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One of the speakers at the upcoming BrandFest 2024, Shariful Islam is a prominent brand activist and the founder and managing director of Bangladesh Brand Forum (BBF), a leading non-profit organisation dedicated to transforming Bangladesh through branding, creativity and knowledge dissemination. He is also actively involved with international organisations, representing the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in Bangladesh and overseeing Superbrands operations in multiple countries. He shared with The Himalayan Times his perspectives on how brands can genuinely and effectively integrate purpose into their strategies, demonstrate commitment to their purpose and build trust to create meaningful impact.
How has your experience with BBF and initiatives like YouthFest informed your understanding of how purpose impacts brand perception? Can you provide examples of brands that have successfully integrated purpose into their strategies?
There are many ways to define a brand. One simple definition is 'Promises delivered'. Capitalism has been largely influenced by the philosophy given by Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, who pushed the notion that shareholder return is the only dimension that should drive any corporation, and that has influenced companies all over the world ever since, making them focus on the short term. As this began to negatively affect business perception, business leaders started to embrace stakeholder management which brought about a focus on a purpose driven approach. But many of these initiatives were mere whitewash to ride the current trends and generate more profit. As consumers, Gen Z were far more perceptive and able to see through this.
YouthFest was designed to engage with youth, to understand them, inspire them and guide them to create a better future for themselves individually and for the community as a whole. These interactions revealed the fault lines as far as trust in brands were concerned. But there were some great examples of purpose driven brands that became highly preferred brands. One such brand was Bkash - a local mobile finance brand, which went on to become the most loved brand in Bangladesh for three consecutive years. At the core, the purpose of the brand was to give ordinary unbanked people the financial freedom to enable them to take advantage of mobile technology and make their lives easier at an affordable rate. The brand invested heavily on innovation and continued to provide unique features as a testament to their core purpose of making it easier to serve peoples financial and payment needs.
What are the key factors contributing to the erosion of trust in brands today? How can brands address these issues to rebuild and strengthen their credibility across various demographics?
When the bottom line and growth become a central focus for business and brands, and are linked with bonus and promotion, people begin to act in ways which do not reflect the core purpose. Most brands limit their purpose to communication only, or small engagements that can be converted to promotion in digital media platforms. Today's ever vigilant consumers can pick up on these shallow approach very fast, leading to an erosion of trust.
It's fairly simple and equally complex. Top management, including the board, must truly believe in the core purpose and the brand's value chain needs to be designed around living that purpose. A company's performance review, brand's performance review and every team member's review must reflect essence of the purpose which needs to be broken down to actionable behaviour. Only then we will begin to see brands truly living their purpose.
How can brands distinguish themselves from those accused of purpose whitewashing? What practical steps can they take to ensure their purpose-driven initiatives are perceived as authentic and impactful?
I guess there is no short cut to distinguishing these brands from others. In order to build trust, a brand has to prove its commitment to its purpose. That proof can only be given during difficult times. Does one compromise with commitment to its own people when times are tough? Does commitment to the environment or other components of their purpose get axed when times are tough? Anyone can make wonderful promises reflected through slick communication, but the real test comes during times when chips are down.
How can brands effectively contribute to addressing global challenges such as climate change and social inequality through their purpose-driven initiatives? What strategies have proven successful in creating meaningful impact?
Business and brands have a huge role to play in addressing some of the major challenges that are affecting the planet today and that is why private sector engagement was designed to be a core part when the SDGs were designed. The UN predicted that in order for Bangladesh to reach its SDG targets, 43 per cent investment needed to come from the private sector. Business, by mere design, has direct and indirect reach towards its end user, channel partners, distributors, direct and indirect employees and community. If a brand keeps consideration for all these stakeholders when their core strategy is developed, and they truly reflect this through their actions on the ground, this will be addressed by default.
What are some successful examples of brands that have aligned their strategies with broader societal values and issues? How can these examples serve as a guide for others looking to build a meaningful brand purpose?
Senora, a leading sanitary napkin brand in Bangladesh, has gone beyond merely selling products, embedding itself into a broader societal narrative of women's empowerment, menstrual health and hygiene. By addressing taboo topics and educating underserved communities, the brand has positioned itself as an agent of change in Bangladesh's journey towards gender equality and health awareness.
Senora's outreach efforts have reached over one million women and girls across rural Bangladesh, helping to reduce absenteeism in schools due to menstruation. Studies indicate that in some rural regions, nearly 40 per cent of girls used to miss school during their menstrual cycles due to a lack of sanitary products and awareness. Senora's intervention has significantly lowered this percentage by providing both products and education. All these helped the brand to command 77 per cent share of the market. This shows that by truly addressing relevant problems or challenges of its users, a brand can become highly relevant and become part of their lives, and in the process, be close to their heart.
How can the concept of 'Branding with Purpose' be applied to ensure that a brand's initiatives are both authentic and effective? What key considerations should brands keep in mind to maintain alignment with their core purpose?
For a brand strategy to be authentic and effective, the first key component is that the development of the brand shouldn't solely be left with the brand management team. True buy-in must come from top management, especially the finance team and key stakeholders. This would make it possible to align all other sub strategies - HR, Production, Distribution, Trade Marketing and Supply Chain with the core purpose. In the absence of this alignment, it will become a mere communication strategy. The second key component which must be addressed is to link every employee's performance with some part of the purpose, so that everyone is reminded that they must pursue other goals beyond their top and bottom line, and that those behaviours must be rewarded.
