TRENDSETTERS: StrawberryFrog's Chip Walker Urges Action in ACTIVATE BRAND PURPOSE, his Book with Scott Goodson

The Internationalist Trendsetters is written by Deborah Malone, founder of The Internationalist.

Whether fueled by the pandemic, climate issues, or social change, there's been an explosion of interest in purpose-driven marketing.  

Scott Goodson and Chip Walker, partners at StrawberryFrog, the independent marketing, advertising, and design company, have found that activating purpose is often a significant challenge to brands.  As a result, they co-authorized a book, appropriately titled ACTIVATE BRAND PURPOSE, which discusses how their trademarked "Movement Thinking" approach can be applied to purpose.  Movement Thinking™, conceived by the authors, is a process that harnesses the concepts of social movements to energize staff, build trust and belief, and ultimately help businesses prosper.

ACTIVATE BRAND PURPOSE: How to Harness the Power of Movements to Transform Your Company, published in 2021, focuses on how business leaders can move beyond talk to action, while galvanizing people around a cause. The book draws on business cases and interviews with top brand executives at Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Patagonia, Nike, Verizon, Xerox, REI, Truist Bank, Walmart, and many others.  It also investigates what people expect from a brand in return for their money and loyalty through the Purpose Power Index, featuring more than 17,500 consumer responses.

As Scott Goodson and Chip Walker make clear, the time for action is now. Most companies recognize the urgent need to have a mission beyond sales and profits.  But the authors emphasize, "Finding your 'why' isn't enough." Activating brand purpose can be the catalyst to full business transformation.

In our conversation, we discuss the following:

• The concept of Movement Thinking™ and how this mindset affects organizational culture change and purpose.
• Do many "purpose-driven" organizations unintentionally fall short of action?   
• Just as movements change, do notions of purpose evolve to reflect societal issues?  Or are there core elements of purpose that are unchanging?
• How would you advise any company to go about finding its purpose? Who in the organization should be the champion of its purpose-led efforts?
• How does Marketing make a difference in activating purpose?
• Should every organization become purpose-led?  Given the financial toll of COVID, some companies may feel that they cannot afford to organize for purpose given economic pressures. 
• Does this mean that business models are changing as companies become more purpose-driven?
• What is the next evolution of purpose?

Chip Walker is a brand, business and cultural strategist who has spent his career at some of Madison Avenue's legendary agencies. He has led the strategy function at a creative agency (BBDO), a marketing services agency (Wunderman) and at a digital/social agency (StrawberryFrog), giving him a truly multi-disciplinary perspective. He's also led strategy across the WPP companies (ad, media, digital, multi-cultural, etc.) for some of its largest clients including AT&T and Bank of America.  Chip most recently served as CSO at Y&R's brand consultancy, BAV Consulting, and EVP of Brand Planning for Y&R New York.

Co-Author, Scott Goodson, 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 has lectured on the concept of Movement Thinking™  at Harvard Business School, Columbia, Cambridge University, and TEDx. 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).