In January, Fundsmith vs Unilever, one noticeable purposeful communication and business performance friction case occurred. The FMCG giant was piqued by a corporate investor on its 9% stock value drop within the past 12 months.
The Fundsmith Founder believed that the decline was caused by excessive concentration of Unilever’s purpose-driven brands like Hellmann (too much attention to the mayonnaise’s purpose) and Ben & Jerry (a refusal to sell ice cream in Israel’s settlements in occupied Palestinian territory) on added value.
Meanwhile, the investor missed one fact: two years before the pandemic, Unilever’s 28 Sustainable Living Brands, which contain both Hellmann and Ben & Jerry, brought 75% on Unilever’s growth plate. Quantity or quality didn’t prove the stock and brand value imbalance.
Do investors underrate purpose for profit’s sake?
Robin Nuttall, McKinsey Regulatory & External Affairs service’s Leader, stated that current investors often acquiesce to balanced capitalism. Shareholders are interested in palpable metrics and comprehensive reports of purposeful communications on long-term business performance including, but not limited to financial indicators. For instance, 72% of Unilever’s employees on 54 of the 75 markets confirmed that they joined the company due to the clearly defined purpose. Does talent attraction & retention have any other advantage aside from an evident profit?
Your stakeholders (customers, employees, community members and B2B partners) expect your business to be purposeful. Aggregate resources loss would be an occasional slight revenue decline without your brand loyalty in at least one of these categories,
At Mosron, when building strategies aimed at effective corporate communication, our advice to clients is to:
– Have a defined and solid Communications policy detailing shareholders and other stakeholders’ communication process for the mutual benefit;
– Use those media and messages attuned to your corporate profile and communicate what value your brand adds to the stakeholders strongly;
– Create a self-hosted events concept and an execution plan that communicate your competitive employer brand;
– Implement a thought leadership strategy for your executive & leadership team to keep your senior crew captains your brand ambassadors who they truly are;
We are certain YOUR company has a purpose deserving of comprehensive communication to show WHY it exists for every stakeholder.
