How to Stop Talking and Actively Galvanize Doing Good       

“This book identifies a fundamental problem facing companies today: How to not merely talk about purpose but actually do it.” ―Ranjay Gulati, Professor, Harvard Business School

“We’re living in a world that requires leaders to think differently and create a new playbook for operating. There’s never been a more important time to lead with purpose and learn from experts like Scott Goodson and Chip Walker.” ―Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO, Verizon

“The purpose economy is upon us. This book puts forth a new competitive advantage, ‘Movement Thinking’, as a way to activate purpose for the people who matter inside and outside your company.” ―Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group

Finding Your ‘Why’ Isn’t Enough

Raging wildfires. Melting polar ice caps. Shuttered retailers. Wage gaps. Digital divides. Food insecurity. Injustice. Thanks to the climate crisis, the pandemic, and systemic sexism, classism, and racism, our world has no shortage of problems.

Disillusioned by the government, people are increasingly turning to brands they trust for committed leadership, concrete solutions, and a chance to join together in making a difference. Most companies recognize the urgent need to have a mission beyond sales and profits. But finding your “why” isn’t enough.

Activate Brand Purpose

In ACTIVATE BRAND PURPOSE: How to Harness the Power of Movements to Transform Your Company (March 30, 2021), the strategic leaders of StrawberryFrog, Scott Goodson and Chip Walker lay out a pragmatic roadmap for actualizing purpose to grow your company and save the world.The key: Movement Thinking™, an innovative process using the concepts of social movements to galvanize your people, build trust and belief, and help businesses rebound and thrive post COVID-19.

Conceived by the authors, this change-driver is about much more than boosting your brand’s image. A new management science and art, Movement Thinking is at the core of strategy and integral to everything a company does. Aimed at closing the gap between intent and action, Movement Thinking works by activating the purpose that already exists within the brand, starting inside the company, and then spurring that activism to spread and grow.

Movement Thinking focuses all of tools of business operations and leadership, and all the power of creativity and emotion, on the same meaningful goal to rally all stakeholders—employees, suppliers, partners, and customers—to work together to make change happen. As a result, Movement Thinking helps a company achieve sustainable competitive advantage while doing a world of good.  

Move Beyond Talk

How can business leaders move beyond talk to action, and galvanize people around a cause? ACTIVATE BRAND PURPOSE is your go-to guide. It draws on real business cases and interviews with top-level executives at the helm of some of the world’s most successful brands—Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Patagonia, Nike, Verizon, Xerox, REI, Truist Bank, Walmart, and many others. What’s more, it opens a window into what people expect from a brand in return for their money and loyalty through the authors’ original research project, the Purpose Power Index, featuring more than 17,500 consumer responses. Among the book’s valuable insights and actionable ideas, business leaders and pioneers will learn:

• Why identifying an enemy to rail against is much more effective at galvanizing people to embrace and activate your brand’s purpose than simply committing to “doing good.”

• Why attempting to activate purpose first with external PR can be a recipe for disaster, and why activation needs to start inside your company instead.

• Why mandating employee engagement is futile, and how to use Movement Thinking to galvanize internal stakeholders, starting with authentic communication.

• How to leverage Movement Thinking to transform organizational culture, dramatically improving employee teamwork, morale, motivation, and productivity.

• How to avoid major purpose pitfalls, such as coming across as tone deaf and superficial “purpose-washing,” which have plagued even established, respected brands.     

• How to measure your brand’s purpose gap, the separation between a company’s intention to activate its purpose and the degree it has done so in the world, and take steps to close it …and more.

Time For Action Is Now

People are tired of empty talk. As Goodson and Walker make clear, the time for action is now. Companies with an active commitment to a compelling purpose have an edge on attracting high-performing employees, keeping enthusiastic customers, and thriving—activating brand purpose can be the lynchpin to emerge from COVID-19 even stronger.

Grounded in research and real-world experience, ACTIVATE BRAND PURPOSE is a call to arms to business trailblazers and a can-do guide. Join the Movement Thinking movement to galvanize people to make a positive, significant difference, locally or globally, while securing your brand’s staying power.     

About the Authors

SCOTT GOODSON, based in New York,is the founder and CEO of StrawberryFrog. For the last 25 years, he has worked with many iconic companies, including Google, Emirates Airline, Heineken, Coca-Cola, Jim Beam, Mercedes, Mahindra, Truist, and Walmart. He invented the concept of Movement Thinking™ and has lectured on the subject at Harvard Business School, Columbia, Cambridge University, and TEDx. He has appeared on BBC World Service, NPR, CNN, and CNBC, and in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Inc., and Forbes. He is the author of the international bestseller, Uprising: How to build a brand and change the world by sparking cultural movements (McGraw-Hill, 2012).

CHIP WALKER, based in New York,is the head of strategy and a partner at StrawberryFrog. Recognized for his expertise in brand creation and re-invention, he has led the charge in transforming brands such as Goldman Sachs, Lexus, Bank of America, Jim Beam, and Heineken. He is a frequent speaker at some of the branding world’s major events, including Cannes Lions Festival, the Advertising Research Foundation, Sustainable Brands, and the Conference Board. His writings and opinions have appeared widely in places like Adweek, Admap, Chicago Tribune. and CNBC.

To learn more, visit: https://www.activatebrandpurpose.com

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