Building Sustainable Brand Impact
Creating a sustainable brand impact not only helps to create positive perceptions about the brand but also enables marketers to support sustainable growth in the long term. Sustainability in branding refers to the skill to expand today while ensuring long-term growth is not jeopardized. It’s a holistic strategy focused on long-term excellence, not just quick wins or short-lived sales boosts.
It is a new paradigm that infuses the element of business responsibility in the brand strategy and gives an opportunity to differentiate it from the clutter of me-too brands. Sales and market share matter, but the way a company attains them is equally crucial.
When a brand creates a sustainable impact, it results in augmenting the benefits to the customers. It brings ethics and value-based decisions to the forefront, strengthening communication with key stakeholders, especially customers. It also addresses aspirational needs, aligning with customers’ cultural beliefs and providing a sense of safety, compliance, and a positive identity through brand ownership.
A sustainable thinking approach aimed at creating a positive and lasting impact helps the company address key material issues faced by the brand and identify the risks and opportunities. While a brand’s performance across the triple bottom line i.e. economic, environmental, and social may sound immaterial to some, addressing the brand’s impact on it can help create a lasting imprint in the minds of the target customers.
Ultimately, the value you offer is the value you get back. You deliver a superior value proposition to the customer with sustainable benefits, you get it translated into a higher economic value for the firm. Such efforts lead to a positive brand image and committed customer loyalty. Modern consumers pay growing attention to ethics, social impact, environmental safety, and health. So, when a brand creates a sustainable impact on target audiences, the customers who own and endorse the branded product in long term also become ambassadors to give a distinct identity to the brand.
This process fosters an ongoing cycle of transparency and sustainable growth. Brands cannot seek growth by neglecting the environment, customers, or wider Creative Agency society. The more sincerely a brand protects stakeholders, the environment, and the community—and actively manages risks—the greater the positive effect on both industry and category growth, not just its own.
Increased awareness about climate change, sustainable development goals, and caring for the less privileged have greatly influenced the value judgments of customers. In the long term, customers are willing to pay an extra brand premium for the brand that augurs well with their values and belief. Thus, shifting brand strategy towards sustainability helps avoid compliance issues and positions the brand favorably in a world moving towards sustainability.
Such a mindset is especially vital for brands seeking long-term growth where natural resources matter, or when championing a cause for greater positive impact. Given the uniqueness of each brand’s strategy, opportunity, and proposition, strategists should actively pursue inclusive growth and socio-economic value. When sustainable thinking is infused into the brand strategy, it confirms wider acceptance among the target audience.
At Brandure, we believe every communication asset—be it the brand name, logo, website, emailer, ESG or annual report, ads, newsletter, or packaging—should be consistent and work together. This integrated approach delivers synergy, amplifying the effect of sustainable branding. And We at Brandure, help you achieve that.
Stephen Covey aptly said, “there are three constants in life…change, choice, and principles.” This quote is particularly relevant when applied to the journey of sustainable brand impact.