How To Get Noticed In 2025

Reference: Found here

Except for Patagonia, the social impact of brands isn't getting noticed by consumers. Whenever I ask students or other groups of people which companies they consider to be social impact leaders, they say Patagonia, without exception. Yesterday I was speaking with someone who manages sustainability initiatives in climate-focused organizations and asked her the same question. She couldn't name a single brand. I think that's because marketing social impact needs to be done a lot better than it is today.

I wanted to get the best possible opinion about what I believe is a failure on the part of brands, even ones that are genuinely committed to social change, to engage consumers. This led me to a conversion with Richard Edelman, President and CEO of the global public relations consultancy, Edelman. " My general proposition for you is the marketing industry has done a very poor job of communicating the benefit of being in culture," said Edelman. This problem is important to Edelman and the firm partnered with the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business on first-of-its-kind research, Effective Sustainability Communications: A Best Practice Guide for Brands ⁘ Marketers .

I also asked eight marketing experts and thought leaders about what they would advise brands to do differently to increase the value of investments in social impact. What follows is a new playbook for how brands can better engage consumers in initiatives that are intended to sell products and help make the world a better place.

It's often the case that corporations have meaningful social and environmental initiatives that are not evident at a brand level. "We rank the strongest in the perception of ESG in the food industry," said Vincent. "And I think it would only be stronger if consumers actually connected all of the work that we're doing in the different verticals of our brands." Tschirhart suggested that showing up at a brand level in ways where consumers actually want to get involved should be done through a combination of customer segmentation, social listening, surveys, and responsiveness to the news cycle. "There is no silver bullet to achieve this, all of these elements should be used for effective engagement."