Post-purpose and influencer ethics: Your Marketing Week
At the end of every week, we look at the key stories, offering our view on what they mean for you and the industry. From Patagonia affirming its commitment to purpose to the ethics of influencer marketing, it’s been a busy week. Here is my take.
The P-word
The phrase ‘post-purpose’ has been heard as much, if not more, than ‘purpose’ this year. Those who talk about a new era argue there has been a reckoning. That the uncommitted have given up after playing with purpose and realised it offered no meaningful point of difference, or outcome. That there was a fundamental authenticity gap in the pursuit of purpose for many brands and that has been found out.
The poster child of purpose is Patagonia. The brand is considered the gold standard because of its consistent commitment to do whatever it can to mitigate the impact of climate change. And also because its commitment comes at a cost. The move by Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard in 2022 to transfer all stock to two entities that support environmental causes is widely seen as an ultimate example of purpose-driven philanthropy.
