How to stand out in 2025

Social Impact of Marketing: How to Get Noticed in 2025

With the exception of Patagonia, brands’ social influence is not perceived by consumers. Whenever I ask students or other groups of people which companies they think are at the forefront of social impact, they invariably say Patagonia. Yesterday I spoke to someone who leads sustainability initiatives in climate-focused organizations and asked her the same question. She couldn’t name a single brand. I think this is because the marketing of social impact needs to be done much better than it is today.

I wanted to get the best opinion possible on what I see as a failure by brands to engage consumers, even when they are truly committed to social change. This led me to a conversation with Richard Edelman, president and CEO of global public relations consulting firm Edelman. “My general suggestion to you is that the marketing industry has done a very poor job of communicating the benefits of culture,” Edelman said. This issue is important to Edelman and the company has conducted unique research with the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business. Effective Sustainability Communication: A Best Practice Guide for Brands and Marketers.

I also asked eight marketing experts and thought leaders what they would advise brands to do differently to increase the value of social impact investments. What follows is a new playbook for how brands can better engage consumers in initiatives designed to sell products and help make the world a better place.

Align with your mission

Brands need to balance the social impact they want to make on the world with their core mission and ensure that this informs every decision, from product design to marketing campaigns. Jennifer Vincent, communications director at Danone, believes that the reason companies like Patagonia perform so well is because they choose environmental initiatives that are very close to their mission. Danone’s mission is to “bring health through food to as many people as possible,” and Danone North America was recently re-certified as a B Corporation. “Brands that have social good embedded in their brand identity have rightfully become known for their good deeds,” said Emily Tschirhart, vice president of social impact at Jennifer Bett Communications. “From caring for customers, the planet, humanity, to brands like Patagonia, REI, Bombas and Ben & Jerry’s, we are prime examples of how we enable social activism to drive brand and marketing.”

Walk the talk

“People can recognize when social impact initiatives are performative,” said Whitney Bonrud, director of marketing and communications at Charity: Water. “At Charity: Water, our mission is to bring clean water to every person on the planet. That’s why we focus on developing sustainable water programs and ethical marketing campaigns that increase the impact of our work in practice. By putting this purpose at the heart of everything we do, we ensure our mission is not just a campaign, but a way of life that can support our brand and our community of supporters.” Or as Vincent described it: “Do the work, before you actually feel like you’re in a place where you can talk about something from an authentic place.”

Aim for your social impact

Jackie Cooper, Global Chief Brand Officer at Edelman, believes brands need to focus on marketing social impact in a way that is relevant to specific audiences. She shared the example of a recent Dove campaign called “Code My Crown,” which is aimed at Black gamers and celebrates Black hair textures and protective styles in video games. “In this community, 85 percent of Black gamers said they felt better represented, 95 percent said they saw a positive social impact, and 32 percent said they felt brand loyalty in their community,” Cooper said . Initiatives this specific have the potential to resonate and be remembered because they solve a problem that is directly relevant to a community.

Understand your context

“I’m obsessed with knowing context because too many companies and brands are context-naïve,” Cooper said. “And if they’re not fully aware of the context in which they’re doing it, they could explode.” The nationwide boycott of Bud Lite is a good example. Conservatives who were Bud Lite consumers boycotted the brand in response to a social media ad the company ran featuring Dylan Mulvaney, a trans actress and TikTok personality. To truly engage in social impact initiatives, it is critical for brands to align on issues that matter to their customers, communities, investors and founders,” said Tschirhart. “The best way to do this is to first understand what your brand stands for – and, just as importantly, what it doesn’t stand for.”

Integrate social impact into your brands

Tensie Whelan, founding director of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, believes brands get noticed when they incorporate sustainability attributes into all product attribute messaging. “Constantly, not as a campaign,” Whelan said. “You can run campaigns around specific sustainability ideas, but you always want to have consistent messaging.” It’s also important not to assume that messages are clear and understandable. “We’ve come out with research showing that over 80% of consumers are confused by brands’ claims,” ​​said Phillip Haid, founder and CEO of Public Inc. “So keep it simple and communicate often.”

Combine corporate ESG with brand impact

It often happens that companies pursue meaningful social and environmental initiatives that are not apparent at the brand level. “We are the strongest in terms of perception of ESG in the food industry,” said Vincent. “And I think it would only be stronger if consumers actually connected all the work we do across our brands’ different verticals.” Tschirhart suggested through a combination of customer segmentation, social listening, surveys and responsiveness to appear across the news cycle at the brand level in a way that consumers actually want to engage. “There is no panacea to achieve this. All of these elements should be leveraged for effective engagement.”

Invest in the social impact of marketing

Haid noted that recall of social impact is limited because these initiatives typically represent only a fraction of marketing spend compared to products. “Spend more on impact marketing and recall will increase,” Haid said. It’s also important for brands to be consistent in their investments in social impact communication. “The brands that are remembered are the ones that stay the course because they understand that it takes time to make an impact and are committed to it.”

Be aware that what consumers say and do varies

Jason Feifer, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, points out that while surveys show consumers prioritize companies with social missions, their actions may not align with research. For example, statistics from 2024 show that 94% of Generation Z consumers believe that companies should address social and environmental issues, 88% of consumers look for information about a company’s CSR initiatives when considering a purchase, and about 90% of consumers would switch to more sustainable products brands. “Founders have learned this over the last decade,” Feifer said. “Many of them may have advanced their mission by leaning heavily on it, either in their marketing, communications or packaging, and not been rewarded accordingly.” But even though social impact may be a smaller part of the larger brand picture they still provide a competitive advantage. “A social mission can be a great side point; This could be the reason a consumer chooses one company over a similar competitor,” Feifer said

Prioritize business performance

Martin Whittaker, CEO of JUST Capital, believes that the only thing that unifies corporate performance is shareholder return and market performance. In my last article for Forbes, “The New Mandate For Business: Make A Profit, Solve Social Problems,” I suggested that “a business-first approach could encourage more CEOs to take a lead in solving social problems This means that it is important for every company to develop a business case based on prioritizing its stakeholders and then align all impact initiatives around what is most important to each target group is. However, it is also important to remember that even the best business case cannot reliably establish the connections between business performance and social impact. “There is still a lot of work to be done to generate much more meaningful data about exactly what investing in communities or workers means and what the ROI is,” Whittaker said.

A view from the summit: Patagonia

Patagonia is recognized by consumers and marketers as the world’s leading impact brand. I wanted to know what advice Patagonia would give to brands that are making a social impact but aren’t known for more than their products.

Vincent Stanley, director of Patagonia Philosophy and visiting scholar at the Yale School of Management, described two things that have characterized Patagonia’s approach from the beginning. First, the company “continuously worked to solve problems in its supply chain and then moved from environmental to social innovation.” Second, Patagonia “built a culture whose success depends on our ability to continue to innovate.”

Stanley’s advice to other brands is: “Understand that there is a big difference between just reducing harm and doing things that promote the positive.” So my advice to entrepreneurs is: If you can do that, then that is it “The Holy Grail is the North Star.”

When I asked Stanley if there were any companies Patagonia looked up to, he mentioned Dr. Bronner’s. “Your B Corp score is 206 and we are 166.”

(I would like to add that brands should consider hiring a Director of Philosophy!)

Everyone loves Patagonia, but other brands can do more to solve social problems, better market social impact, and get noticed for what they do to make the world a better place.

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