PUBLISHED
Aug 29, 2024
WORDS
Kate McGarrahan
Kate McGarrahan talks to The Drum on ‘How to measure brand purpose properly’
Strategy Director McGarrahan disuccuses that to get more brand purpose budget, marketers need to prove the effectiveness of campaigns. However, they often use the wrong metrics. So, how should marketers show that their purpose project paid off?
Traditionally purpose was considered a success based on the amount of PR coverage rather than tracking the change to society. Experts in purpose are calling for brands to measure the impact on the bottom line and the impact on the world.
It’s not the easiest process, but if it is done well, marketers can potentially unlock more budget from the C-suite for future projects.
“If you are looking for PR, you are doing purpose wrong,” Dove’s vice-president for global and North America, Firdaous El Honsali, declared to The Drum recently. “If your metric is the PR you created out of it, then that doesn’t say a lot. Then, you’ll be stuck in a position where you need something new every time to drive more PR.”
It’s not the easiest process, but if it is done well, marketers can potentially unlock more budget from the C-suite for future projects.
“If you are looking for PR, you are doing purpose wrong,” Dove’s vice-president for global and North America, Firdaous El Honsali, declared to The Drum recently. “If your metric is the PR you created out of it, then that doesn’t say a lot. Then, you’ll be stuck in a position where you need something new every time to drive more PR.”
The comments sparked an interesting debate about how brands should be measuring their purpose initiatives. El Honsali believes brands should be measuring the impact on people’s lives or on the planet. So, how many kids did you encourage to play sports? How many hectares of forest did you restore? This should then be benchmarked to make sure the impact is significant enough.
“Are you matching a real problem with a real solution? I want to see real social impact, things that are actually making people’s lives better,” El Honsali argued.
So how do you properly measure purpose? We asked Kate McGarrahan, strategy director at the agency Revolt, who has spent the past year developing a method for brands to follow.
She says: “There’s a lot of jargon and terminology when it comes to impact measurement that can very quickly turn marketers off.” But counters that it can be as simple as applying marketing measurement to methods that already exist in the non-profit world.
“Are you matching a real problem with a real solution? I want to see real social impact, things that are actually making people’s lives better,” El Honsali argued.
So how do you properly measure purpose? We asked Kate McGarrahan, strategy director at the agency Revolt, who has spent the past year developing a method for brands to follow.
She says: “There’s a lot of jargon and terminology when it comes to impact measurement that can very quickly turn marketers off.” But counters that it can be as simple as applying marketing measurement to methods that already exist in the non-profit world.
1. Develop an impact model
In the non-profit sector this would be called ‘theory of change’ but for brand purpose it can be referred to as an impact model. A brand should write a description of what impact it wants to make, how it will make that impact, and how it will mow that the change was down to them and not other factors in the world.
“We spent this money, and these activities happened and from these some outputs happened and from those outputs a longer social impact occurred,” McGarrahan explains. “You need to have a linear causal relationship, where you say, we spend X, we do Y, and ultimately, in the world this thing gets better.”
It is helpful to think of projects in which a change can be scientifically proved. Marketers can use existing studies to write an impact model but if that doesn’t exist then they should conduct an experiment or AB testing before kicking off a campaign.
2. Data and analysis
A major mistake brands make when doing purpose marketing, according to McGarrahan, is not getting a baseline before they start taking action. “It’s so important to measure the status quo before you do anything,” she says. “The cases that perform the best were the ones that could show they set out with an intent to prove impact, and they’ve done the work beforehand to gather the data as a baseline so that then they could show the impact that their campaign had.” To save resource, marketers can add extra questions to existing marketing studies.
3. Reporting
Putting a number out into the public domain can help brands meet targets. “It holds a brand to account. Once you put a number out there that you must hit, then the organization will be oriented towards achieving that,” McGarrahan says.
When coming up with a number it is important to balance being ambitious enough but also setting a figure that is attainable. “When you meet a commitment, it’s massive. You can talk about it, you can use it as a proof point of your brand. It gives you a reason to say something and it can get you headlines,” she adds.
In the non-profit sector this would be called ‘theory of change’ but for brand purpose it can be referred to as an impact model. A brand should write a description of what impact it wants to make, how it will make that impact, and how it will mow that the change was down to them and not other factors in the world.
“We spent this money, and these activities happened and from these some outputs happened and from those outputs a longer social impact occurred,” McGarrahan explains. “You need to have a linear causal relationship, where you say, we spend X, we do Y, and ultimately, in the world this thing gets better.”
It is helpful to think of projects in which a change can be scientifically proved. Marketers can use existing studies to write an impact model but if that doesn’t exist then they should conduct an experiment or AB testing before kicking off a campaign.
2. Data and analysis
A major mistake brands make when doing purpose marketing, according to McGarrahan, is not getting a baseline before they start taking action. “It’s so important to measure the status quo before you do anything,” she says. “The cases that perform the best were the ones that could show they set out with an intent to prove impact, and they’ve done the work beforehand to gather the data as a baseline so that then they could show the impact that their campaign had.” To save resource, marketers can add extra questions to existing marketing studies.
3. Reporting
Putting a number out into the public domain can help brands meet targets. “It holds a brand to account. Once you put a number out there that you must hit, then the organization will be oriented towards achieving that,” McGarrahan says.
When coming up with a number it is important to balance being ambitious enough but also setting a figure that is attainable. “When you meet a commitment, it’s massive. You can talk about it, you can use it as a proof point of your brand. It gives you a reason to say something and it can get you headlines,” she adds.
