Customers care more about the values of the companies they buy than ever before.
It’s more than your purpose. It’s more than what you sell.
They want to know what kind of company you are and what do you care about.
Does a company want to do more than drive profits?
That’s why I interviewed Dr. Philip Kotler, who is known as the “father of modern marketing.”  He is the S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and co-author of Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action.
In this interview, you will hear Dr. Kotler describe brand activism, the importance of focusing on a purpose as a company, and the problems encountered when companies do not use brand activism correctly.
To start, what is brand activism?
Dr. Kotler: Brand activism is a movement toward making a brand do more than just tout the virtues of a product or a service, its usual function, and to go and even identify some value or values that the company has and cares about.
For example, The Body Shop, when it started under Anita Roddick, she made it her point that she’s not only selling skincare products as a retailer, but she really was also fighting for animal rights, civil rights, fair trade, environmental protection.
So, her brand was active. I don’t mean that all other brands are passive because they do a lot of work, but the implication is that companies carry reputations, and they want to carry a good reputation.
More and more consumers would like to know what kind of company this is, what does it care about.
Our society is saddled with many problems, and does the company care about any of these problems, or does it just think it’s supposed to make money?
An increasing number of companies would like an identity that goes beyond just making the product or service.
And that is what we are calling brand activism, the brand that connects with some cause or causes.
A Lack of Trust in Society 
Brian:  That’s a helpful distinction. You recently wrote a book on this topic. I’d love to know the story behind why you wrote the book Brand Activism and why now?
Dr. Kotler: I think that, if you look at some barometers, like the Edelman trust barometer, about the level of trust in society today, it’s undoubtedly been falling.
Brian: Yes.
Dr. Kotler: And as a result, many companies are not going to be trusted either, as part of maybe government not being believed, and other institutions.
And companies ought to be the first to fight against bad companies rather than stand near them or be part of them.
So, the idea is that, at this time, companies want to be profiled in a certain way.
In other words, the reputation a company has could be just whatever happens in its course of actions.
Or it could also be something that could be designed better.
Consciously better.
What are the different branding stages of development?
Dr. Kotler: And you see, the whole idea of a brand itself has gone through several stages, and that’s very important. I think brand activism is probably the highest stage, but let me tell you what the stages are in my mind.
Brian: That would be great.
Dr. Kotler: Yes. The first stage is when the company simply does its best to feature its product and services.
Now that’s normal. The brand name was an identifier.
Then brands moved into trying to define the company’s positioning, but not social positioning.