MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Is Your Brand Purpose at Risk of Being Obsolete?

Business leaders must understand how the pandemic has altered the emotional imperatives that affect consumers’ brand choices.

Great brand purpose and positioning strategy begins with a human insight, not a category insight. It begins with a question of what’s driving consumers to make their decisions — putting an emotional why in front of a behavioral what. As one Journal of Brand Strategy study put it, “In practicing purpose-driven marketing, brands need to connect their purpose to consumer values and human needs."

In times of great cultural upheaval, those values and needs change. As business leaders, especially brand stewards, look to find their voice in a post-pandemic world, they face a critical question: How has COVID-19 altered the emotional imperatives that affect consumers’ brand choices?