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You are here: Home / Archives for marketing

marketing

Jaguar’s turn to Virtual Reality: Increased Car Sales

July 1, 2016 by Julie McGrath

Jaguar says VR is helping it sell an ‘incredible amount of cars’ as it launches Andy Murray experience

Having signed up Andy Murray for a new virtual reality experience, Jaguar has insisted the technology isn’t a gimmick and is resulting in improved car sales.

The #FeelWimbledon VR campaign is part of Jaguar’s sponsorship of the iconic tennis tournament and places users onto Centre Court to experience the atmosphere while hitting the winning shot as Andy Murray.

The virtual reality experience will debut at Goodwood Festival of Speed before being placed at London Waterloo station for the duration of the tournament. It will also be distributed throughout Jaguar’s car dealerships via 20,000 Google Cardboards.

With virtual reality (VR) set to become a $1bn (£710m) industry by the end of 2016, marketers are seeking to tap into the platform’s storytelling power to set the agenda for VR excellence.

Jaguar Land Rover, in particular, first launched a VR experience (in partnership with IBM) back in September 2014. The VR experience allows an in-store consumer who is wearing a headset to choose the model, make, colour and features of a car. The experience also allows consumers to get into the car to check out interior features with a 360-degree view, and to make real-time changes.

And Robert Herd, head of communications at Jaguar Land Rover UK, said VR is having a major impact on the brand.

“We felt there was a perfect opportunity to build something cutting edge for Wimbledon and we want the public to experience hitting the winning smash and how that feeling of joy has similarities to driving one of our cars,” he told Marketing Week.

“Jaguar now designs its cars in a VR environment and sells its cars in a VR environment; it is incredibly successful for driving purchases.

“Yes, initially consumers think it is gimmick but they quickly convert and it is driving a lot of additional car sales for us.”

Robert Herd, head of communications at Jaguar Land Rover UK

Herd said there is now a “lack of fear” among consumers to try VR experiences – with Jaguar having previewed models including the F Type, F Face and Discovery Sport through the technology – and that the car brand will continue to “evolve” its role within the retail experience.

Standing out at Wimbledon

In a recent interview, Alexandra Willis, head of comms, content and digital at the All English Lawn Tennis Club, advised sponsors: “Fans are so discerning now they can spot immediately if someone is trying to pigeon hole themselves into speaking in a millennial way. You have to be authentic to your brand and its ties to Wimbledon. Don’t just do Facebook Live as everyone else is.”

Yet, despite the warning, Jaguar’s Herd is confident it can stand out.

The luxury car brand will launch a series of films celebrating the ‘four emotions of Jaguar’ to fit around the tournament and has also created reactive videos so its activity can change based around the event. The latter will include a film that shows the Jaguar F-Pace roof opening and closing should it rain during play and the roof is required to close on Centre Court.

Herd says the key to sponsor success at Wimbledon is being reactive and brands that just sit back after creating an above the line campaign will do more damage than good.

He concluded: “We can change our messaging or video campaigns based on the results. As a sponsor, you’ll fail if your campaign can’t adapt in real-time.”

– Thomas Hobbs

Filed Under: Latest Industry News Tagged With: car, Jaguar, marketing, reality, Sales, technology, virtual, VR

A guide to building a good Marketing Team!

June 27, 2016 by Julie McGrath

A Detailed Guide on how to build good Marketing Teams

The right team dynamic can have a huge impact on productivity, business growth and employee retention. Marketers at Notonthehighstreet.com, Aldi, Boden and ClearScore share what it takes to create the perfect team.

There is no set model for building and nurturing an effective marketing team, as all teams and objectives are different. As marketing functions and communication channels become increasingly dispersed, however, businesses are changing how they structure and manage their teams. This is reflected in the emergence of new job titles such as chief digital officer or chief customer officer.

One of the best ways to understand effective team-building is to look at high-performing brands and the team dynamics that drive them.

Supermarket chain Aldi, for example, has enjoyed a long run of success in the UK thanks in large part to the strength and skill of its marketing team. At the Marketing Week Awards last month, Aldi came away with two of the top awards – Team of the Year and Brand of the Year – in recognition of its continuing business growth and recent executions, such as its partnership with the Great Britain Olympic team.

Aldi’s UK marketing director Adam Zavalis, who heads up a team of 19 at the retailer’s headquarters in Atherstone, Warwickshire, believes there are several core attributes needed to build a successful marketing team. “An effective team is made up of complementary skill sets, great people managers and personalities with the right mindset,” he says.

“They should be hungry to keep learning, not afraid to share their knowledge with others and willing to embrace change and be agile.”

Zavalis adds that his marketing team constantly searches for “marginal gains” that will help it improve and maintain its momentum. “Effective teams need to understand the direction of travel that you as a brand and organization are headed in,” he says.

“The individuals within the team need to understand their roles and responsibilities and collaborate across departments so they can make significant contributions towards achieving those goals and know how to take all stakeholders on the same journey.”

Clothing retailer Boden also places great importance on having a clear delineation of roles and duties in its marketing team. Responsibility for leading a team of 70 is split between global brand director Penny Herriman and commercial director Mark Binnington. Herriman explains that she is responsible for “the customer, the brand and communication”, while Binnington looks after performance marketing functions and sales.

“There’s an inherent tension that is a good thing to have in a business,” she says. “It’s the right brain and the left brain – the creative brain and the rational brain, the instinct and the data. Ultimately, as a senior marketer you have got to be able to wrap all those things up together.”

The Boden business has undergone considerable restructuring in recent years and in 2015 launched a new “more contemporary” brand positioning using the slogan ‘New British’. The change reflects the ongoing evolution of Boden as a digital company geared around ecommerce, having started life as a direct mail catalogue business in 1991.

“It starts with changes in customer behavior and making sure that we change our business to reflect that,” says Herriman. “As always in business, there are people under 30 years old who understand this because they are the digital natives, but then you also have to skill up.

“We have had a big digital development programme for the people who need to learn that stuff. It’s also about bringing agility into the business – digital has enabled us to speed up, whereas a catalogue business is generally very fixed and slower.”

Accommodating different skill sets is also important to online retailer Notonthehighstreet.com. Earlier this month, the company hired customer director Hannah Webley-Smith from Benefit Cosmetics, where she was marketing director for UK and Ireland. Her appointment is the latest in a string of new hires for the retailer, which includes Sarah Atkins joining as head of brand marketing from John Lewis and Louise Winmill as head of corporate communications and CSR, from PR agency Freuds.

The team comprises “a good mix” of people who have worked within the business from the early years and those who have recently been hired as specialists.

“I know that all of them are hungry to learn from one another. This means we can work together to ensure the mission and ethos of the business remains at the heart of all we do, while also bringing in fresh thinking and ideas across the functions,” says Webley-Smith.

She sees the injection of new talent as “a brilliant opportunity” to develop her team, which numbers around 40 people. She adds that her title of customer director is an important statement about the direction and focus of her marketing team. “It’s because my job is about every touch point with our customers,” she explains.

“We have to deliver consistently, whether that is online, through an app, or the various offline channels and partnerships. Recent ‘Open Door’ experience showed how important the physical experience is for any business, including those that are online, and I am excited to have joined a business that is so inventive in that way.”

Productive meetings

Day-to-day interactions within a marketing team are just as important as its overall structure. According to new research by Wisembly, a collaborative working platform, marketing departments have the longest meetings of any other business department – an average 1 hour 42 minutes – and an average of seven meetings per week.

The survey of UK employees also finds that 37% of marketers feel their meetings could be more productive, while 22% believe they do not get the opportunity to voice their opinion in meetings – more than in any other department. Meanwhile, 100% of the marketers surveyed admit to multi-tasking on non-related tasks such as checking emails during meetings.

“Too many meetings can begin without a clear objective for the outcome,” says Webley-Smith. “Every participant should be clear as to why they are there and what they should be gaining from that meeting.”

However, that is not to say that all meetings should be about receiving direct action for your particular marketing or creative function, she adds. “It could be about gaining wider exposure to core business challenges that leads to a flash of inspiration that you didn’t expect.”

Anna Kilmurray, head of marketing at online credit check business ClearScore, says working in smaller groups and using collaborative tools have helped her to oversee more productive meetings. ClearScore features in Marketing Week’s list of 100 Disruptive Brands, published last month, and has grown from eight to 36 employees over the past year.

The company is seeking to maintain the fast pace of its early growth by fostering a competitive spirit, she says. This includes organizing projects into three-month long ‘races’, which are each divided further into ‘sprints’. “We even do our own mini awards to recognize those who have contributed over and above expectations,” she explains.

“We are not afraid to tear up the playbook and try different ways of working – we’re about to break the company into multi-disciplined factions to empower teams to deliver projects more autonomously.”

Q&A: Adam Zavalis, UK marketing director, Aldi

What is special or unique about the way the Aldi team works that makes it so effective?

“At Aldi, we never rest on our laurels or take anything for granted. If we are fortunate enough to gain a degree of success, we may pause for a short while and celebrate but most importantly we learn from what went well and also what didn’t quite work, so we can build on it.”

“Like the great Team GB athletes, we are supporting on the road to Rio, we keep searching for the marginal gains that will keep the momentum going and keep us moving forwards. It never stops and we know we’re simply the current custodians of this great brand with a duty to keep driving us towards greater growth.”

Are there any areas for improvement that you are looking to address in terms of the way your team works?

“We are always looking for improvements: new ideas, better ways of collaborating, greater efficiency so we can achieve more, and more killer consumer insights that keep the progression and growth moving. There are no secrets, it’s about constant progression.”

More than a third of marketers feel their meetings could be more productive. What can marketing leaders do to improve the quality of their meetings?

“Every meeting, marketing or otherwise, should have a purpose, a goal and everyone should go  into the meeting knowing what they expect to get out of it, what is expected of them and what they need to do as a result of the meeting.”

“However, as marketers we sometimes need longer meetings for ideas to flow and that can take time. Sometimes this can make people feel uncomfortable when they are under pressure and have a thousand other things to get done but if it’s managed within a framework, then it’s those moments that can lead you to something unique, compelling and sometimes something very special.”

“To build an effective team from the start you need to set out your vision for the culture, creativity and working environment you wish to create.”

“At its heart, the vision needs to reflect the importance of building connections between the multiple marketing functions. For a customer base to understand the brand, all channels and functions need to be aligned and conveying the same message. As the leader of that team, it is essential that this is a focus from the start.”

“Another key element is ensuring that all functions have built and bought into the plan – ensuring they are working towards a shared vision and goals. Building a culture that is both supportive and invests in team members is essential in gaining a team’s trust and bringing them with you in the direction required for the business.”

“Ensuring that every team member understands their part in the bigger picture, and can see progression and development for themselves that is intrinsically linked to the development of the business, is also important in building loyalty to the department and the brand.”

– Jonathan Bacon

If you have an interest in marketing then be sure to check out our latest marketing role here!

Filed Under: Latest Industry News Tagged With: advice, building, business, guide, marketing, teams, teamwork

Why Marketers make good Entrepreneurs

June 24, 2016 by Julie McGrath

Sir Richard Branson talks about why marketers make good entrepreneurs and the need to take risks

Do you think marketers can make good entrepreneurs?

“A good entrepreneur starts with a customer problem. From this point, they can develop a solution and with passion, hard work and a bit of a risk and luck, they stand a good chance of success. Marketers are very well positioned to understand those customer problems, which is a great start.”

What advice would you offer marketers looking to advance their career?

“Focus on what you’re great at and what interests you – it’s so important to love what you do. Always listen to people’s advice, ignoring the naysayers. Mentors are so important I wouldn’t have got anywhere in the airline industry without the mentorship of Sir Freddie Laker founder of Laker airways. Now, I love mentoring young entrepreneurs.”

“Don’t be afraid of risk. Most people immediately have negative thoughts when they hear that word. When somebody is talking to me about risk, I hear “opportunity”. Starting a business is undoubtedly a risk, but it can be the most rewarding thing you ever do. One of the main things holding people back from starting a business, or from doing anything they want to in life, is self-belief. You have to think: ‘Screw it, just do it’.”

– Sarah Vizard

If you are interested in Marketing then be sure to check out our latest Marketing role here!

Filed Under: Latest Industry News Tagged With: branson, business, entrepreneurs, marketers, marketing, richard

Why brands are applying the principles of psychology to design

May 29, 2016 by Julie McGrath

Why brands are applying the principles of psychology to design

Marketers are increasingly tapping into the power of psychology to improve the impact of design and give their brands the cutting edge.

 

There is more to design than meets the eye. In order to stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace, brands including Heinz, Oxo RAF & even our own brand Graffiti Recruitment are applying the principles of psychology and using neuroscience techniques to create designs that resonate with consumers in both an immediate and lasting way.

Psychological principles – concerning behaviour, attitudes, aspirations and motivations – can help brands understand how their logos or packaging make consumers react. All visuals create a pattern of attention, which is why it is so important for brands to give designs a clear focus, as humans have limited attention spans, explains psychologist Nathalie Nahaï.

“It’s also important to think about the principle of cognitive load, which relates to the energy it takes to process a task,” she adds. “Good design reduces the mental effort and makes it easier to take the desired action like buying the product you want,” explains Nahaï.

A sans serif font, for example, requires less effort to read, while some colours evoke an immediate feeling, such as red for feelings of love or anger and blue, which is associated with trust and calmness and green is associated renewal, balance, energy harmony and growth.

Designing for global appeal

With an estimated global audience of 400 million, the Premier League had to ensure that its 2016/2017 season rebrand, which was unveiled in February, could translate worldwide across social media, events branding, television, online and an app.

The redesign was a departure from its headline sponsorship model with former partner Barclays, giving the Premier League full ownership of all branding.

The result of a decade-long research project, including in-depth interviews and discussions with a 15,000-strong fan panel, the rebrand also represented an opportunity to communicate the Premier League’s “inclusive and inspirational” values in the wake of last year’s FIFA corruption scandal, says head of marketing – Craig Edmondson.

“Being modern was at the forefront of our thinking and how to talk to an audience of millennials. We had to think how our new logo would fit with the other brands they commonly consume such as Spotify, Airbnb and YouTube,” he explains. “We moved away from our upper case serif font because we want to have a conversation with fans and it felt like we were shouting. Also, the standing lion looked slightly confrontational, which is not what we’re about.”

To give a feeling of informality the Premier League opted for a bespoke sans serif font. Although the lion remains, it has been simplified to a chunky representation of the animal’s head. The team consulted a professor of animal studies to understand how the lion translates across different cultures, discovering a general association with pride and strength, as well as  a distinctive hunting style involving playing in positions, like footballers.

The use of vivid pink, green, acid yellow and cyan, combined with the purple of the logo – a less corporate alternative to the traditional navy – is intended to speak to a diverse audience of men, women and children.

Instinctive and rational

Neuroscience – the monitoring of brain activity using technology such as MRI scans – can also be used to help marketers better understand why people remember certain designs over others.

According to professor of marketing at Warwick Business School Nick Lee the more references you can connect to a brand, the higher the likelihood the memory will be retained and recalled, especially if you can create a positive emotional connection.

Coca-Cola’s new design, for example, which features the same logo but ties all variants together with a red circle ‘brand code’ allows consumers to quickly identify the brand across all touchpoints thanks to the unified design.

Vice-president for global design James Sommerville called this new approach “a global design language that utilises a historical brand icon to present the range of Coca-Cola products available today in a contemporary and simple way.”

To understand what makes consumers immediately connect with a brand, but also what engages them in the long term, marketers are increasingly applying the concept of System 1 and System 2 thinking to their design strategy.

System 1 is instinctive thinking, processed instantly on a non-conscious level, thereby lowering the cognitive load. By contrast, System 2 is a rationalisation stage involving cognitive processing, for example when consumers consider what they think of a brand and the reasons to buy it.

If marketers can tap into System 1 thinking when working on their design strategy, they can make the purchase decision or call to action seamless for consumers, encouraging them to transact.

Working with agency Coley Porter Bell, the RAF used a process called ‘visual planning’, which involves using visceral System 1 thinking during the strategic planning process by distilling the brand vision into five words and translating them into images. This is especially important as 90% of System 1 thinking is visual.

“By doing so, we were more likely to ‘bake in’ the right visual triggers to communicate the right things from the start,” explains RAF head of media and communications Nigel Bradshaw. “We used these intuitively selected images as the blueprint for the design work.”

The result is RAF 100, a new campaign to celebrate the organisation’s centenary year in 2018. It is designed to honour the past while at the same time looking to the future and challenging traditional perceptions of the RAF.

The organisation wanted the campaign to appeal to millennials whose lives are heavily influenced by social media and therefore took inspiration from reference points such as Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat. Based on its planning, the RAF opted for a graphic, simple and bold concept, designed to gain traction on mobile and apps (see image, top).

“The bold, block letter forms stem directly from the RAF logo, yet by filling in the [negative space within letters] it creates a bold and contemporary look,” suggests Bradshaw. “The type also acts as a window on to the past and we can use this layering to juxtapose historical RAF achievements alongside modern representations.”

The RAF opted for a vibrant colour palette of pinks and oranges, chosen to challenge traditional perceptions of the organisation and to help it appear credible alongside the lifestyle brands popular with millennials.

Virtual reality

The consistency of a bold typeface, strong colours and design simplicity also play an important role for stock cube brand Oxo. Despite going through a number of permutations the brand has built up a high level of recognition on supermarket shelves for more than 100 years. The overall design has evolved to include food messages, recipe ideas and icons of a knife and fork, all linking back to food imagery.

Premier Foods category marketing director for flavours and seasonings Helen Touchais explains: “We want to convey the fact that people can use our products to make their food taste delicious, so it is important that the visual cues link to food.”

With consumers spending an average of eight to 10 seconds looking at a fixture in the supermarket, it is crucial to grab their attention. For this reason Oxo has invested in a virtual reality suite to test packaging in a simulated physical environment, using cognitive eye tracking. Consumers wear special glasses through which they see a picture of the shelf laid out in front of them.

To test the best colour and messaging Oxo asked consumers to find the beef stock cubes using three different packaging variations, tracking where their eyes travelled. The tests found the red packaging with the classic Oxo typeface was 40% faster than other options to find on the shelf.

“The bold, curvaceous typeface has a jovial appearance and being a palindrome it stands out really well on the shelves,” says Touchais. “The simplicity of the design equates to the simplicity of use, while the colours and typeface suggest a sense of dynamism and the fact Oxo helps liven up food.”

Brand recognition

Having a timeless, confident design that is easily recognisable is also key for Heinz, which looks to play on System 1 thinking to create products customers instinctively want to pick up.

“We are building a shortcut for the brain through the packaging and the design credibility we have built up over decades,” explains Colin Haddley, director of strategy, insight and capability.

“We use lots of research techniques, such as talking to consumers in focus groups and carrying out implicit research. For example, we test the recognition of design by timing how long it takes a shopper to find a new design on a shelf. We also create a heat map of sentiment, overlaying the rational results with the emotional.”

Heinz packaging is designed to convey brand values of confidence, timelessness, accessibility, warmth, comfort and quality. This is communicated through specific food cues, such as the drip of juice on a tin of baked beans or steam rising from a bowl of soup.

For the launch of its Seriously Good Mayonnaise in February, Heinz used visual cues to emphasise the quality of the stripped back recipe, ranging from a large spoon bearing a big dollop of mayonnaise to a picture of a chicken to signal the use of free-range eggs.

Integrating psychology into the design process early on is giving brands the ability to tailor their message to the instinctive, System 1 processes that rule our unconscious decision making, using visual cues, vibrant colours and a distinctive aesthetic as unmistakable calls to action.

– Charlotte Rogers

Filed Under: Latest Industry News Tagged With: branding, brands, design, marketing, principles, psychology

Adobe CMO gives career advice on technology marketing

May 28, 2016 by Julie McGrath

Adobe’s global CMO on what it takes to forge a career in technology marketing

Ann Lewnes, executive vice-president and CMO at Adobe, shares the moments that have shaped her career and led to her heading up marketing at a company that made £3.3bn in sales last year.

What advice would you give to marketers looking to progress in their career?

Look for companies where a pivot is about to happen because I think that’s when things are most exciting. Look for an opportunity at a company that is transitioning or starting from scratch. That’s personally what I like to do.

The other thing I would say is learn new things. Marketers are not always the fastest to adopt new things. We’ve seen that with digital marketing, it’s probably taken some companies longer than it should have. You can’t resist.

This is a great time to be in marketing. Everybody should embrace it and move quickly. Don’t avoid risk.

What are the key moments that have influenced your career?

I’ve been blessed to work at two great technology companies, which is unusual, especially in Silicon Valley, as people move around a lot. I worked for 20 years at Intel and now almost 10 years at Adobe.

At Intel the biggest success was coming in at the right time because the PC industry was just starting to take off. I had the good fortune of working under [former CEO] Andy Grove who unfortunately passed away recently.

He had a great vision for what marketing could do to a very non-marketing-oriented business like semiconductors. His chief lieutenant, my boss [former CMO] Dennis Carter, instituted the whole ‘Intel Inside’ programme [that targeted consumers] and the branding of microprocessors – things that seemed completely crazy at the time.

What did you learn from Carter’s strategy?

Under him I was able to learn everything about marketing. We started off as a small team – four or five of us – I learnt at the hand of the master how to do everything. It was an on-the-job MBA. At a time when a business is really scaling there’s no better experience. Over time the company grew to be quite large and I felt I had stayed long enough and felt like I wanted to try something new.

Why did you decide to join Adobe?

With Adobe it was slightly different because it was about taking a brand that was already quite healthy, transforming it and expanding its value into new spaces. We’ve taken it from a creative packaged software business, and transformed it into a subscription business, and created a whole new adjacent business in digital marketing.

What is the best advice you have ever received?

My personal mantra has always been ‘no doesn’t always mean no’. That’s my career path and it’s not for everyone perhaps, but I get excited about trying things that people don’t think can work because that to me is a challenge.

That is a good philosophy for marketers now because there have been a lot of organisations that have completely transformed themselves. It isn’t easy and you may say we’ll never be able to do this, our people won’t change, our technology won’t change, our processes won’t change. But it’s very motivating to employees to be able to transform themselves, even if they are a little resistant at first.

I’ve seen PR people become social media people, I’ve seen traditional market research people become web analysts and everyone comes out the other end feeling better. You learn new skills and you have impact on the transformation of a company.

– Lucy Tesseras

Filed Under: Latest Industry News Tagged With: adobe, advice, career, marketing, technology

Social Purpose in Marketing

May 26, 2016 by Julie McGrath

How marketers can put social purpose into practice

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is under the microscope like never before, as consumers are increasingly adept at seeing through insincere attempts by brands to appear to be doing good.

One such example is Volkswagen, which has been widely criticised for its response to last year’s emissions scandal, where it was found to have systematically manipulated tests so its cars’ emissions appeared lower than they really were.

In an attempt to restore faith, the car marque stated a renewed commitment to “transparent and responsible corporate governance” in its 2015 annual report, claiming that it would use its CSR initiatives to permanently boost “the company’s reputation and value in the long term”.

In reality, the approach highlights the widening gulf between CSR initiatives and a genuine social purpose that also fulfils the core objectives of a business. If the social purpose is not linked to the company’s overall strategy, products or services, the long-term benefit to the business will be minimal and the efforts will inevitably lose internal support.

Research last year suggests the companies most capable of consistently growing profit are those that stand for more than simply making money.

For social purpose to be credible, brands need to think about how their values and skill sets can contribute to society, while making sure senior leaders are on board and that the concept is economically sustainable.

Microsoft’s social purpose – set out by CEO Satya Nadella – is to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more.

No mean feat, but the tech giant has a number of initiatives under way to achieve this aim. This year, for example, Microsoft worked with the BBC on the development of its ‘micro:bit’ project: a pocket-sized, codeable computer with motion detection, a built-in compass and Bluetooth technology, which is being given to every year seven pupil in the UK to encourage digital creativity.

Over the past five years the tech company has also run an apprenticeship programme helping 25,000 UK businesses fill technical skills gaps and become more efficient using Microsoft technology.

Use purpose to attract talent

Having a credible social purpose can also help companies recruit new talent and retain staff.

In a war for talent, it is essential that you appeal to people through the purpose of your company. Everyone, young and old, wants to work somewhere that aims to create a better world. Simply taking money from society is just not that exciting.

Whether it is attracting new talent, driving business growth or increasing consumer trust, brands that identify a genuine social purpose and implement a strategy to support it at all levels stand to benefit greatly and ultimately increase profit.

How does social purpose differ from CSR?

Social purpose has to be relevant to the company’s core business. All companies have to think about how to engage radically with society.

This means engaging with stakeholders on their agenda and adapting your business strategy accordingly.

The strategy should not just think about the supply chain or sourcing; it also needs to relate to all the people you interact with, both inside the company and outside of it.

How will this benefit businesses?

You can see a difference with companies that engage with their stakeholders in this way and include them in their decisions. Companies that do this make better returns in the long run. Studies have shown that the most inclusive companies achieve abnormal returns of more than 20% over a 10-year period compared to competitors.

How does connecting with society give companies a tangible competitive advantage?

Research has shown that the value at stake for companies in their relationship with society is roughly 30% of their value. Therefore a good relationship with society is not just nice to have – it is a key determinant of competitiveness. Connecting effectively can set companies apart in many ways, from reduced regulatory risk to enhanced reputation.

Does social purpose need to be driven from the top down?

It is essential that social purpose comes from the top, from the CEO, board and C-suite. They need to think about social purpose and to make this commitment to engagement clear throughout the organisation.

Here at Graffiti Recruitment, as part of our promise and passion, we work with the local community on various different projects to support those people that need a little help in hand getting back to work or taking the first step on the career ladder. To find out more about our social purpose, click here.

– Charlotte Rogers

Filed Under: Latest Industry News Tagged With: csr, marketing, purpose, social

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