Just one in five consumers aware of brand purpose, Ehrenberg-Bass suggests

*The world’s most famous purpose-led brands are struggling to connect with consumers, according to the latest report from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. *

Marketers have long debated the effectiveness of brand purpose.

But even for brands most celebrated for their purpose-led marketing, few are gaining cut through with customers.

Just one in five consumers is aware of a brand’s purpose, according to new research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.

The study looked at 14 brands defined as being exemplars of brand purpose strategy, including Ben & Jerry’s, Dove and Nike. More than half of the brands included have communicated their purpose for more than 20 years.

Ehrenberg-Bass surveyed almost 3,000 respondents across the UK, US and Australia who were asked to match a list of brand purposes to the corresponding brand.

In the UK, the average purpose score – meaning, the percentage of customers who recognise each business’s brand purpose – is just 18%. In Australia and the US, the figures are 14% and 22%, respectively.

These figures are the “best case scenario”, the report says, as they include an estimated guessing rate of around 9 percentage points.

False positives in recognising brand purpose suggest the genuine awareness of brand purpose “rarely” exceeds 10%.

Nike is the only exception. The brand, widely known for its ‘Just Do It’ tagline, scores 32% in the UK and 52% in the US for its purpose of promoting diversity and inclusion in sport.

However, the research cautions this is partly due to the business’s high brand penetration.

Read the full article inMarketing Week.