Coined by Big Four consultants as the “North Star”, Purpose is arguably the most critical governance imperative since, well, audited accounts.

The issues surrounding sustainability are complex. While governments, corporations, and activists appear to agree on its importance, the tangible actions needed to combat growing social and environmental challenges remain unbalanced, subjective and piecemeal. Thankfully, movements championing business as a force for good are growing, influencing government policy and advancing accountability.

So, if the marketing of business is to be impactful, the business of branding must be more responsible.

Supported by years of results, statistics and testimonials, Purpose has proven to influence perception and behaviour far more than the commercial activity itself. But with Purpose and Brand going hand-in-hand, what is clear is that neither should be delegated to Marketing: Four of the top ten media spenders are among the world’s worst plastic polluters. So, if the marketing of business is to be impactful, the business of branding must be more responsible.

Do you really trust your bank?

Trust, ease of access, quality services, and reduced costs feature strongly when choosing a financial institution. Yet with the proliferation of technology, automation and growing blockchain disruption, the value of trust is increasing exponentially.

When competing in a world of standardised products, the more an organisation stands for something beyond financial gains, the more it’s seen as serving broader social and ethical needs. Research also reveals that when institutional principles and goals align with people’s values, preference, favorability, and longevity grow.

Due to rising social consumerism, Purpose is most effective when woven into business fabric, fuelling enterprise-wide alignment and coordination to produce substantial shareholder return and meaningful impact. And while Purpose is considered more sustainable than profit, it’s only when contextualised via transparent and authentic ideals, focused strategy and significant utility that it can provide real value. When properly brought to life through measurable multi-stakeholder experiences, returns go unmatched.


Video Post: Paul Lewis, CEO of Great Southern Bank, demonstrates the interrelationship between Purpose and performance

Whether B2C, B2B, global or homegrown, turning stakeholders into ambassadors and profit drivers is the objective of any sustainable business. However, to get this right, guiding principles have to stay true to Purpose and not be confused for product planning, legal technicality or tactical communication, rather real socio-economic substance.

Staying true to shared ideals attracts, recruits, retains and embeds a brand’s ideology into customers, workers and communities. When understood and advocated internally, a credible institutional philosophy, i.e. vision, mission, values, can create enormous opportunities to expand and diversify.

For financial institutions wishing to stand out from the crowd, this notion not only implies that a purpose must drive banks, but they must also follow through with a seamless, responsive, reliable, value-driven experience.

The role of Brand is to provide orientation. If it doesn’t, for whatever reason, people’s willingness to engage and participate drops and organisations quickly find themselves in a place of unsustainable arbitrariness.

Regardless of code, many banks pit themselves using provenance, tradition, cultural understanding, and values. While credible and authentic in concept, localised differentiation and meaningfulness is quickly compromised by fintech FOMO. This is closely followed by costly and fragmented attempts at digital transformation, fickle slogans and shallow marketing campaigns. This resulting struggle between tradition and progress could be surmised as Institutional Brand Schizophrenia. The symptoms: misconception, confusion, and withdrawal from reality.

As human migration continues, borders merge, and blockchain integrates, the role of banks will continue to evolve on a human-led utilitarian level. And while a vital component in ensuring relevance, technology alone won’t create the necessary levels of efficacy required by local banks to avoid becoming obsolete. Tech-savviness creates opportunities for innovation, yet unless business strategy and brand execution become interchangeable, stakeholders quickly find themselves stranded in a sea of sameness.

Historically the West has led banking growth and innovation, with Asia now hot on its heels. Fintech innovators, including Alipay and WeChat Pay, lead the world in digital payments, partnering with incumbent banks to help customers simplify and organise everyday transactions. While making people’s lives easier, it raises the question of who facilitates the relationship in this triad.

The role of Brand is to provide orientation. If it doesn’t, for whatever reason, people’s willingness to engage and participate drops and organisations quickly find themselves in a place of unsustainable arbitrariness.

So, what’s the right approach?

Taking stock of the status quo through the lens of sustainability is an excellent first step towards recalibration, strategic planning and enterprise-wide transformation.

To create holistic value, the goal of sustainable business requires an evaluation of impact across multiple dimensions. At least not, institutional impact on communities and eco-systems not directly involved with the organisation. It’s as important, if not more so, to understand the needs of indirect stakeholders over those who typically engage daily.

Becoming a trusted and credible institution begins with the realisation that, in one way or another, your business either creates or diminishes value. So to help bridge the gap between reality and perception, here are several prompts to consider. Each one is assigned a dimension of Brand Value Creation:

1. Customers

• Do your bank’s products and services promote public benefit?

• If so, are they targeted towards underserved markets?

• Have products and services been designed to solve a social or environmental issue, i.e. improving health, preserving the environment, and/or creating economic opportunity for individuals or communities?

• What about arts and sciences or providing capital to Purpose-driven businesses?

2. Workers

• How does your bank treat its employees through compensation, benefits, training and other opportunities?

• What about the work environment, management-to-employee communication, corporate culture, job flexibility, and health and safety?

3. Community

• What is your bank’s relationship with its suppliers?

• Does it encourage diversity, and is it involved in the local community?

• What about measurable practices and policies around community service and charitable donations?

• Have products and services been designed to solve social issues, such as access to essential services, health, education, economic opportunity and the arts?

4. Environment

• Consider the environment in full, i.e. distribution channels, transportation and the environmental impact of the bank’s supply chain.

• Have products or services been designed to solve an environmental issue? Such as products that aid the provision of renewable energy, conserve resources, reduce waste, promote conservation, and prevent toxic and hazardous substances or pollution?

• How about education, measurement and consultation to solve environmental problems?

5. Governance

• What is your bank’s overall mission?

• What about ethics, accountability and transparency?

• Has the bank adopted a social or environmental mission?

• If so, how is success measured?

• How does it engage employees, board members and the community to achieve that mission?

• What about providing employees access to financial information and customers opportunities to provide feedback? Finally, what about the diversity of governing bodies?

Influencing our daily decisions—what we eat, what we wear, what we drive, where we invest our money—Brand is commonly misunderstood as a function within marketing or corporate communications. Restricting its ability to drive and influence organisation-wide change, accelerate growth, and amplify impact.

When utilised effectively, Brand helps broaden our understanding of value. For Purpose-driven banks, this translates into a better market position and bottom line and significantly improves the experience, creating a series of measurable moments delivered through ownable innovations, customer satisfaction and lasting value.