Brand purpose: a literature review and BEING implementation framework
| Date | 03 September 2024 |
| Pages | 929-945 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-08-2023-4663 |
| Published date | 03 September 2024 |
| Author | Cassandra France,Claudia Gonzalez-Arcos,Anne-Maree O’Rourke,Amanda Spry,Bronwyn Bruce |
Brand purpose: a literature review and BEING
implementation framework
Cassandra France
UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Claudia Gonzalez-Arcos
School of Management, Pontificia Universidad Cat
olica de Chile, Santiago, Chile and
Business School, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Anne-Maree O’Rourke
UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, and
Amanda Spry and Bronwyn Bruce
School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –While brand purpose has gained traction in academia and industry, it overlaps with other socially-oriented branding concepts, generating
confusion and criticism around what brand purpose is and how it should be implemented. This study aims to clarify conceptualisations of brand purpose
and related concepts, developing a managerial framework for effectiveimplementation and contributing a future research agenda for scho lars.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper presents the results of a systematic literature review on brand purpose, exploring the current
knowledge. A total of 202 studies from 75 journals were drawn from a wide range of databases and met the identified criteria relevant to brand
purpose, published up to and including 2023. Full papers were empirically analysed using qualitative iterative thematic analysi st o identify common
and emerging themes and synthesise this into a framework.
Findings –Beyond identifying the diverse applications of brand purpose, the BEING framework is proposed. This acronym captures five principles of
brand purpose: beyond profit, enduring commitment, integrated values, nurturing stakeholders and genuine action.
Practical implications –The BEING framework provides clear managerial guidance for implementing brand purpose, urging bra nd leaders to enact
meaningful brand purpose and champion purpose within organisations.
Social implications –As more brands pursue a higher purpose, this research elucidates the meaning of brand purpose andoffers an actionable
framework for brands to contribute to a better world.
Originality/value –This work examines the related branding concepts, clarifying the brand purpose concept and offering the BEING framework to
articulate essential components of effective brand purpose.
Keywords Brand purpose, Corporate social responsibility, Sustainable branding, Brand activism, Conscientious corporate brand,
Transformative branding, Systematic literature review
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
Brands have stepped into a new role, where they are expected to be
powerful instruments for societal change, with practitioners and
academics showing growing interest in brand purpose. The Purpose
Power Index (2022) states: “Brand purpose relates to a brand’srole
in society, the higher order reason to exist beyond simply making a
profit”. Academic research conceives brand purpose as the “why of
the brand”and “core of the brand’s identity”(Mirzaei et al.,2021,
p. 187), offering the potential to achieve positive brand outcomes
(e.g. customer-brand relationships; Calder, 2022), while also
driving market and societal system change (Spry et al.,2021)and
contributing to a better world (Chandy et al.,2021).
As the topic of brand purpose has found resonance with
practitioners (e.g. Accenture, 2018), there is also fragmentationand
confusion, whereby “purpose has become somethingof a fad and a
victim of its own success”(Knowles et al., 2022 p. 36). What is
needed now is to consolidate and advance knowledge of brand
purpose, including how to realise its benefits, mitigate risks and, in
turn, contribute towards a better society.As aresult, this paper asks:
Q1.What is brand purpose?
Q2.How is brand purpose relatedto other similar concepts?
The current issue and full text archiveof this journal is available on Emerald
Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
33/7 (2024) 929–945
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-08-2023-4663]
The authors extend thanks to Antonio Grasso for assistance with data collection.
Received 19 August2023
Revised 12 February 2024
17 June 2024
5 August 2024
Accepted 5 August 2024
929
Q3.What do managers need to do to successfullyimplement
brand purpose?
The brand purpose concept is examined using a systematic
literature review to summarise and integrate the existing literature.
Next, applying thematic analysis, brand purpose is defined and
delineated from related branding concepts (i.e. corporate social
responsibility [CSR], sustainable branding, brand activism,
conscientious corporate branding and transformative branding).
This analysis enables the major contribution of the paper,
clarifying a definition of brand purpose, which situates purpose in
the domain of brand strategy and acknowledges the diverse and
valuable applications of purpose for contemporary organisations.
The analysis also facilitates another major contribution: the
introduction of a guiding framework for implementing brand
purpose. The BEING framework identifies five essential principles
of brand purpose: beyond profit, enduring commitment,
integrated values, nurturing stakeholders and genuine action.
Finally, a future research agenda is proffered, which provides
direction for the ongoing development of brand purpose theory.
Preliminary review of the brand purpose
literature
Brand purpose first found popularity in industry (Williams
et al., 2022) but also gained traction in the marketing academic
literature (Gray et al., 2024). Brand purpose shares obvious
commonalities with other terms, generating criticism and
disagreements around how the concept is defined and used
(Keller, 2023). Originally,brand purpose was a purely strategic
concept initiated by the firm as part of its brand-buildingefforts
(e.g. profit maximisation; Mirzaei et al.,2021). Purpose was
closely tied to other brand management concepts, such as
identity, vision and goals (Gartenberg et al., 2019). Brand
purpose has now evolved to whata brand stands for and why it
exists beyond making money (Kramer, 2017), conceived as a
higher social purpose and broader reasonfor being (Fernandes
et al.,2024), towards creating value for a wider set of
stakeholders(Keller, 2023).
Studies have articulated a need to distinguish between
purposeful branding concepts (e.g. Vredenburg et al.,2020;
Williams et al., 2022), including how these are adopted within
firms (e.g. Blocker et al.,2024;Rudeloff and Michalski, 2023).
There remains considerable overlap between definitions,
motivations and outcomes, with little agreement as to what
brand purpose means and how it should be operationalised.
Methodology
A systematic literature review was used to assess the current
state-of-the-art (Hulland and Houston, 2020). This approach
clarifies misuse and addresses potential fragmentation within
the domain (Shamsollahi etal.,2021).It also provides rigour to
the identification and analysis of literature, enabling reliable
and replicable research insights (Sepulcri et al.,2020). A
methodical procedure was followed, drawing from established
protocols (Boland et al.,2017;Petticrew and Roberts, 2006)in
conjunction with leading scholarly recommendations
(Palmatier et al.,2018). The review was structured in nature,
bridging closely related purposeful branding knowledge
domains (EklundandHelmefalk,2022;Snyder, 2019).
The literature search involved a standardisedprocedure (see
systematic literaturereview process, Supplementary materials),
in line with other systematic literature reviews (Becker and
Jaakkola, 2020;Gupta and Joshi, 2023). Leading scholarly
databases were searched (see Figure 1) for keywords, with no
time restrictions applied to access as many papers as possible,
including those published up to and including 2023.
Duplicates were removed and quality control implemented,
whereby non-English language papers and those published in
journals not ranked by the Web of Science, Clarivate or
Australian Business Deans Council were excluded. Article
inclusion was based on themention of any keyword term in the
title or abstract. Finally, each remaining full-text paper was
screened to confirm explicit mentions of brand purpose or
related terms as a central concept ratherthan a single mention
of the term or mentioning in a way not connected to strategic
branding. To assure relevance, articles were excluded when
terms were not connected to brandingor marketing contexts, in
line with other quality reviews (Dong et al.,2024;Eklund and
Helmefalk, 2022). A total of 202 papers were identified as
appropriatefor thecurrentreview.
All articles were then analysed from a strategic brand
perspective, using iterative thematic analysis to understand the
underlying essence and reflect on emerging patterns (Tracy,
2013). An initial deductive computer-aided analysis, using
Nvivo software, isolated discussions of the identified topics
(brand purpose, CSR, sustainable branding, brand activism,
conscientious corporate branding and transformative
branding), with a focus on emphasisingsimilarities and
differences. An in-depth inductive analysis approach was then
used to manually analyse the data and identify first-order
themes through an open coding process (see Thematiccoding,
Supplementary materials). Team debriefing then explored
consistency in theme identification,enhancing research validity
while reducing individual biases (Azungah, 2018). These
themes were then grouped as second-order categories, which
formed the five factors in the BEING framework, using a
descriptivecall for action approach (Yin, 2016).
Results
Descriptive findings
The 202 articles were classified based on descriptive criteria,
examining journaland year of publication, type of methodology
used, brand context of the study (e.g. goods, services), as well
as the focal theme of the paper. Overall, the data came from 75
different journals,with the top five publications being Journal of
Brand Management (33 articles), Journal of Business Ethics (16
articles), Journal of Business Research (15 articles), Journal of
Product and Brand Management (12 articles) and Industrial
Marketing Management(11 articles).
Results showed the emergence of purposeful branding
concepts as a strategic brand focus from2002, with accelerated
growth over time, peaking since 2020 (see summary of final
dataset, Supplementary materials). CSR was the most well-
developed area, with 42% of the papers having a CSR focus,
18% sustainablebranding and 17% brand activism. Only 7% of
the papers had a primary focus on brand purpose, with most
published since 2020. Interestingly, as brand purpose articles
increased within the set, CSR brand articles dropped,
Literature review
Cassandra France et al.
Journal of Product & Brand Management
Volume 33 · Number 7 · 2024 · 929–945
930
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