Why your rebranding strategy should be all about purpose

Tania Pilz,
March 11, 2020

A conversation about rebranding strategies with Mario Alonzo-Debout, Founder, Managing Director & CCO of RDB and The Major Oak and co-founder of MDB & Allmende.

Whether it is allowing your business to grow internationally, repositioning, or simply having an outdated image that does not represent the values of your company anymore, there is a time in every business history where a rebranding strategy is considered. According to Marc Cloosterman, organizations and brands change or update their branding on average about once every seven years.

And while picking out a font and color palette for your corporate identity or deciding on the design for your new business cards might all be very exciting, building a successful rebranding strategy is still a process that requires time, energy and a serious amount of resources.

In a recent interview with RDB’s Mario Alonzo-Debout who is also a founder of Allmende, which offers sustainability consulting, and co-founder of the Design-Studio MDB, we explored how having a clear purpose can help your rebrand go in the right direction from the very start.

Here is how it worked for RDB as a purpose-driven company and the takeaway lessons from it.

Purpose as a key driver for positive brand sentiment

Working with a wide variety of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, social enterprises and well-known NGOs, Robin des Bois has established itself as a leading purpose-driven creative agency. What started as an agency with a “revolutionary mindset within the industry” grew out to be an award-winning company with employees in Vienna, London and Manila.

For Mario, after 7 years in the industry it was the perfect time for a rebrand.

“When briefing partners, defining a brand purpose, our mission and vision helped us to clear the clutter to be able to lead the way on the rebranding,” said Mario. Defining a purpose, however, was very complex. Mainly because it aims to merge values and intrinsic motivations into a purpose statement.

Purpose always comes first. A brand needs a story and there is no story without purpose.

When setting foot in the creative industry in 2013, RDB focused on changing the culture with a social entrepreneurship angle. Our goal was to leverage our creative and marketing skills to serve those in need and raise awareness on topics close to our values.

“Purpose always comes first. A brand needs a story and there is no story without purpose. A broad idea of our purpose is what led to RDB in the first place. At first, we faced the challenge of asking too much about the agency.” answered Mario when asked about the core purpose of RDB.

“Naively said, we had the idea of creating an agency to better the world. We wanted to give the agency the responsibility of changing the economic paradigm.”

A tagline that reflects their expertise in effective global marketing, diversity, culture, and sustainability without losing their social-driven roots.

“I think this time we were able to define our purpose closer to the core of our business. This will allow us to be more focused, more efficient and drive more growth,” assured Mario.

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Brand purpose as a key driver for your business

Developing a goal before rebranding and integrating it into your core business, will drive you to create, shape and fuel your work. Thus, helps you generate more opportunities for your clients and partners.

According to the Business Case for Purpose, those organizations that prioritizes a purpose-driven strategy, are proven to increase revenue growth. These also experience successful innovation and continuous transformation.

85%

agreed they would recommend a business with a strong purpose to others.

84%

believes that business transformation efforts will have greater success if integrated with purpose.

It is especially among the young generation, Millennials – we dare to say – that purpose-driven businesses can have an impact. As reviewed by Jukko, purpose-driven businesses have an advantage among younger generations: they can provide platforms to experience their social purpose.

We consult our clients in taking a purpose-driven approach and our work always reflects our values.

Through incorporating a clear intention to the core of the company, RDB has developed into a conscious consultant on what a brand needs today. “We consult our clients in taking a purpose-driven approach and our work always reflects our values. Therefore, we also attract clients who want to have a positive impact on the world. Their impact and success are in part also our success.”

When asked about what clients RDB has developed into a purpose-driven brand, Mario’s answer was very clear: “My favorite is Popolini. A small, family-owned baby and children fashion brand that is sustainability-driven at its core. All we had to do is bring it to the surface and specify it. We developed the “organic parenting” concept for them, where their objective is to enable parents to raise their kids naturally and free from stereotypes while preserving the planet for the next generations.”

“Purpose developed into our core business,” says Mario “All the reasons that drove us to create and shape RDB also fueled brilliant work, great creative and fantastic opportunities for our clients and partners. We developed into a conscious consultant on what a brand needs today in a very complex social and economic market.“

Purpose as the main motivator for employees

According to Mario, communicating your purpose to each and every employee is very essential for rebranding: “While you as a business leader might think, everything is transparent and 100% understood, I can tell you. For them, it’s not.”

Defining a clear objective within your company can increase your employees-engagement. 89% of the executives interviewed for the Business Case for Purpose study, stated that having a shared purpose incorporated into your business guarantees to have employee satisfaction. Giving your employees a sense of purpose will lead to higher engagement. In this sense, purpose functions as a bigger force than profit and sales.

For Mario brand awareness and owned communications are a big focus for 2020. While solving the client’s challenges and needs is still a strong focal point, RDB will invest more time in integrating its purpose-driven strategy in every aspect of the agency.

“RDB is constantly trying to find new methodologies and ways on how to shape the future of the economy. That’s why we founded our consultancy agency Allmende.”

At RDB we believe that a brand needs to tell a purpose-driven story and purpose can lead the way when it comes to rebranding.