How Should A Brand Respond?

Social media seemingly amplifies all brand deeds: good and not so good. Gen Zers and Millennials are ON IT. They can’t abide artifice and will demand accountability and transparency.

With norms and expectations flipping on a dime—at the speed of hundreds of thousands of “likes”—what is a brand to do? In particular, a brand that strives to be a positive corporate citizen, aligning positive impact with profits?

Our advice is to marry audacity with pragmatism.

Ok, this is a rocky marriage for sure…but it’s what these times require. What are your audacious goals for moving the societal needle in the right direction?

Now, get really clear about how you will hold yourself accountable over what timeframe. How transparent are you willing to be as you hold yourself accountable? What are the business realities you need to navigate as you make these promises to internal and external audiences? Achieving an audacious goal is by its very nature a disruptive endeavor. Please DON’T jump on the bandwagon of the moment when it’s convenient.

This thing you claim to care ardently about today, did you care ardently about it yesterday? Truly? If you can’t point to some tangible proof that you cared, I wouldn’t double-down. (See the first paragraph about digital natives’ twitchy fingers.)

You know why you went into business or took over leadership of a company. If you’ve read this far it’s highly likely there’s a component of wanting to do good in the world. The DNA of this vision usually comes to life in the things your organization is 100% committed to getting right 100% of the time. If you are a service provider who takes the greatest of pains to always be punctual about your service delivery, then what would those values look like if you transferred them to your hiring practice? Around what topics or incidences is your leadership team most likely to take a stand? What are the underlying values when this happens? How might those values inform green/sustainability efforts?

The point is to make a commitment to what is most meaningful to your organization. The then stand fast. Regardless of where the weather vane is pointing. Or those fast-moving Gen Zers will find you out.

Good luck out there.