“With great power comes great responsibility.”
That’s what Uncle Ben told Peter Parker (aka Spiderman) in 1962.
Let’s twist the phrase for our industry: “Great marketing comes from great responsibility.”
That’s the message Lola Bakare sends in her 2024 book, Responsible Marketing: How To Create an Authentic and Inclusive Marketing Strategy.
Recently, she participated in a Live With CMI interview about responsible marketing. Watch the highlights below or read on for some takeaways from her book (a must-read) and the discussion.
What is responsible marketing?
Lola says she used the words “responsible marketing” to take the pressure off marketers. She explains why by starting with the well-known outdoor apparel brand Patagonia. The brand has a reputation for its commitment to the environment. It even pledges 1% of sales to environmental causes. And yet, it doesn’t use the word “sustainable” in describing its brand mission.
Vincent Stanley, director of philosophy at Patagonia, explained that deliberate decision in an interview with Yale Insights, which Lola references in her book:
“Sustainable is the popular term for companies that have environmental and social ambitions. We don’t think there’s very much that we do at Patagonia that’s truly sustainable. That’s why we use the phrase ‘responsible company.’ We’re honing our practices so that we’re creating the least amount of pollution and using the least amount of resources to create a product. That’s reducing harm.”
Lola says Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard explains it like this, “With what I have right now, with the conditions that we’re in right now, all I can do is try to be as responsible as possible.”
But it’s more than that. Lola advocates for responsible marketing because it simplifies the conversation (and in getting buy-in and other support) — something that is needed now more than ever.
It allows marketers to roll up purpose marketing, inclusive marketing, cause marketing, conscious marketing, multicultural marketing, social impact marketing, ethical marketing, diversity marketing, sustainable marketing, and culture marketing, she explains.
Responsible marketing works for the bottom-line business side, too. “When done right, responsible marketing drives sustainable business growth. It’s a powerful reminder that doing good and doing well are not mutually exclusive but rather beautifully interconnected,” Lola writes.
“By optimizing for relevance, intention, and precision, responsible marketing invites us to say ‘R.I.P.’ to unnecessary confusion that slows us down, holds us back, and leaves world-changing work vulnerable to detractors both well-meaning and otherwise.”
Don’t start with demands
Responsible marketing doesn’t start with ultimatums about what should be done or complaints about what isn’t being done correctly, Lola says.
She recounts a recent conversation at her book launch event. A man in his early to mid-20s asked her when he should have his say and share his ideas about all the wrong things the company was doing. Recognizing his frustration (and how he reminded her of herself at that age,) she shared some advice that may surprise you.
“You don’t do it that way,” she told him. “You control what you can control. You stay in your lane.
“Start getting to know people, ask them questions, get them to see you as an inquisitive young man. And then I guarantee you, before long, you’ll be invited to the table and asked for your opinion.”
But once you’re at the table, you still don’t make demands, Lola says. You advocate and implement a responsible marketing strategy.
What is the responsible marketing framework?
In 2023, the World Federation of Advertisers surveyed CMOs and senior global marketers at 38 companies. Eighty-eight percent reported having a responsible marketing framework, and 87% said those frameworks are increasingly important to their long-term operations.
Lola devotes the first part of her book to distilling a framework for responsible marketing, which is reflected in the chapter titles:
- Make it authentic: Brand-relevant social impact
- Make it known: Reputation impact
- Make it count: Commercial impact
Each building block leads to the next. A brand with social relevancy gains a reputation for good that then converts into a financial result.
Lola calls it the Triple Top-Line Flywheel. Each block has five key performance indicators. When one or more of the KPIs is achieved, the next framework block is unlocked — creating an ongoing cycle of regenerative impact.
Social impact KPIs include:
- Fostering diversity
- Enabling inclusion
- Advancing equity
- Cultivating belonging
- Supporting sustainability
Reputation impact KPIs encompass:
- Amplifying brand identity
- Delivering positive earned media
- Increasing share of voice
- Generating word of mouth (net promoter score)
- Improving brand health/sentiment scores
Commercial impact KPIs include:
- Driving sales
- Acquiring new customers/users
- Retaining customers/users
- Maximizing wallet share/frequency
- Attracting investors
It’s worth emphasizing that you need only achieve one KPI in a category to propel your brand to the next stage. So, for example, if your brand marketing cultivates an online community where members feel they belong (social impact), it can increase its share of voice (reputation impact) and then retain customers (commercial impact). With the flywheel fully engaged now, you can see ongoing contributions and benefits across all categories of impact.
Lola writes, “Triple top-line thinking comes together because, when you solve a problem, you create brand preference, and that is what makes the reputational impact turn into commercial impact.”
Use your superpowers
“Nobody has more power to show people what’s really going on,” Lola says. “What win-wins are you going to find where you’re not only creating financial value for your business, but you’re actually doubling down on that because you did the ultimate thing that every marketer knows is the cheat code to outside success … emotional connection.”
To help in your process, Lola offers books and authors (I’ve linked to their books and individual LinkedIn pages) who have helped in her development as a marketer and her thinking as a responsible marketing advocate:
“Let’s stand up, especially those of us who have these really fun jobs where we have so much control over what people see, consume, and hear. If we’re going to shape culture, let’s shape it in a way that includes all of us,” Lola says.
And that’s how to use your responsible marketing power for the good of your company and the world.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute