Legodeclaredit would promote inclusive play and address harmful gender stereotypes with its toys.
Mars FoodrebrandedUncle Bens rice to Bens Original in response to criticisms of the racial caricatures in its marketing.
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Considerfast fashion brandsthat promote International Womens Day while simultaneously profiting from the exploitation of female workers.
Change from within
How then can brands legitimately shoulder responsibility to support or promote societal transformation?
Our researchintroduces the idea of transformative branding.
Transformative branding can be achieved by for-profit organizations, not-for-profits and social enterprises.
The common factor is balancing business and societal goals to create change from within the market system.
Beyond making money
Transformative branding works via two main market-shaping elements: leadership and collaborative coupling.
These enable companies to partner with stakeholders to change their business landscapes.
First, leadership involves building a vision for the transformation.
This involves fundamentally re-imagining what branding can do beyond making money.
Second, collaborative coupling involves implementing this vision across the different dimensions of the brand.
Leadership and collaborative coupling work together to change the business environment.
Instead, Patagonia has reframed its priorities aroundresponsibility, with Chouinard re-imagining the brand as asolution to environmental degradation.
The brand actively erodes its own potential competitive advantage in the process.
Staying skeptical
But transformative branding is complex and dynamic, and authenticity is paramount.
It adapts to the differing goals and values of many stakeholders.
