As part of our #MattrMovement series, we want to educate brands on how best to discover, implement and measure the impact of defining their purpose and expressing it in everything they do. For our next event in June, we’re going to be focussing specifically on how brands walk the walk once they’ve defined their mission. Whether that be internal or external, we’ll be joined by Karma Cola Founder Simon Coley, Ex-Global Brand Director of Lynx/Axe Fernando Desouches and Eve Sleep Head of Brand Kuba Wieczorek. All of whom will be sharing how they communicated their brands to success and what challenges they had to overcome to achieve it, to book your ticket click here.
To help you with some pre-event inspiration we’ve pulled together 4 brands that successfully executed their purpose in various ways and how you can learn from them.
1. DESIGN GROUP: INCLUDING YOUR STAFF
When B2B global gifting and celebrations design company, International Greetings expanded and merged, they needed to find a way to unify 14 disparate businesses and brands, spanning 9 countries and 1200 staff under one name: Design Group. They recognised to get their staff behind their ethos ‘everyone is a designer’ they needed involve them in the process and put them at the forefront of the mission.
To help get staff on board, Design Group created a global event where a giant jigsaw puzzle was constructed made of individual pieces, “designed” by real team members. By bringing the pieces together, the puzzle physically manifested the coming together of the different brands under one roof.
The puzzle pieces and photographic books documenting the rebrand sit in every office around the world, reinforcing that design and their staff is at the heart of everything Design Group does. Their values continue to live beyond the initial campaign and has been evident in the increase of staff engagement by 85% and the business seeing global knowledge swapping between the various members of staff and departments.
WHY WE LOVE THIS: Design Group put their staff first. By including their employees on the journey they managed to align global businesses all behind one inclusive mission. It wasn't just a form of digital communication, it was a multi-touchpoint initiative that physically reminded the staff that they are at the heart of the business.
2. ZAPPOS: PRACTICING WHAT YOU PREACH
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has been the key driver to building the business success with a particular focus on employee happiness and providing the best possible customer service. Standing by their mission to provide a ‘WOW customer service and to be humble’ all future employees are assessed based on their values not just their skills. So if you’ve got an air of arrogance, you’re unlikely to make the cut.
Once the team is on board the business provides a service like no other and when Tony encourages his employees to always go above and beyond - he really means it. That’s why his staff have been known to:
Send an overnight courier of a free pair of shoes to a best man who arrived to a wedding shoeless
Went to a rival shoe store to buy a pair of shoes for a customer when Zappos ran out of stock
Stayed on a customer call for 10 hours and 29 minutes because Zappos doesn’t have a limit on their call time.
All pretty impressive right? Goes to show when you embed your mission within your culture and your employees believe in it, they’ll go the extra mile out of their own choice.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Building an emotional connection with your audience as an online retailer is never easy but with strong leadership and considered staff training, Zappos instilled their values in their representatives and has provided world class service - completely in line with their mission. It’s worth considering how can you tool up and train your staff to live and breathe your values when interacting with your customers.
3. IKEA - MAKING CSR AN ESSENTIAL
We all know Ikea are infamous for having a brilliant brand positioning and in doing so have cemented themselves solidly in the hearts and minds of consumers (and future generations to come!).But they don't just stop with designing products to “create a better every day life” they’re now looking at the stores spaces and customer purchasing process to demonstrate their commitment to a circular economy.
Launching in Greenwich, their latest sustainable store will incorporate green technologies such as PV panels, rainwater harvesting, renewable construction materials and greywater treatment aiming to reduce water consumption by 50%. As well as this, several in-store solutions will all offer a furniture take-back scheme and a dedicated 80 square meter space to encourage customers to reuse and recycle their own products.
To spread the message of their sustainability plans, Ikea’s UK sustainability manager Sæbjørnsen featured on an episode of edie's Sustainable Business Covered podcast, to discuss how they plan to encourage customers to take on the sustainability transition and bring it to life.
WHY WE LOVE IT: Not only are the business designing sustainable products, but they're now building the spaces and processes to help their customers become more considerate of the environment. Showing that they consider every And they’re voicing their plans in on mediums like podcasts where they have a captive audience interested in learning more. Simple techniques applied very well.
4. MAJOR PLAYERS - OFFERING UNEXPECTED VALUE
Recruitment has always had a hard time building trust with their candidates as they often have to battle pre-conceptions of a commission-hungry headhunter. But brands like Major Players are starting to show the human side to the recruiting process offering guidance to candidates, businesses more recently supporting the freelance community with their latest Major Collective platform.
If you head to their website you’ll see a glowing hub of useful content, from insightful blogs, to regular events with reputable brand speakers and creating online video using their staff to offer genuinely helpful advice.
And to show how they’re giving back to society, as part of the Major Players voluntary employment scheme the business also works on activities with Spitalfields Homeless trust building on their life skills and providing CV workshop sessions.
Similar to brands like Hubspot, Major Players are now putting valuable content at the heart of their service.
WHAT WE LOVE: It's brilliant to see a category like recruitment being re-energised and showing their audience how they really care. What’s brilliant about Major Player’s content is none of it is hugely expensive and utilises the skills the business has in-house. Just by collating original, helpful and human-centric content in one space, Major Players is changing the perceptions and building a loyal community.
So whether it's internal training, morale-boosting exercises or sharing valuable and free tips with your audience, always consider the best ways to execute purpose. As we’ve highlighted there are so many different touch points to strengthen your brand values that go well beyond the traditional external comms and could have a much greater impact. If you'd like to attend our next event to learn more...BOOK HERE NOW.