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Brand Purpose Is Great But It's Not Enough: Just Ask The NFL

This article is more than 6 years old.

As NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell has been on the hot seat for a broad range of high-emotion issues, ranging from penalties for Deflategate to policies around player behavior off the field. But lately, Goodell and the NFL have faced a whole new form of reputational firestorm: how to navigate their brand through the outspoken beliefs and active Twitter feed of President Trump. Amidst a growing number of players kneeling during the national anthem, Trump has grown increasingly pointed in his call for various forms of punishment for the protesting athletes.

After a two-day meeting with NFL owners, Goodell today reiterated the NFL policy that players should stand during the national anthem.  But he also notably acknowledged that “they are not doing this in any way to be disrespectful to the flag” and that further there would be no punitive action taken for kneeling during the national anthem. No surprise, this move prompted a Tweet from POTUS: “The NFL has decided that it will not force players to stand for the playing of our National Anthem. Total disrespect for our great country!”

Despite not having been a fly on the wall during the owners’ meeting, I feel confident in saying that Goodell and colleagues could see the President’s tart response coming and did not enjoy facing such a Hobson’s choice: aggravate POTUS or alienate our players. Goodell’s statement employed some deft art in generally aligning with Trump but respecting the players’ positive intent and freedom to express themselves. But it clearly wasn’t enough to evade the President’s ire.

The NFL is not the first—and certainly won’t be the last—brand to find itself suddenly in the glare of a social/political controversy. The list of brands that have had to quickly and sometimes unexpectedly articulate and defend their values is long, and includes household names like Google, Uber, Budweiser, LL Bean and so many more. As our nation has become more stridently polarized, brands have increasingly become an outlet for a frustrated consumer and a rallying point for proponents on all sides of an issue. One lesson to be taken by brand and reputation managers is that you can’t plan on remaining in safe and quiet territory.  When these storms blow into town, they often come out of the blue with little warning—who would have predicted something as fundamentally mainstream American as the NFL would find itself in conflict with the President? It’s naïve at best, and more likely reckless, to believe that your brand is immune to the political and social turbulence in the air.

Smart CEOs, CMOs and boards will proactively define their values, their sense of purpose and the issues that meaningfully drive their business. By going through this introspective thought process, organizations can get a step ahead of storm and be prepared to respond quickly and confidently when needed.

There’s another key lesson, and I believe it will be a sobering one for many.

Brand purpose is no longer enough.

Put another way, purpose is necessary but not sufficient.

An increasing number of brands have been rallying around a strong sense of purpose, providing resonance and affinity with their target consumer. Purpose is also motivating and energizing to employees, especially to millennials as we so often point out. And certainly we can give great credit to brands for bringing attention and awareness to critical issues such as confidence in young girls, more diverse definitions of family, body image issues and many others.

A common and beneficial trait of the various brand purposes being pursued is that they are worthy, laudable and generally hard to debate—who would want to argue that young girls should lack confidence? In this way, adopting a brand purpose is a reasonably safe way to put your values on display with little concern for inciting a riot of protest.

But in this highly polarized, politicized climate, purpose alone just won’t cut it anymore. With a 24-hour news cycle and watchful consumers armed with social media, brands will continue to be called out to declare themselves on timely and controversial topics.

So when a sharply current issue arises that touches on a brand’s espoused values and purpose, energized consumers will demand a response that goes beyond a broad statement of purpose. Brand’s will need to wade into the fray, or risk being called out for insincere intentions and cynical use of social currency: “Hey Brand, if you really believe X, how can you stand silently by when they do Y?”  I’m sure the NFL never wished or imagined it would find itself leading the headlines in the politics columns, but that was not a choice they had.

Brand’s will find themselves in unfamiliar and uneasy territory as they face this challenge. Purpose has the blessing of feeling both comfortable and brave at the same time. Addressing a more timely and controversial question will feel decidedly uncomfortable and will call for new levels of bravery. I’m not suggesting that every brand now needs to step out and start declaring positions on all the big issues of the day. But when an issue arises that does touch on their declared purpose, their values or any other meaningful aspect of their business, they will need to be prepared to carefully but intentionally step into the current debate in order to remain credible and authentic.

Purpose has been a vastly important component of modern brand building. But, like it or not, our new reality means that truly courageous brands will need to strap on their values and go beyond purpose.

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