Barry Mowszowski, recently appointed creative strategy director at the Sydney offices of Starcom MediaVest Group, spoke at the first of the Australian INfront Insight talks, last night at the Apple Store in Sydney CBD. He discussed the challenges, and opportunities, facing brands in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).
In a talk titled “Brands Instigating Social Change – Profit + Purpose”, Mowszowski spoke of changing consumer perception of brands. His intention was also to trigger debate and discussion in the advertising and marketing industry regarding brands, corporate social responsibility, and their part in encouraging responsible consumer behaviour.
Here are some of the points Mowszowski made in last night’s presentation:
- Consumers adopted a “live well, spend less” (a phrase appearing on a November 2008 cover of the New York Magazine) thinking during the GFC.
- Despite this very few brands have adjusted to changed consumer expectations after the GFC.
- Consumers want to see brands giving more back to the community, not just their shareholders.
- Consumers are becoming less tolerant of bullshit from brands.
- Brands need to adopt a genuine corporate social responsibility policy, rather than treating it merely as a “check-list” item.
- Increasingly consumers are looking to brands to encourage responsible behaviour and social change.
- Indeed brands need to become positive instigators of social change.
- These goals are not straightforward however as brands need to reconcile shareholder value against cultural value.
- Levis are an example of a brand who reinvented themselves through social awareness campaigns, and their “Water<Less” jeans.
- Brands need to do more to encourage the desire of consumers to share, rather than own products, through car and bike sharing services for instance.
- Brands need to give more thought to “Cultural KPIs”, and redefine their measures of success.
- There needs to be less focus on stimulating consumerism in favour of material accumulation with purpose.
- Consumers would be happy to pay more for goods or services were brands to reinvest in the future of their customers.
Mowszowski also made a number of suggestions as to how several well known brands could become more socially responsible.
The turn out was good at last night’s inaugural event, and I look forward to the next talk in the series.
The presentation was recorded and I will post links to the video and podcast as soon as I can.
Originally published Wednesday 2 February 2011, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.