Can businesses deliver purpose and profits? These 10 companies say yes.

10 Brands & 10 Lessons on Creating Stakeholder Value through Purpose

With the new “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation” from the Business Roundtable, companies are being called upon to embrace Stakeholder Capitalism. Further, given the economic and social climate with the pandemic, businesses and brands are also being called to deliver on Purpose more than ever.

Some contend that CEO’s don’t have the training and capacity to focus on Stakeholder Capitalism, and others believe it will dilute return for shareholders. But that’s not what we found in our inaugural Brand for Good Benchmark Report. We looked at 10 companies — 5 large and 5 small to midsize like Salesforce, Starbucks, WeTransfer and All Birds — and found that they all demonstrated growth while Branding for Good. Consider this quote from Howard Schultz, Founder and now emeritus chairman of Starbucks.

“The ethos fueling such efforts — that companies have a responsibility to enhance the societies in which they flourish — was integral to Starbucks’ ability to employ great people and attract customers, which in turn drove a 21,826% return to shareholders between 1992 and 2018, the year I stepped down as executive chairman.”

Why does Brand for Good and focusing on Purpose matter?

It matters because consumers and employees are demanding it, and in addition to these companies’ results, other research supports that results follow:

• 62 percent of consumers want companies to take a stand on current and broadly relevant issues such as sustainability, transparency and fair employment practices.
• Employees considered Purpose to be more than twice as important, on average, as traditional motivators such as compensation and career advancement.
• More than 90 percent of companies with a clearly defined purpose deliver growth and profits at or above the industry average

In the Brand for Good Benchmark Report, we define the characteristics and measures of what we believe defines a Brand for Good.

Being a “Brand for Good” is rooted in the idea of finding Purpose, being guided by and acting on it. And each of these companies have created what we call a Purpose Flywheel, built on Being Great and Being Good. Being Great means building great products and experiences and marketing responsibly. Being Good means standing for more and being active in the world, meeting the needs of additional stakeholders, including shareholders.

After defining and determining the measurement for companies that Brand for Good, we then evaluate the ten companies against these criteria and see how they measure up. We close drawing ten lessons for companies and brands to follow in their footsteps and offer a Brand for Good Index to measure your own brand’s performance.

Learn more in The Agency Oneto’s The Brand for Good Benchmark Report: 10 Brands & 10 Lessons on Creating Stakeholder Value through Purpose. Get the FREE report now.

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