Rebel with a cause: Why having a 'cause' alone isn't enough anymore

Navigating the content space in this day and age is arguably a massive challenge for any brand trying to establish a presence in a digital-first crowded space, particularly when you have a message for an audience who does not necessarily know what they need or want. However, by figuring out how to create a compelling story for themselves, brands can overcome the challenges presented in the space and stand apart. 

"If you are an organisation that has a message for your audiences, or a product you want to pass out to the market that people don't know about or don't know if they need, the challenge would be around how do you tell people that they need to know about this?" said Qiyun Woo (pictured left), an environmentalist and content creator at environmental Instagram page The Weird and Wild. That's where messaging and standing for a cause can really help a brand given her solution lies in purpose driven content and identifying a cause that a brand can align itself with.

Woo was speaking at the opening panel of MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Content360 event, a two-day long programme featuring influential content creators, marketers and advertisers. She was joined by Sean Foo, the founder of blog Dear Straight People and brand storyteller Benjamin “Mr Miyagi” Lee.

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With the reality being to drive profit growth for many companies today, unfortunately this ends up with many brands and marketers staying away from causes. For example, in areas such as sustainability, many brand marketers find it difficult to predict how fast green consumers will demand sustainable brands, and they often use this reason not to act. Many companies are still treading cautiously in the space given the fear of backlash.

A study by Forrester also found that while many B2C CMOs (76%) want to showcase more green initiatives, they are also afraid of greenwashing.

However, according to Woo, creating a brand identity that people will identify with, goes beyond profit. Rather, it is about identifying what your brand stands for and the values it aligns with and then being an example in order to attract the right consumers.

"It's beyond making a profit," Woo said. "It's about what your brand stands for and what values want it to align with. It's a matter of actually finding similarities that people can identify with and say okay, I should be concerned about this," Woo continued.  Beyond aligning yourself with a cause, brands need to ensure that they walk the talk in order to attract customers with similar beliefs who will be keen to align themselves with the cause and who will then translate into sales. 

"From a marketing perspective, it's also a do before you tell situation and that's also because when you tell your story, it comes across very well and you're able to engage audiences who believe in what you're saying," said Woo.

Meanwhile, Lee also added that unfortunately in a performance driven world, sometimes sentiments don't always translate to sales which then send alarm bells ringing for companies. 

"I think a lot of times we get stuck in performance metrics especially when we have access to all the data. But just because a million people saw your latest big talk doesn't mean the company is necessarily doing well. So, marketers might start to panic when these numbers don't translate into sales," said Lee.

His advice? Simply don't get caught up in the hype. "The gold standard for me is actually a proper post campaign research into your marketing campaign," he said.

"Success is how relevant [your content] continues to be and how it continues to resonate with audiences as well," he said.

Choosing the right audience

If you really want to make a difference, you have to choose your audience carefully, added on Lee. "You need people to believe in you as a brand first before they can believe in the product," he said. "It's like the analogy that if you put a drop of blue ink in an ocean, you won't be able to see it. You're better off putting a drop of dye in a bathtub so that it will be visible."

Lee went on to say that choosing your audience correctly lies with understanding them. "If you look like your audience, if you sound like your audience, you would have chosen your audiences already," he said.

Adding on, Foo reminded brands that while they focus on their core audience, they should also beware of alienating people who don't align with their values as the backlash that can come with that can be very harsh.

"Marketers need to really focus more on why they say certain things in the first place instead of having a knee jerk reaction to backlash," he said before adding that this takes experience and that after a while, one tends to know what works and what doesn't. 

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