Branding giving

Stop for a second and think about the Toyota Prius’ basic marketing claim. This is an automobile sold not as the fastest car, the most comfortable car, the sexiest or sportiest car, or even the most economical car, but the cleanest car.

If this sort of pitch didn’t now seem to us so commonplace, we would be would be better able to notice how truly historically anomalous it is.  And if you needed any more evidence that the Western world is developing a conscience about its wasteful, consumerist habits, the not-inexpensive hybrid Prius might be it.

(What I’m talking about is not just happening in economic consumption, it’s affecting political consumption too. David Cameron, leader of the British opposition Conservative Party, had a wind-powered generator installed on his house and, rather ostentatiously, cycles to work…sometimes).

So what happens if doing good—and being seen to be doing good—becomes part of normal social and economic behaviour?  What happens if more and more people demand a philanthropic ingredient in the purchases?  What happens if, to put in another way, giving becomes the new buying?

I’m pretty sure we’ll find out soon enough, because it seems to me this is the way the world is going.

Naturally, this trend is particularly pronounced amongst the younger generation, amongst whom some are starting to examine in minute detail things like where their food comes from, rejecting the exotic and imported products in favour of environmentally healthier local foods which have racked up fewer air miles. (Since Fairtrade products come from poor but faraway countries, this is a paradoxical, not to say contradictory trend, but since when did inconsistency inhibit behaviour?)

Organizations are catching on, slowly, trying with varying levels of success to match the sophistication (or is it just a fair-minded fickleness?) of consumers.  Some businesses have gone further than run-of-the-mill CSR and set up social foundations to create products and brands for, and spread profitability to, stakeholders all of whom are one way or another deserving—people who’ve slipped through the social network. Micro banking is a classic example of a socially responsible institution which is being absorbed into the conventional mainstream banking system.  The Mexican bank Ixe has created Banco de Uno for previously unbanked people.  It’s a kind of commercial version of a micro bank.

All of this will have a massive impact on charities and NGOs, whose cosy world already is beginning to change as donors themselves are coming to bring the same levels of financial and marketing discipline into their charitable activities as they employ in their business lives.

Right now, I’m afraid there are a very few professionally managed charities and NGOs; most are, for all intents and purposes, small craft-based organizations run by enthusiastic amateurs.  And the ambivalence of charities about professionalism inhibits them from seizing new opportunities.

Over the next decade or so, charities and NGOs in the Western world will become more streetwise, more worldly and, as they say, more marketing savvy. They will become much more professional. They will learn how to attract the attention of donors (they may even call them customers), how to win them and how to make them feel a strong sense of identity and a kinship with what they do.  If, as I predict, giving becomes the new branding, then giving, too, will most certainly be branded.

As charities go through this process, they will engage with the professional branding consultancy world. The opportunity is exciting – even challenging.