Go Beyond with Brand Citizenship

23 November 22

An emotional connection between brands and their customers extensively cultivates loyalty and strengthens brand reputation. Establishing strong customer relationships can lead to meaningful engagements which attract customers toward items and services. For that reason, brands must actively contribute to society and communicate relatable to customers' values. Brand Citizenship is an effective way for a brand to approach consumers by implementing the concept of emotional branding. Here are the steps of Brand Citizenship and the examples of successful brands that have adopted it to build strong relations with society:

Step 1: Trust
People, first and foremost, want brands to keep their promises. Since consumers believe in a fair value for quality over an absolute price, they trust brands that convey what they offer and prove it with reliable products and services, sincerity, loyalty, and listening. The Body Shop, for instance, relies on its core value of making business a force for good. The brand believes that a balance of profit and principles can create a more beautiful world. As an example, The Body Shop is constantly producing eco-friendly products, strictly against animal testing, not exploiting workers, and empowering social movements, especially for women.

Step 2: Enrichment
Brands should understand how they should appeal to their consumers. Body Shop Indonesia, for instance, combines how self-care as a lifestyle can align with societal change. The brand provides tips and tricks about lifestyles, product guides, product recommendations based on skin and hair concerns, and an in-store eco-friendly gift wrap section for personalized packages. Besides, there are also in-store product refill machines, a mineral water refill service for free, and virtual beauty services such as shade and gift finder. 

Step 3: Responsibility

Consumers respect and support fair, ethical, and proactive brands. This behaviour does not imply that a brand must be perfect, but they expect brands to be open about their shortcomings and strive to improve. Body Shop Indonesia, in this case, maintains its transparency to the consumers about how they use sustainable natural sources and eco-friendly synthetic materials. Throughout the production process, The Body Shop partners with dermatologists and Research & Development labs across Natura & co. to ensure all the products deliver actual, scientifically proven benefits.

Step 4: Community
Brands reflect the values of their consumers and have the power to unite communities, influence human behaviour for the better, and address social issues physically, virtually, and emotionally. For example, Tehbotol Sosro, a well-known Indonesian drink, adheres to the idea of "good intentions, good impacts." By treating each other kindly, supporting one another, and spreading good intentions, positive results will follow. The brand launched a collaboration program entitled #LocalsUnite. Tehbotol Sosro and local young artists, inventors, and entrepreneurs learn from and complement each other to produce collaborative products that become worthy of, equal to, or better than global standard products. They collaborate on various products, including food, apparel, shoes, and packaging for the Tehbotol product.

Step 5: Contribution
Brands can generate and enhance society to be better. As the first and largest Indonesian SuperApp, Gojek continues to create innovative solutions to solve everyday consumer needs. GoGreener Carbon Offset is one of the newest innovations from Gojek to provide options for customers to balance their carbon footprint, better known as a carbon offset. GoGreener Carbon Offset is an effort to balance emissions by absorbing the carbon footprint to help prevent the effects on the climate. Gojek partners with Jejak.in, a startup providing AI-based and IoT solutions to accelerate climate actions by planting trees. Jejak.in creates a mapping program that works on a desktop or mobile phone both online and offline. The tree-planting activities become effortless, transparent, and sustainable using the technologies operated by Gojek and Jejak.in. By simply going into the Gojek application and choosing Jejak.in shuffle card from the main page, customers can count the amount of their daily carbon footprint and purchase a tree to absorb the carbon footprint.

Brand Citizenship begins with delivering products and services to produce value for an individual and then delivering added value to society. A brand doesn't merely see its consumers as the source of profit but also influences them to take part as the societal changemakers. By purposely delivering goods and services while creating a better impact on the world, Brand Citizenship cultivates loyalty among consumers and strengthens brand reputation. As one of the leading brand agency in Indonesia, Milestone is ready to help you create a meaningful impact with your brand!