Voices
August 1 in order to express their
support for the company’s values. It
of course also led to protests from
thousands of people who will likely
never again consider eating at a
Chick-Fil-A restaurant.
While the Chick-Fil-A event is
rather dramatic, it certainly isn’t
the first time that a brand is choosing to sell based on its values.
Lululemon, for example, made a
business out of putting its beliefs and values front and center
at every customer touchpoint (e.g.
shopping bags with the phrase
“friends are more important than
money”)—selling to those who believed what they believed. Vans is
another brand that sells its beliefs.
The company is deeply engrained
in skate and snowboard culture and
spends a lot of its earnings furthering a set of values that skate/snowboarders relate to—the most recent
example being its announcement to
build a 14,000 square-foot skateboarding complex in California.
A similar case can be made for
Mountain Equipment Co-Op, a
Canadian outdoor gear/clothing
company that has a cult-like following amongst liberal/left-leaning outdoor recreational enthusiasts for its vocal cherishing of
those values.
UJWAL
ARKALGUD
HUFFINGTON
08.26.12
Digital tools and access to information have made corporate culture important to audiences. These
tools have allowed us to not just
connect with niche groups of audiences who share values and beliefs
with us, but have also helped us understand disparate groups and form
opinions about them, and even
build varying degrees
of relationships with
them. Essentially, we
What we
know who the allies are. are beginning
And we know how and
to witness is
where to find them.
a new reality
It is this process of
to the brandlooking beneath the
audience
surface, and past the
relationship.”
marketing message,
that is increasingly
powering communities online and
driving websites like Reddit.
Any organization that has
looked to create self-sustaining
communities online has already
experienced the need for a level of
transparency that was previously
never required in business. In my
opinion, what we are beginning
to witness is a new reality to the
brand-audience relationship. Culture will drive business, and will
dictate how audiences relate to
brands. It’s now up to the
organizations to respond.