It’s easy to dismiss the outrage as noise, but what if it’s something more? What if outrage isn’t the enemy but a signal—a mirror reflecting the fractures in trust and purpose we’ve overlooked?

When viewed this way, outrage becomes more than a reaction to missteps. It reveals where alignment has broken, offering a chance to recalibrate and reconnect. For brand leaders, I see this as a moment to champion intention, curiosity, and courage. Those willing to lean into this challenge have an opportunity to transform outrage into a catalyst for meaningful social influence and change. Perhaps most importantly, the choices we each make today will shape the future.

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Understanding The Landscape: A Crisis In Numbers

Across industries, latching onto the latest social trend with virtue signaling and misalignment between communications and behaviors has come at a time when people are frustrated and no longer giving brands the benefit of the doubt—instead they are asking for consistency, accountability and most importantly resonance alongside relevance. Given the relentless feed of news and information and the pressure to engage in real-time, every message a brand puts out today carries the potential to become a crisis…. It’s impossible to predict who will receive a seemingly innocuous message in the wrong way on the wrong day. And the interconnectedness of challenges—social trends, consumer expectations, and ideological divides—adds even greater complexity.

Revealing a profound trust deficit, research statistics offer insight into the landscape, underscoring the disconnect between corporate actions and stakeholder expectations:

• Only 37% of people globally trust business leaders to act in society’s best interest, a decline of 12% in just one year (Edelman Trust Barometer 2024).
• 72% of Americans believe businesses should stay out of politics unless it directly affects their operations and only 41% of US adults believe businesses should take a public stance on current events (Morning Consult 2024/Gallup and Bentley University poll)
• 61% of consumers are skeptical of corporate sustainability claims and 59% of Americans suspect brands of leveraging social issues for profit (PwC 2024 and Axios- Harris Poll).
• 72% of Americans feel healthcare systems prioritize profit over care (Morning Consult 2024)

These numbers narrate a story of disillusionment. Rising costs, unfulfilled promises, and tokenistic gestures deepen public skepticism. In healthcare, the stakes are particularly stark: inaccessible services and soaring expenses amplify feelings of betrayal. —a sentiment epitomized by the shocking assassination of a major healthcare CEO. Outrage stems from this context, a byproduct of disconnection and unmet expectations. Meanwhile, 91% of CEOs acknowledge the need to recalibrate ESG programs, yet recalibration without systemic change risks eroding trust further and fueling discontent.

Ultimately, brand leaders are being called on to decide what their brands stand for at the highest levels, not to latch on to trends. Yet, how do they do this in a way that addresses existing fractures, realigns purpose, and rebuilds trust?

Lessons From History: Cycles Of Outrage And Leadership

History often is cyclical. And outrage is not new. In many ways, what we are seeing today is somewhat reflective of the time after the Great Recession. Movements like Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party arose from deep disillusionment with institutions. These moments weren’t just reactions—they were signals of broader public demand for change, which accelerated the early purpose movement. As people were being told the economy had recovered and yet weren’t experiencing this in their own lives, businesses stepped into a leadership void.

PepsiCo was one of the earliest brands to embrace purpose, even before the Great Recession in 2006, when Indra Nooyi introduced Performance with Purpose. Paul Polman embedded sustainability into Unilever’s in 2010, after publicly criticizing the stock market’s focus on short-term returns. These efforts accelerated the fledgling purpose movement, demonstrating how businesses could lead by example. Actions like BlackRock’s emphasis on sustainable investing in 2013 and Brand Z’s incorporation of purpose-driven metrics in 2014 signaled the growing demand for businesses to align their strategies with societal needs.

Today, the stakes feel even higher than they did then. Indeed, driven in large part by polarized politics, brands now face increasing backlash. And tellingly, the outrage transcends ideological divides: progressive audiences critique greenwashing and performative actions, while conservative groups resist DEI and sustainability efforts. Yet, systemic shifts take time. The trajectory of today’s anger and frustration—and how it will intersect with the priorities of a new administration—remains uncertain. Brands that view this as a moment to pause, stay aligned with their values, and act consistently can position themselves as trusted leaders in this evolving landscape.

Decoding Outrage: The Signals And Their Meaning

Deconstructing the meaning of today’s outrage requires nuance. Four key drivers help to clarify the complexities:

1. Rage Reflects Systemic Failures: Rage often stems from the perception that brands prioritize profits over people. This sentiment is particularly acute in industries like healthcare, where rising costs and inaccessible services magnify feelings of betrayal.
2. Resistance Reveals Superficiality: Superficial gestures—vague sustainability claims or tokenistic DEI efforts—amplify skepticism. Resistance arises when audiences feel co-opted rather than respected.
3. Reckoning Exposes Misalignment: A reckoning occurs when brands overstep societal boundaries without ensuring coherence between their values and actions. For example, sustainability claims that clash with exploitative supply chain practices erode trust.
4. Rejection Reflects Fear: Fear, often rooted in uncertainty or perceived loss, manifests as rejection. Brands navigating cultural shifts must tread carefully to address anxieties without compromising their values.

These drivers interact to form cycles of distrust. To break them, brand leaders must act with coherence, courage, and intentionality—embedding trust-building practices across all facets of a brand’s operations.

Seven Principles For Rebuilding Trust And Purpose

Adopting an intentional, systemic approach is the best way to rebuild trust and transform outrage into an opportunity. In my work with clients, I have found seven principles help to navigate today’s complex environment. That said, it’s equally important to recognize that there are no guarantees…. I find consistency, alignment, preparedness and courage to be the best mantras.

1. Marketers are fiduciaries

A marketer’s first role is to be a steward of their brands. Their responsibility is to ensure that every action they take is anchored in purpose and a brand’s core operating principles, not to amplify personal beliefs and values.

Acting as a fiduciary requires balancing societal responsibility with business outcomes, harmonizing the influence a brand has the power to wield over culture public discourse with the integrity of the brand’s promises.

2. Purpose is a living discipline

Purpose is more than a statement: it’s a compass—true to your business operations yet broad enough to encompasses a social mission. By necessity, purpose must unfold alongside people’s evolving needs and societal expectations. A brand like Natura, whose purpose is to nurture beauty and relationships for a better way of living and doing business, exemplifies this by respecting the biodiversity of the Amazon when sourcing ingredients, integrating sustainability into supply chains and addressing local community needs.

Purpose thrives when it’s treated as a discipline requiring intentionality at every level. When a brand leader tells you it’s time to move on from purpose, they’ve misunderstood it entirely—would you ever move on from strategic planning?

3. Purpose architecture mitigates risk

Purpose without structure and clarity risks becoming superficial. Guided by nuanced audience insights and materiality, purpose architecture offers a strategic framework to differentiate corporate and product brand roles—and further distinguishes operational commitments (sustainability and regulatory compliance) from messaging.

Begin developing purpose architecture by systems mapping potentially conflicting perspectives and expectations – spoken and unspoken – of customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders. And, importantly, consider segmenting by ideology to identify both messages that resonate and red flags to navigate and ensure you use scenario planning to be prepared for potential crises.

4. A values-driven POV builds confidence

Stakeholders seek alignment between a company’s values and its actions. So, it’s essential to identify where your brand has earned the right to lead and take confident, values-driven action. The question isn’t if you should speak up—it’s whether your audience grants you permission to add your voice to the conversation.

A clear POV is a lens for navigating this complexity, guiding consistency and clarity necessary to strengthen credibility and avoid virtue signaling. Airbnb’s program that offers housing to refugees is an earnest act of belonging that resonates with people’s deepest values. By turning its ethos into action, Airbnb transforms its mission into tangible hope, rebuilding trust and loyalty at a human level.

5. Diversity is competitive advantage

Diversity is a strategic asset, driving innovation and connection. A Washington Post/IPSOS poll (April 2024) found 61% of Americans support DEI practices, saying they are a “good thing.” And McKinsey data from 2023 shows companies with ethnically diverse leadership are 39% more likely to outperform peers. Signaling their belief in its strategic value, both Costco’s and Apple’s boards recently recommended that investors reject shareholder proposals from the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) that ask the companies to publish a report on the risk of DEI programs or eliminate them completely.

Homogenous brand and marketing teams risk developing campaigns and programs that don’t resonate across different audience demographics and psychographics. Oxford University research indicates that diverse advertising increases short-term sales by 3.5% and long-term sales by 16%, demonstrating how inclusive storytelling is an important aspect of resonating with modern audiences. Importantly, DEI isn’t a prerequisite for hiring diversely; individual brand leaders can always choose to bring people with different backgrounds or who think differently onto their teams, even as official policies are pulled back.

6. Sustainability as Resilience

When deeply embedded in a brand’s operations, sustainability amplifies trust and fuels innovation. Kantar reports that sustainability adds $193 billion to the value of the top 100 global brands. And 93% of consumers say they want to live more sustainably.

By aligning sustainability with long-term business strategy, brands address immediate environmental concerns while demonstrating accountability and forward-thinking approaches. Effective sustainability strategies foster trust and relevance in an increasingly environmentally conscious marketplace. Ikea’s unwavering commitment to sustainability reflects its ability to unlock value creation from society’s evolving priorities. Whether addressing consumer pushback, adopting renewable energy, or embracing circularity, Ikea shows resilience is rooted in the willingness to adapt, evolve, and lead from purpose.

7. Unify Cross-Functionally

Siloed efforts lead to inconsistency; champion a collaborative approach across marketing, PR, HR, operations, and, yes, even finance and bring the C-suite and potentially the Board alongside to ensure a harmonized front and standing stronger together. Integrated efforts help organizations adapt effectively to external pressures while fostering coherence across teams and initiatives.

Establishing multi-functional Brand/Purpose Councils effectively aligns teams and initiatives, fosters coherence and resilience, and increases operational effectiveness and financial efficiencies.

The Path Forward: An Invitation To Marketers

Outrage isn’t simply rejecting purpose, sustainability, DEI or even taking a stand. It’s an invitation to reimagine brand leadership. We can see fractured trust as a call to step back or as a chance to move forward more intentionally with purpose, cautiously and bravely, not recklessly.

The choices we each make today shape tomorrow. Will you let public frustration and anger drown out possibility, or will you seize this moment to lead with courage, clarity and purpose? The future isn’t waiting; brand leaders are shaping it right now. And in choosing courage and clarity, we can turn outrage into trust—and trust into enduring success.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Anne Bahr Thompson, Author Do Good, Embracing Brand Citizenship to Fuel Both Purpose and Profit.

At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define or redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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• Edelman reports that 84% of consumers say that they need to share values with a brand to buy it.
• Accenture demonstrates 72% of consumers feel they can personally impact the world and their communities through behaviors and buying choice.
• And Havas Meaningful Brands found 77% of brands could disappear, and consumers wouldn’t care. However, brands that align with meaningful causes can create stronger connections with their audience.

Yet, despite a clear—and consistent—demand for deeper engagement, many brand leaders continue to address these desires with the same methods that largely have failed to resonate emotionally. For me, the data is more than the usual call for change. It underscores an increasing pressure for genuine metamorphosis and suggests an essential question: How can brands nurture meaningful relationships with the people who define their very existence—whether they be employees, customers, investors, or broader stakeholders?

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In my work with brand leaders across sectors over the years, I’ve consistently seen that the answer lies in adopting human-centric values alongside sincerely bringing purpose to life. Time and again, I’ve witnessed how integrating intuition, creativity and humanness into the fabric of brand development and organizational culture profoundly elevates emotional connections with people, regardless of their segment or stakeholder classification.

At its core, this is about embracing a more harmonious style of brand leadership—one that is centered on healing, acknowledging our collective harm—the cumulative impact of systemic issues, shared traumas, and cultural or organizational damage—and our individual traumas and micro-traumas. Unearthed during the pandemic and remaining part of today’s Zeitgeist, these issues highlight the need for repairing our interconnectedness, bridging many levels of division.

The Necessity For Change In Brand Operations

Change has become a cycle in and of itself. And to stay relevant, brands are required to unceasingly evolve. As the human face of a business, a brand’s evolution should be about much more than adopting new technologies and innovating new product lines. It should also encompass a fundamental and necessary shift in the ways in which it communicates, and builds relationships—and, importantly and perhaps more challengingly, in the way it operates daily.

To create real value, the principles underlying purpose and sustainability must be core elements embedded into day-to-day activities, influencing how we think, behave, and interact with one another. Practically, this means embracing increased transparency, ethical practices and committing to integrating purpose and sustainability narratives into overarching brand storytelling, rather than seeing them as independent campaigns. By doing so, brands can guide us into a more sustainable, equitable, and prosperous future. Yet, courage is needed to step into what feels relatively unproven.

Decline In Employee Engagement And Diversity In Leadership

There’s little doubt that the level of transformation necessary for sustaining meaningful relationships with customers, employees, investors and broader stakeholders requires responding with more than new marketing tactics or even refreshed brand strategy. Elevating emotional connections to strengthen relationships demands a significant shift: genuinely valuing individuality and incorporating a deeper, more intentional approach to accepting multiple layers of difference across diverse human experiences.

Recent studies, including reports from Gallup, The Conference Board and S&P Global, depict a troubling decline in employee engagement and a stagnation in diversity within corporations, even as employee satisfaction rates have risen. Gallup’s data highlights that employee engagement has fallen to its lowest since 2013 costing the global economy $8.9 trillion annually, while The Conference Board’s findings indicate that job satisfaction has declined across all subcomponents related to the day-to-day experience of workers, suggesting a growing disconnection from foundational elements like belonging and purpose. Meanwhile, S&P Global reports a decrease in the share of executive roles held by women from 12.2% to 11.8%, signaling a concerning trend that could delay gender parity in leadership until 2055 or beyond. Yet, research from McKinsey consistently highlights that companies with greater diversity are 25% more likely to have above-average profitability.

The Role Of Intuition And Creativity

Increasingly dominated by data and analytics, the role of intuition and creativity in decision-making is easily overshadowed. Nonetheless, human elements are critical for navigating the complexities of a modern, chaotic landscape. Balancing data-driven methods and intuitive approaches naturally opens a door to living purpose through more breakthrough and resilient brand development. In fact, Forrester has found companies that foster creativity see 1.5 times higher market share growth, highlighting the competitive advantage of integrating human elements into decision-making.

Neuroscience reveals that our most innovative moments typically occur in a state of relaxed alertness, known as the Alpha brainwave state. Fostering environments that encourage this condition unlocks greater potential for competitive advantage through imaginative problem-solving. Unleashing intuition and creativity enhances agility, nurturing intentional risk-taking that leads to success—ultimately strengthening adaptability to rapid market changes, talent retention and, thereby, growth. Through living these behaviors themselves, brand leaders support more independent thinking and encourage it in others.

Valuing Individual Contributions

Another cornerstone of building a purpose-led brand that resonates on a deeper, human level is acknowledging the unique value every person brings. This is about celebrating people’s unique strengths and contributions as integral to the success of the whole organization, ultimately enhancing engagement and cultivating a more genuine sense of belonging—key ingredients for both individual well-being and a thriving corporate culture.

Cultivating an environment where every team member is recognized as vital to delivering the collective mission enriches people’s work lives and strengthens their commitment to a brand’s success, with organizations experiencing a 31% lower voluntary turnover due to strong recognition programs according to a 2023 Achievers Workforce Institute report. In hybrid workplaces, platforms where individuals can share their insights and innovations, and be recognized for those contributions, encourage a sense of ownership and pride that transcends basic job functions. This boosts individuals’ sense of meaning while simultaneously encouraging a more collaborative and stimulating environment.

Embracing A New Brand Leadership Paradigm

The current landscape increasingly makes it clear that a more human, intuitive, and creative approach to purpose-led brand development is essential for the survival and success of modern organizations. The challenge lies in embedding these characteristics in strategy and across team dynamics, ensuring they permeate all aspects of operations. Doing so will enhance organizational health and contribute to a more equitable and sustainable world.

Adopting humanness, interconnectivity, inclusivity, transparency, respect and harmony lays the groundwork for a future where integrity and empathy are at the core of our relationships with brands, with one another, and with ourselves. Brand leaders who embrace this paradigm move beyond traditional win-loss frameworks, ensuring both long-term business success and holistic well-being. The time to act is now, and the path forward is clear: elevate brand relationships by ushering in a new era of purpose and humanity.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Anne Bahr Thompson, Author Do Good, Embracing Brand Citizenship to Fuel Both Purpose and Profit.

At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define or redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change, including defining a vision that propels their businesses and brands forward. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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Importantly, the societal challenge is larger than marketing, creators and the entertainment we consume on TikTok or Instagram…. It’s about how our human capacity to pursue deeper, lasting rewards is gradually eroding.

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Not surprisingly, dopamine plays a pivotal role in this dynamic. Research neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, a professor at Stanford University, has conducted demonstrates dopamine is about more than short-term pleasure: it’s also the fuel that underpins our ambition, drive and long-term focus. When we anticipate being on the right path to achieving our goals, dopamine increases our energy and sharpens our focus, propelling us forward. And sustained release of dopamine can keep us engaged and motivated for hours…. Sometimes even days.

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Yet, there’s a delicate balance to be struck. Huberman’s research has also demonstrated that dopamine peaks—the exhilarating highs we experience when we succeed—are often followed by a drop below our baseline. The more intense the high, the greater the fall. So we’re left seeking our next hit, potentially endlessly caught in a loop of feeling empty and unfulfilled followed by chasing our next big reward. Importantly, the intense focus that dopamine drives sometimes narrows our thinking, stifling our creativity and reducing our ability to see new possibilities and solve challenges.

So, are we effectively using dopamine’s potential to pursue deeper, more meaningful goals, or are we trapping ourselves by chasing quick, short-term rewards that leave us wanting more?

Brands, too, face this dilemma. Are brand leaders pursuing easy metrics—likes, views, fast sales—or are they genuinely seeking to build trust, enrich lives, and forge enduring emotional connections?

Purpose-led marketing goes beyond tapping into short-lived desires. It invites brands to become more meaningful in people’s lives, aligning with their higher goals and values. Brands that succeed at this are those that understand the long arc of connection…. Just as in life, true fulfillment comes from growth, trust and meaningful relationships sustained over time.

I strongly believe we have an opportunity to use dopamine’s powerful potential to inspire curiosity, drive creativity and encourage sustained engagement, rather than simply settle for quick fixes. In a world of geopolitical chaos and entertaining distractions, perhaps it’s the uncertainty and stress of modern life that is making us seek these fleeting hits, not dopamine itself.

So, the question remains: Are we willing to take the more challenging path—the one that builds something meaningful, sustainable, and deeply human?

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Anne Bahr Thompson, Author Do Good, Embracing Brand Citizenship to Fuel Both Purpose and Profit.

At The Blake Project, we help clients worldwide, in all stages of development, define or redefine and articulate what makes them competitive at critical moments of change, including defining a vision that propels their businesses and brands forward. Please email us to learn how we can help you compete differently.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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The number of brands that are taking activist stances on topics in the public debate continues to grow. In an increasingly divided political climate, government policy is increasing, rather than decreasing, the call for companies to behave responsibly. More and more, the public is demanding that leadership brands declare a point of view on social justice, civil liberties, the environment, and most recently gun control.

Taking a public stand is by nature polarizing. Not everyone defines doing good in the same way. To minimize backlash and not violate trust with customers, employees, and other stakeholders, it’s therefore crucial that a company only takes a stand that reflects its purpose, values, and, importantly, its operational practices.

Leadership And Responsibility Are Inseparable

Beginning as early as December 2011, my three years of research into brand leadership, good corporate citizenship, and favorite brands, which ultimately led to my five-step model of Brand Citizenship that I detail in my book Do Good, demonstrated that leadership and responsibility can no longer be viewed as separate from one another. Step 3 of the model – Responsibility, behave fairly and treat employees, suppliers and the environment well – emerged as the pivot point between being a brand that provides solutions to personal ME problems and needs and one that addresses generalized WE worries about the economy, the problems in the world, and the planet. Participants identified issues related to civil justice, social liberties, and the environment as safe territory for brands to take up positions. Simultaneously they told us that brands, which behave transparently and – even more importantly – sincerely, encourage us to bring out the best of ourselves and progress society. They considered these brands leaders.

Fast forward to June 2015, legacy and newer brands alike, such as American Airlines, BuzzFeed, Honey Maid, Ketel One, MasterCard, Spotify, Target, and Uber, flew the rainbow flag for marriage equality. Later that year, Airbnb, Alcoa, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Monsanto, Walmart, and many others openly signed President Obama’s climate change pledge.

The Turning Point For Activism

In November 2016, the Breitbart News controversy created a tipping point in the U.S.. Allstate, EarthLink, Kellogg’s, Nest, Target, and Warby Parker pulled ads from the alternative-right media platform because of strong racist and anti-Semitic views. Steve Bannon, who became chief strategist to President Donald Trump after serving as his campaign’s chief executive, was a founding board member for Breitbart News. While companies that supported the Supreme Court’s decision about gay marriage and Obama’s climate change pledge were generally praised, those that ended their relationships with Breitbart News, most notably Kellogg’s, faced repercussions.

On November 30, 2016, Breitbart News posted an inflammatory article with the headline, “#DumpKelloggs: Breakfast Brand Blacklists Breitbart, Declares Hate for 45,000,000 Readers.” Labeling the “war against Breitbart News as bigoted and anti-American,” Editor in Chief, Alexander Marlow, angrily called for readers to sign a petition urging people to boycott all of Kellogg’s products.

Many others thought Kellogg’s and the other brands were behaving insincerely. After all, Breitbart News’s values hadn’t troubled these brands until after Steve Bannon was named then President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategist. For some, Kellogg’s decision was less about the brand’s absolute stance and more about the company’s inconsistent behavior.

Brand Activism Grows Increasingly Political

Throughout 2017, the number of brands taking overt political positions grew. Many tech giants expressed opposition to the Trump administration’s controversial immigration ban, which potentially impacts their workforces directly. Known for democratizing the hospitality industry and valuing equality, Airbnb went further than most tech companies setting a goal to provide housing for 100,000 people in need and contributed $4 million to the International Rescue Committee in support of displaced people worldwide. And the ride hailing app Lyft surpassed its direct competitor and industry leader, Uber, in Apple’s App Store after Uber did not participate in related protests and a taxi strike at JFK airport. Lyft pledged $1 million to the American Civil Liberties Union as it denounced the ban and the hashtag #DeleteUber trended on social media.

Former New York City mayor and business leader Michael Bloomberg has spearheaded the fight for the US to meet its Paris accord greenhouse gas targets. Across industries, corporations including Burton Snowboards, Apple, Campbell Soup, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Target, and Timberland, signed an open letter, “We Are Still In,” alongside elected officials such as mayors and governors. The letter publicly declared their support to meet commitments despite President Trump’s decision to pull out of it.

While these immigration and climate change stances clearly reflect the areas participants in my research identified as safe for activism, most recently, in the wake of the Parkland, Fla, school shooting, a growing number of companies have taken more overtly political stances on gun control. First National Bank of Omaha pledged that it would not renew a Visa card co-branded with the National Rifle Association (NRA). Delta, United Airlines, MetLife Inc., Hertz, and Best Western each announced plans to terminate special discounts and benefits for NRA members. And with online petitions urging companies to #BoycottNRA circulating, the pressure to disassociate from the NRA will likely mount.

The Logical Next Step: Ideals

Businesses have progressed from historically targeting audiences for their products and services based on demographics to psychographics, and they now micro-target based on people’s lifestyle aspirations and values. With the populace divided, it may be logical that people now expect brands they buy to also embrace their ideals. Over my three years of qualitative and quantitative research with more than 6000 people, many participants consistently told us that they felt better about themselves when they bought brands that “did good.” And that they questioned their brand choices when they learned a brand wasn’t behaving responsibly.

The brands we choose are extensions of who we are. They act as badges for what we are about to other people. The acid test of a satisfying brand relationship is rooted not in grand gestures or even in constant chatter and interactions, but rather in thoughtful, empathic actions and small, meaningful deeds that both improve our daily lives and help us to feel as though we belong to a group of like-minded people. Step 4 – Community – of the model of Brand Citizenship reflects the ways brands physically, virtually and emotionally rally communities of like-minded people and influence our behavior, often for the better and to fix social problems.

Sincerity Wins Trust And Builds Leadership

As distrust of politicians and longstanding institutions heightens, people are much less accepting of face value. They readily see through crafted messaging, political rhetoric, and marketing hype. Like a sincere person, a sincere brand openly shares its point of view on the world. It does not aggrandize itself or take advantage of the latest news cycle. To minimize the risk of violating trust – the starting point of good of Brand Citizenship—it’s essential that a brand only takes a stance that aligns with its purpose, values, and operating principles and policies. As more people view companies as providing better solutions to social challenges than governments, the brands that take stances sincerely will be touted as leaders.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Anne Bahr Thompson. Excerpted from her new book Do Good, Embracing Brand Citizenship to Fuel Both Purpose and Profit.

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As Maslow further describes in his paper, we only achieve self-esteem, the respect of others, and self-actualization once our need for belongingness, love, and affection is fulfilled.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs clarifies that our identity—our sense of self—is in large part defined by the social networks and communities we belong to—and equally those we opt out of. Traditionally, our social identity was formed by circles such as our family, neighborhood, nation, education, religion, political party, profession, and so on. Forces in modern society, however, have broken down many of these classic conventions, which have defined and labeled who we are to others for decades, if not centuries.

Today, the emerging generation is a visible composite of long-established distinctions. Our multidimensional lifestyles mix and match education and class, religion and politics, neighborhoods and professions in the same way that we mash up the clothes we wear and the music we listen to. And while many in the populist movement may yearn for more linear self-definitions from the past, it’s hard to imagine Millennials and Gen Zers enabling this over the long term. More diverse than Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, a significant number of each generation are children of interracial, interethnic, or interfaith marriages. Many identify with more than one label from traditional categories or choose to reject labels altogether—including, sometimes, even traditional gender norms.

Community Offers Global Reach

Technology has opened all our eyes—not only those of Millennials and Gen Zers—to new cultures and new lifestyles. And in doing so, it has widened everyone’s opportunities for belonging to global communities, alongside local ones, and to virtual groups side by side with physical cliques. Our technologically facilitated interconnectedness naturally promotes more fluid self-definition. Although some people have always broken out of their social group or taken on multiple personas, they historically did so cautiously—and, societally, not at such a large scale.

Today, however, we have more freedom to choose whom we affiliate with and to adopt different personas for the various communities we interact with. For example, childhood friends versus coworkers, classmates versus online friends, or those in a women’s mastermind group versus friends from church, temple, or mosque. As one Millennial succinctly and confidently stated, “I feel my identity is fluid and that people who know me only know aspects of my identity.”

This sense of ME and WE intertwined comes to the fore in building brands on community and belonging. Brands facilitate connections to a larger collective: people who buy the same products and services, share ways of living, or are united through common purpose and values. In a consumerist culture, our social identities are in part wrapped up in the brands we choose. The labels we buy, wear, eat, and even work at symbolize who we are to ourselves and to others.

They represent our affiliations with certain lifestyles, social groups, attitudes, and ideals. Consciously and subconsciously, we decide whether or not to become a member of, for instance, the Apple, Google, Chipotle, SAS, Harley Davidson, Burt’s Bees communities, and so forth. Those who opt for lesser known or unbranded products and services sometimes are making more determined statements about who they are by declaring who they are not.

Community Takes Brands Further

Brands positioned with our community in mind are often perceived as extensions of our own personas, in sync with how we define ourselves today and who we aspire to be. In the same way we’re drawn to people who are similar to us, demonstrate an understanding of the things we care about, or are part of a group we yearn to join, we’re attracted to brands that share our personal values and connect us emotionally, virtually, or physically to like-minded people—or represent something aspirational that we desire.

With a clearly defined attitude or passion at the center of their brand purpose, these brands frequently engender fierce loyalty from customers, employees, and other fans. Only brands that behave sincerely and are masterful at “listening” persuade us that they understand our inner emotions. All brands, however, have the opportunity to foster greater affinity by demonstrating a firm belief in, or commitment to, the things that matter to the people they aim to engage—whether they be customers, employees, shareholders, or other stakeholders.

There is great opportunity for brands who know how to bring people together through shared values and common passions. Don’t underestimate your ability to be one of these brands.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Anne Bahr Thompson. Excerpted from her new book Do Good, Embracing Brand Citizenship to Fuel Both Purpose and Profit.

The Blake Project Can Help: Please email us for more about our brand community and brand culture workshops.

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