Social Identity - a licence for trust

Future Observatory, the national design research programme for the green transition, defines climate impact in terms of three different levels: symptoms, systems and stories. 

While scientists shine a spotlight on symptoms, engineers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers reinvent systems; it is we—the communicators—who must write the stories. Stories that shift perceptions and move us to action. 

Thankfully, this most elusive aspect of climate action takes skills we already have. To listen intently, learn willingly, share information truthfully, educate wisely and bring people together around powerful ideas is what we communicators do. 

Every business is founded on an idea - the value it offers to the world. Now, we must reconnect with that value, reimagine and rearticulate it through a mission-driven, socially responsible lens.

In her article this month for The Herald Business HQ, ‘Is sustainability going out of fashion?’, Dr Antoinette Fionda-Douglas suggests ‘Many businesses are falling short of their own sustainability goals and hesitating to share their progress for fear of greenwashing’. This lack of progress and high level of cynicism means positioning your influence and impact must stand up to scrutiny.

Credibility comes from understanding expectations in your category and making sure your sustainability message has a good ‘brand fit’. A good fit achieves an ‘84% increase in demand power vs only 24% where a sustainability message exists and the fit is poor’ according to data from research firm Kantar.

Source: Kantar LINK Database | Average Demand Power Contribution percentiles | © Kantar 2024

Locked into the fundamentals of your brand is the key to a credible transition from ‘corporate identity’ to ‘social identity’.

Your brand can signal a new social contract with your communities and environment. In its expression, you can leverage what you need to drive innovation and change. 

  • Purpose, no longer a statement of good intentioned aspiration ‘for a better tomorrow’, is more meaningful, demanding and urgent in its obligation to people and planet

  • Values - the true drivers of change - underpin your efforts and hold steadfast the connections among colleagues and customers on this journey

  • New narratives and messaging are inclusive, empowering and evidence-based

  • And in a media world of misinformation, AI and greenwashing, brand character is more real and relatable than ever

Transparent, accessible and in touch, a social identity is your licence for trust.  

Sarah King, at Kantar, suggests in her presentation ‘Why sustainability is central to brand success’ that investment in your sustainability positioning could bring an uplift in long-term brand value (+10% for those who do it well), increase business efficiency, avoid reputational risk and, perhaps most powerfully of all, enable clients and consumers to scale their own impact.

The British Academy in its recent research into the Future of the Corporation goes further. It proposes that businesses must be accountable to their purpose (beyond profit) through reform in corporate law, regulation, governance and reporting frameworks and implement it through reform in ownership, measurement, finance, innovation and investment. They must “find profitable solutions to the problems of people and planet, not to profit from creating problems for either.”

Indeed, the 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code defines the responsibility of the Board to “establish the company’s purpose, values and strategy, and satisfy itself that these and its culture are aligned … [to] engage meaningfully with employees, communities, suppliers and other stakeholders and consider the impact of the company on the environment and society.” Yet, an assessment by the Financial Reporting Council (the FRC) suggests boards “often do not possess the necessary skills, knowledge, experience, and motivation to discharge those duties.”

While the increasing number of B-corps and social enterprises are already mission-driven, can we make it mainstream across all categories and sectors?

Strategists, consultants and creatives in the fields of communication have a relatively small carbon footprint, but an outsized responsibility to support business leaders to make this transition.

Together, we can unpick complexity, confusion and jargon. We delve into the nitty-gritty of what and whose problems you exist to solve. We examine context, stakeholder attitudes and interests. We find consensus around simple, powerful strategies and ideas. And we communicate them with consistency and character through meaningful social identities and the enterprise stories of our time. 

References and further reading:





Fiona Burnett