Do good things
There is a huge opportunity in the world for brands to both build trust and create new revenues. And while the world may be getting more complex, this opportunity is in essence very simple: To do good things.
Trust in corporations to do what is right is hovering around a historically weak level. This is no surprise in a post Enron, post financial crisis, post BP world. However, what drives improvements in trust appears to be shifting from a narrow view around product and service quality to a broader view around transparency and honesty.
Against this backdrop, we also have huge social problems to deal with. Take the single issue of childhood obesity. Here, a third of America’s children are clinically obese, we have an epidemic of diabetes to deal with, and worst of all we have the first generation in 100 years who’s parents may systematically outlive their children.
Clearly, helping to reverse or even just reduce levels of childhood obesity is not just a worthy program of social good, but also a huge commercial opportunity. An opportunity with the potential to re-instill trust in those brands who pursue it. A win win, rather than simply a win.
The beauty is that we have the ingredients at our fingertips to make radical change happen. We know many of the reasons why our children have become so fat. One reason they’re fat is because brands have become so good at innovating, marketing and branding things that taste great, but aren’t very good for us.
There’s no reason in the world that we can’t use the exact same techniques and focus on things that are good for us. There’s no reason we can’t brand broccoli to make it sexy. After all, it’s no more a commodity than caramel flavored fizzy water spiked with high fructose corn syrup. Equally, there’s no reason we can’t use technologies like Xbox Kinect to create entirely new sports that people can engage with from their living room. Connected online, through Facebook, phone and more.
And childhood obesity is only a single datapoint. What about education, healthcare, managing our finances, reducing our impact on the planet and finding new ways to wean ourselves off of oil? The list goes on.
The commercial and social opportunities are immense. The solutions only as limited as our imagination’s. Just think about amazing that is. To do something good, make yourself feel good, tap into real commercial opportunity and rebuild trust in your corporation. And maybe even leave a legacy.
Sounds like fun. Lets go do it.
@pworthington
paul.worthington@wolffolins.com
(Paul Worthington)
