Broad, recognizes this shift in cultural power means advertising too must shift from promotion to education: “Let’s use our advertising dollars to educate people about brands instead of just promoting.”
Whether you’re a brand mobilizing people to share knowledge, open homes to guests, or fight for rights, involving people in your mission creates a much bigger opportunity for the business and for the world.
brands have the power to drive real change:
Rapidly-formed, people-organized movements sparked by both individual microleaders (#JeSuisCharlie) and brands (American Express’ Small Business Saturday) have emerged around the world sparking cultural and political change.
Brands have the voice, reach, social currency and power to influence politics. Brands like Patagonia are shining light on issues they care about and driving people to take action. Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacket” and “Worn Wear” campaigns are tangible ways they are tackling consumerism and the bigger problems around capitalism. By creating meaning around something larger than profits, the brand localizes heavy issues and activates the individual power of the people that support its values.
People are not just buying products; they are buying meaning and investing in companies that align with their values. Even more, they are investing in a business model that embraces responsibility to community, nature, workers, and customers. As we shift from a 'consumer' mindset to a 'citizen' mindset, we begin to realize our individual and collective power, and there's a big opportunity to turn agency into action. The web’s democratizing effect across culture, business, and politics has given rise to an era in which there is more transparency and awareness about what is possible. Brands like Mattel are realizing that they not only have the power to change the world through the products they make, they have a responsibility to do so.
This is more than a shift towards philanthropy. Brands must think about how they can ‘do good,’ instead of just ‘give’. This is evolving communication into education, turning advertising into a utility, and harnessing the power of millions of people around the world to make an impact.
always an opportunity for impact:
Not all brands were established with a social mission in mind - but that doesn’t mean that a brand can't grow into serving a bigger purpose in the world. Just as individuals grow into their purpose, so can brands. To do so requires authentic support from senior leaders, transparency, and getting started -— even if the initial efforts are limited to trials in one product line, one store, or one community. People accept and embrace brands that make authentic strides, and openly express, with humility, that this journey may take a decade or more to establish.
Thank you to our amazing participants.
Paul Hendricks, Patagonia
Nancy Perlman, City of LA
Alex Capriotti, The Broad
Laura Probst, Honest Company
Kirsten Filarsky, Honest Company
Gia Storms, Hammer Museum
Rebecca Foster, Healthy Child, Healthy World
Sean Knierim, Jeff Skoll Group
Check out the full photo album here.
