Purpose moves up marketers' agenda in volatile times

If marketers spent much of 2020 in crisis-response mode, next year should see them transforming their processes to prioritise speed, flexibility and impact while also rethinking longer term strategy, says WARC’s Marketer’s Toolkit.

• Brand purpose has gained new relevance: more than three quarters of respondents to the Marketer’s Toolkit survey believe that purpose is now more important.
• Many brands during the pandemic looked for tangible ways to help; this theme of ‘acts, not ads’ will continue in 2021 as recession bites.
• Marketers need to build flexibility into brand strategies to adapt to short-term volatility, but keep core strategic objectives and long-term growth in mind.

“In uncertain times, consumers reach for the certain and familiar. Yet, as marketers, we need to be embracing the uncertain and unfamiliar to ensure we can deal with the volatility and pace at which the world is changing” – Kathleen Saxton, Managing Director, EMEA at MediaLink.

Sourced from WARC