Marketing With Purpose Kit: What Is Purpose-Driven Marketing - Really?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:03)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:15)
Welcome back to The Bliss Business Podcast series, Marketing with Purpose, the show where we explore how to build real emotional connection in a marketplace that's too often focused on clicks instead of meaning. I'm Stephen Sakach, joined by my co-host, Tullio Siragusa and Mike Liwski. Hey, guys.

**Mike Liwski** (0:35)
Stephen, great to see you. Thanks for having us.

**Tullio Siragusa** (0:37)
Let's meet one more time.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:40)
Yeah, let's do it. In our last episode, we talked about how customers become brand evangelists, when a brand offers more than just products, when it offers purpose, story, and meaning. Today, we're asking the question at the center of everything we're doing in this series, what is purpose-driven marketing, really? Let's unpack what it is, what it's not, and why it's become more than just a trend, it's become a real differentiator.

**Mike Liwski** (1:07)
Yeah, Stephen, I'm really glad that we're talking about this topic because there is, I think, a good amount of confusion, lack of clarity out in the marketplace. Really, let's just start off with what it's not. Purpose-driven marketing, it's not just about supporting a specific social cause or being a non-profit or adding a donation button to, say, your checkout page. Those are all very noble things and I think they're important in our society, but it's not the core component. Really, purpose-driven marketing, it means that your marketing is aligned with your company's reason for being. We'll talk a little bit later in the show about your why.
Simon Sinek obviously made that famous. But it means again that your marketing and all your narrative, your brand is totally aligned with the reason that you exist. It's rooted in what you believe, how you serve your customers, all of your stakeholders, and what that means to people that you're trying to reach. And so yeah, I mean, a very core component. Again, really looking forward to adding some clarity in the marketplace, Don.

**Tullio Siragusa** (2:19)
And this is such a timely topic too, because people often confuse purpose with like philanthropy. So there's some businesses, so like, where our purpose is to be in business, to make money, almost as if you have to choose that over being like a philanthropic initiative, and that's not what it's about. In marketing, it's actually less about charity and more about clarity. It's knowing exactly what your brand stands for, and then using that to emotionally connect with your audience at every touch point. So it's very strategic, it's not just sentimental, it's a way to make sure you're aligning with what your audience is expecting of you.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:00)
Yeah, let's be honest, there's a lot of noise out there. People are just, they're tired of being sold to, they want to feel something, they want to belong, and that's what Purpose Driven Marketing offers, is kind of resonance, not just reach. We say that a lot. So let's dive into the core components here of Purpose Driven Marketing. So what does it actually look like in action? So let's get into these three pillars, we believe define real Purpose Driven Marketing.

**Mike Liwski** (3:30)
Yeah, so number one, clarity of your purpose, right? So you can market with purpose, and you can't do that, right? If you don't know what your purpose is, what your reason for being as an organization. So, and again, this isn't your product list. This isn't a set of a bunch of features that you provide. This is really your higher why. Why do you exist beyond making money in those transactions? What change is it that you're really trying to create in the world today? Then sometimes, that can be rooted in the founder story.
At other times, it could be a shared pain point that you identified with your customers. But clarity, really having clarity around that is everything. And without it, your message will always feel either scattered or just shallow and hollow.

**Tullio Siragusa** (4:23)
Exactly. And then to bring it home, you have to, the second point is you got to create emotional connections. It's not just about fulfilling a transaction, but actually creating an experience. And purpose is really the bridge between your company and your customer's identity, right? It's creating a bridge between the two. So if you visualize that, it's connection. So it's the space where there's values in your end and your where the values and your mission overlap. And when you find that shared ground between you and your customer, that's when your marketing stops being an interruption and it starts becoming a source of meaning. And really, that's where the magic happens. Because emotionally connected customers are actually worth 306% more than satisfied ones. So we're not striving for just satisfied customers. You could do that by fulfilling a transaction. What you're looking for is emotionally connected custom, creating that bridge between what their identity is and what you're doing. And that's really just good branding. It's not just good branding. It's actually just really smart, good business.