Just one in five consumers aware of brand purpose, Ehrenberg-Bass suggests 

Marketers have long debated the effectiveness of brand purpose.  

But even for brands most celebrated for their purpose-led marketing, few are gaining cut through with customers.

Just one in five consumers is aware of a brand’s purpose, according to new research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.  

The study looked at 14 brands defined as being exemplars of brand purpose strategy, including Ben & Jerry’s, Dove and Nike. More than half of the brands included have communicated their purpose for more than 20 years.  

Ehrenberg-Bass surveyed almost 3,000 respondents across the UK, US and Australia who were asked to match a list of brand purposes to the corresponding brand.  

In the UK, the average purpose score – meaning, the percentage of customers who recognise each business’s brand purpose – is just 18%. In Australia and the US, the figures are 14% and 22%, respectively.  

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These figures are the “best case scenario”, the report says, as they include an estimated guessing rate of around 9 percentage points.  

False positives in recognising brand purpose suggest the genuine awareness of brand purpose “rarely” exceeds 10%.  

Nike is the only exception. The brand, widely known for its ‘Just Do It’ tagline, scores 32% in the UK and 52% in the US for its purpose of promoting diversity and inclusion in sport.   

However, the research cautions this is partly due to the business’s high brand penetration.  

Takeaways for marketers

While Ehrenberg-Bass doesn’t suggest marketers eschew purpose, it encourages them to set more “realistic expectations” for their brand purpose initiatives, particularly if purpose is pursued to drive large sales growth.  

“The results serve as a reminder to approach industry claims regarding the effectiveness of purpose-led strategies with caution, especially when those claims lack robust supporting evidence,” say the report’s authors Victoria Tait, Dr Virginia Beal, Professor John Dawes and Professor Byron Sharp. 

For marketers whose brands don’t have a nailed-down purpose, the report suggests adding one “is not imperative” for brand success.  

The findings outline that if purpose “remains largely overlooked” by consumers, it could be argued it is not benefiting “the brand or society” – especially if marketers are using their limited resources to promote it.