Deep Dive: How brands are building stronger equity the CSR way – Part 1

The adorable kids in HUL’s campaign have made us smile even as they convey an important message of hygiene, chanting “Haath, Munh aur Bum, Bimaari Hogi Kum”. Tata Tea has forced us to ruminate over and take action in their hard-hitting social awareness ads that tell us “Alarm bajne se pehle Jaago Re”. Recently, P&G’s Vicks, Ariel and PepsiCo India’s Mirinda came up with innovative advertising to break stereotypes and fight existing odds. United Colors of Benetton have for years been going against the grain in socially relevant campaigns dominated by provocative visuals that have never failed to generate conversations and strong reactions. 

Vicks’ latest campaign – #TouchofCare – narrates the story of a transgender mother ‘Gauri’ and her adopted daughter ‘Gayatri’, who aims to become a lawyer as she feels that her mother is denied ‘human basic rights’. Ariel’s much applauded #ShareTheLoad campaign is a call to action for people, especially men, to share household chores with their beloved. On the other hand, Mirinda’s #ReleasethePressure ad film appeals to parents to support and motivate their children. Also, it was the first time that the brand decided to not go the regular summer campaign way, but highlight a socially relevant issue. The objective of the campaign was to drive behavioural change by inviting people to pledge to Release the Pressure during exams. While it was a digital-only campaign, a TVC with the tagline, ‘No More Pressurepanti, Only Pagalpanti’, was also released owing to the tremendous response. 

HUL launched the ‘Swachh Aadat, Swachh Bharat’ programme in line with the Government of India’s ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ to promote good health and hygiene. As part of the programme, the company released a campaign which sought to bring alive this message in a fun and engaging manner, celebrating children as the agents of change. 

The CSR factor is gaining grounds in brands’ campaigns as they seen to bring about a social change, along with building up the brand. According to a study commissioned by Havas Media, brands which embed social and environmental benefits in their core products outperform the stock market by 120 per cent and generate higher levels of loyalty, purchasing intent and overall consumer advocacy. What happens when a brand goes the ‘cause-way’ and keeps it at the centre? 

Adgully spoke to a cross section of brands to find out the objective behind going the ‘cause-route’ to advertise, generating an emotional connect with the consumers, storytelling factor, driving consumers from social media and much more. 

Bringing in a cause at the centre of the campaign, benefitting the brand in terms of brand recall and ideology 

Nitin Darbari
Nitin Darbari
For Nitin Darbari, Chairman and CEO, P&G Teva JV China, Marketing Director Asia, Middle East and Africa, the #TouchOfCare film was more about redefining family care which Vicks as a brand has been iconic for over the past decades. 

According to Sundeep Chugh, MD & CEO of Benetton India, when consumers choose a brand, they look beyond labels, tags and trends – they are drawn to the ethics and value system that the brand stands for. He further claimed that since inception, Benetton has always maintained purpose and social commitment at the central helm. Consumers often personify brands, which implies that the same rules apply in bringing consumers to a brand as they do in bringing people close to one another; one is drawn to the principles, ideologies, intellect and belief systems of a person. In the same way, consumers look for a brand which encompasses a sphere which goes beyond just fashion. This is exactly where Benetton comes in.  

Sanjana Desai
Sanjana Desai
Sanjana Desai, Head of Business Development, Desai Brothers Ltd. (Food Division – Mother’s Recipe), affirmed that memorable campaigns need to connect with the consumers’ emotions, and resonate with what the consumer believes in. At the same time, the message has to identify with the brand essence and brand idealogy. Mother’s Recipe has always had an emotional connect with consumers, the name extends a beautiful identity to all our products. She added, “We believe our food is made with recipes passed down generations with emphasis on traditional taste, without adding any artificial flavours or chemical preservatives, just like our mothers would make for us. Thus, it is important for a brand like Mother’s Recipe to pick a cause that reflects these emotions. The best brand campaigns are those which seamlessly transverse this distance and creatively tell a story of the brand to the consumer, driving brand recall.” 

Is emotional connect the only way forward? What if the story fails to resonate with the audience? 

Sundeep Chugh
Sundeep Chugh
Chugh is a believer of owning up a cause not for communication, but for commitment’s sake. He opined, “If you and your organisation believe in owning up an ideology, make sure it’s something you can give your 100 per cent to and are ready to nurture it long term. I don’t see any reason why such an honest dedication on any subject won’t resonate with customers.” 

Highlighting the latest wave of advertising the cause way, Desai stated that most of the brands today are talking to the consumer on an emotional level, trying to integrate themselves into the consumer’s world and be top-of-mind for them. “Very few, however, are able to do that thus, sometimes leading to a communication that is memorable, but absolutely no fit with the brand ideology,” she said. 

Desai is of the belief that for any brand to associate successfully with their consumers, it is imperative to first identify the core brand essence and then build a campaign resonating with the brand ethos. 

She further said, “Mother’s Day has a perfect connect with our brand Mother’s Recipe and our #TasteofMothersLove initiative explored this connect beautifully. There are 20 million children in India who have never experienced a mother’s love and out of 440 million children in India, 176 million lack care givers. These numbers were staggering. Taking the challenge to address this need, Mother’s Recipe initiated this unique yet ambitious initiative of giving a #TasteOfMothersLove to the children who are deprived of the most beautiful emotion – ‘Mother’s Love’ – on the joyous occasion of Mother’s Day. Through this initiative, we urge mothers to join us to celebrate Mother’s Day with children in orphanages across the country. So far, 1,000 mothers have touched the lives of 1,250 children in 22 orphanages across 5 cities.” 

On the other hand, Darbari confirmed that the insights come from markets/ culture. According to him, to capture the nerve of the society and then to give out a strong message, it is important that the messaging is most relatable to that set of society. He said, “As a brand we tried to look at stories that made the brand contemporary and fitted ‘family and care’ we came across the story of Gauri. We felt that the story needed to be told. Both the Vicks team and Publicis felt that Vicks needed to bring this story to life.” 

Meeting the revenue targets 

Darbari simply puts it down by replying that the campaign and ideas make an impact on the overall equity of the brand and in turn on the sales. 

“Sales is a long term result of brand building. It is really an investment you have to wait to reap,” said Chugh. “We launched #UnitedBy series last year talking about various causes right from Gender Inequality to Religious tolerance; but frankly we only used social impact, communication reach and consumer engagement as a yardstick.” 

Storytelling as the foundation of a brand and a strategy for future growth 

Desai pointed out that today’s consumer is spoilt for choice and has a very short attention span. The multiple avenues being used by various brands to reach out to the consumer ensures a communication clutter, and multiple messages being sent out. Great storytelling creates the hook for the consumer to listen to the entire communication, break the clutter and provides an entry point for the brands into the consumers’ consideration set. 

Echoing similar views, Chugh agreed that the most iconic brands in the world have been storytellers. Storytelling has to run in the brand DNA, it can’t be learnt or adopted overnight. The brand has to have a passion for storytelling, owning up causes and striving hard to make a social impact. It’s the least of the area where strategies can be patterned and followed.  

Talking about brand ‘Vicks’, Darbari noted that Vicks has always been about generations of love and care and the brand will support initiatives which are in the same space. The brand stands for love and care shown by a mother to her children over generations. Vicks has continued to look for ways to make the brand and its connection contemporary. He further emphasised that even in the film, Gauri is an epitome of motherhood showing her love and care towards her daughter – the setting is contemporary, but the relationship is timeless. The film celebrates ties between two people formed due to care given, who share very unique backgrounds in real life. 

Digital media contributing to the increase in frequencies of social-centric ads 

Darbari feels that the digital platform optimises share ability and voice of opinion. When you want to give out a message that is so strong, it is important that the receiver gets it on a platform which helps them to engage and give their POV. He further exemplified his views by revealing the heartwarming response by the consumers to the #TouchOfCare campaign has been launched as a digital film hosted on the Vicks India YouTube page and shared on the Facebook handle. He said, “The film has received a tremendous response from our consumers in India who have shared and supported the film. Key influencers have also expressed their appreciation by sharing the film on their social media assets.” 

Desai, too, opined that digital media is the biggest contributor – it allows brands to experiment with storytelling, allows experimentation with styles, see what a brands consumers are reacting well with and lets us connect with our target consumers directly. Budgets are very flexible and promotions can be changed based on responses. Direct product ads are passé now, it has become a crowded space and keeping users interested in is increasingly becoming difficult. Social awareness is something that really connects with the social media user and lets them show their friends what matters to them. “In my opinion, digital media is a great way to engage users in trying to make a difference in the society; it gets the brand positive recall and adds to the overall brand equity.” 

“At Mother’s Recipe, we believe it is very important for us to be socially responsible and create awareness for a cause we believe in is very close to our hearts. The #TasteOfMothersLove campaign received an overwhelming response both on-ground and in the digital media space. Over 1,100 entries received, 1,100,000+ video views, 400+ comments online and 75 million TV viewership on various platforms,” she informed. 

Campaign video link 2016

Speaking on the similar lines, Chugh agreed that digital media is increasingly becoming an integral part of mix owing to the right TG presence. The millennial generation is engaged on their devices more than ever before. Digital media is a platform is very conducive to viral thoughts and ideas, just with a click of share- anyone can join the wave. Therefore, if brands are looking at starting conversations, building up communities , digital media can up their game very well.  

For a brand, making an impactful campaign seems to be a daunting task without its creative partner. After all, a campaign reflects the ideology of the brand and the agency’s belief in that particular topic chosen for advertising. A power-packed storytelling combined with original content forms the recipe of a successful cause-related campaign, believe experts. But what if the story fails to touch a chord with the consumers?

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