The Performance Branding Ecosystem Within Us
At its essence, advertising is about making genuine connections with people in their communities and resonating with their beliefs.
While sales are an indicator of success, what’s invaluable is being the brand that is top of mind to consumers when they go to purchase a product. That’s why it should come as no shock, but is still just as awesome, that a Performance Branding Ecosystem mirrors our own human existence and behaviors to push results and drive growth in a business model.
At Morning Walk, we create Performance Branding Ecosystems to help build brand equity while simultaneously driving immediate sales and growth. This ecosystem is made up of three components: Purpose, Experience, and Performance Marketing. So, how does this look as relating to us?
Performance Branding Ecosystem Bubble Model
Purpose
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Conversations with my peers have made me realize that many of us feel a lack of purpose in our careers. Searching for it in other areas like financial gains, relationships, travel and experiences, or recently…marathons. In our model, activating authentic purpose gains trust with the consumer. But how do we define and activate purpose in ourselves, and what do we get in return?
The age-old wisdom is to make sure to find a balance between professional and personal life, to not work life away. But as young people, work takes up most of our time and energy, so why shouldn’t it be a place of inspiration, joy, and learning? Why shouldn’t we find purpose in our work? I bet this is not a eureka moment to most readers, but today the rhetoric around corporate work and employment is that work funds purpose. Especially with our new era of shifting careers or industries at large, there is a sense of climbing the ladder and vertical accomplishment rather than horizontal focus and growth. But let’s face it. Making Forbes 30 under 30, a substantial income, or “having it all” without a purpose is empty.
Often, purpose is conflated with happiness, or happiness is the payoff from purpose. I am guilty of this. I lived under the belief that once I found my true purpose, I would in turn be happy. But purpose doesn’t necessarily build happiness the way that purpose builds trust in a brand ecosystem. Our purpose changes in life, from chapter to chapter. But really, when times are tough, or arguably worse: at stagnant equilibrium, purpose is what keeps us in motion, driving us forward to get to the next period of happiness.
Chasing happiness is a modern, if not Western idea, and biologically we are not meant to feel happy all the time. Only from purpose can we realize happiness. For those of us in corporate America that have ascended the first four tiers of Maslow’s Hierarchy, finding and carrying out our purpose every day is challenging work. But that’s why it is so rewarding (or so I’ve been told). This past year, thrown into the world of adulthood, transitioning from an education-based purpose to a career one, I thought that self-actualization was eluding me simply because I was green. I couldn’t possibly scale the pyramid at 23. That takes a lifetime, right?
But what’s become apparent to me is that while life teaches us lessons that help us grow wiser over time, purpose will never fall into our laps. Purpose requires defining, sharing, and activating it by embracing the journey we’re currently on, visualizing where we want to go, and trusting ourselves to get there in an authentic way. But what if we’re stagnant or stuck? Instead of chasing happiness that won’t last, what is more worthwhile is finding purpose; that thing that keeps us in forward motion even on the worst days.
Purpose means nothing without activation, and this requires energy. A lot of energy. The energy of new ideas and seeing through an activation to completion. It takes time and work, staying to the course with a million hiccups, revisions, and adaptations. It requires a LOT of energy to stick to a purpose, in life and working on a brand. But, we can always rejuvenate. By taking a walk, getting out, seeing new things, finding insights, and staying in motion.
When a brand doesn’t lead with purpose, it is only a matter of time before its feigned authenticity is brought to light. I understood this in real time through the infamous Bud Light campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The campaign was performative, superficial, not aligned with 30+ years of the brand’s history. Don’t misunderstand me, their goal in trying to market to a younger, Gen Z audience, and the LGBTQ+ segment was understandable and even commendable, but the way they went about it showed lack of brand purpose and identity.
Conversely, in my own experience working on Kalahari Resorts, my eyes were opened to the activation of brand purpose with authenticity and adeptness. I initially had the slight discomfort that this company was simply appropriating and profiting from African culture. But seeing the Nelson family make frequent trips to Africa and buy local’s art to decorate their resorts, I realized my perception had been wrong. They share the rich culture and beauty of Africa with those who probably won’t ever go there. It didn’t just stop there. The Nelson Family Life Foundation partnered with Charity: Water to bring clean water to villages in Zimbabwe and South Africa and as I poured through video and interview footage from their trip I was overcome by the joy, life, and hope that water brought to the people in these villages. This was work that really mattered and illustrated the purpose-led mutual exchange between capitalism and philanthropy.
Bud light’s lack of purpose lost trust with longtime loyal customers whereas the Nelson family’s clear-cut purpose has allowed them to follow through with their goals, partner with a major non-profit, and extend trust to the overall Kalahari brand.
Finding our purpose and seeing it through allows us to trust ourselves. To trust that we will get through a seemingly meaningless or hard time, to trust that happiness will come again, and that seasons change just as our purpose might. Just as purpose in the Performance Branding Ecosystem works to create trust with the consumer, our purpose helps us learn to trust ourselves. Because at the end of the day, if we know our purpose matters to ourselves and others, even the unhappiest or unluckiest of circumstances can’t deter us, because purpose helps begin every day with a new sense of optimism.
Experience
To relay purpose, experience is an imperative part of the “living breathing organism,” building relationships with consumers and connecting them to a broader community who also interact with and experience the brand. Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t need to be the most ingenious, break the mold idea or experience ever. Because nothing ever is truly original, rather a take on everything you have seen, heard, collected, and made into an original amalgamation. Precisely what I’m doing in this blog. Past experiences inform future decisions and create new, unique experiences and relationships with people.
In the model, customer experiences, as well as our own experiences, make up the emotional or human side of advertising. What we know, what we’ve gone through and the empathy we’ve developed are the keys to meaningful interactions with our audience.
Our experiences help us learn what we’ve done wrong, and where we’ve been right. Flashback to September 2022; I held the waning title of “recent” graduate, no advertising experience, and loads of blind optimism. I was chomping at the bit to finally get my creativity and words out into the world. Many unreturned applications later, I radically changed my approach: cold calling and emailing every agency of interest in the Chicago area. A resume sent, response received, then interview scheduled. Riding the train into the city I just kept repeating to myself how I was getting this job, I was going to knock their socks off, whatever they asked, I would deliver. My golden ticket was the fact that I was so eager, so ready, and so optimistic.
I was going about the job hunt in an impersonal and passive way, just like everyone else was. Nothing to differentiate me to the AI bots scanning my resume, rather than an optimistic human-first approach that eventually landed me my first job.
Purpose-led experiences build trust which leads to the development of relationships. Networking has become a buzzword, a box to check in recruiting, a premade templated message sent across LinkedIn or email. I more aptly call this “favor fishing”, not networking. The entire point of networking is that it’s organic. Opportunities to expand our network happen all the time, but we miss them in an age of faces glued to smart phones.
What I’ve come to realize the past year is that the most valuable network of all is our current ecosystems where we’re being formulated: the workplace, the commute, social outings, or home. Take full advantage of these ecosystems while in them, not months later. Develop real relationships to rely on as opposed to company loyalty, and beyond this the skills and ways of thinking about the world and problem solving.
While my direct impact is a very crucial part of this, what potential employers and connections will value more is indirect impact, the experiences that I left, my attitude versus my skill, what I want to bring to the table versus what I already can, and my curiosity versus what’s been proven to work. The experiences we undergo and create along with relationships formed are the lungs that breathe oxygen into the heart of the ecosystem: purpose.
Performance
Purpose and Experience need somewhere to live, and that’s where the shell of Ecosystem, Performance Marketing, comes into play. It is empty without purpose and experience in the same way our bodies are nothing without a soul and brain. Performance marketing is imperative to the ecosystem because it is the vessel that delivers the heart and message of a brand and fuels growth.
I relate performance to ourselves as “the necessities,” or the things we’ve got to do. In a less glamorous way, the boxes to check. We know eating nutritious foods, getting enough sleep, and staying active are all good for us. This is proven through millennia. It can be easy to be sucked into fad diets, beauty hacks, and the secrets to anti-aging, but the best kept health secret is listening holistically to the intuition of our bodies.
Knowing how to recognize, interpret, and act on signals from your body is the most powerful medicine of all. Owning the homeostasis of your health and wellness is more valuable than any career, amount of money, social standing, or object of desire. Often, what we forget is what works for others may not work for us, if we stopped researching so much the best care or the best answer, we may allow space for the right care and the right answer, for our bodies. When we begin to own our own health, we begin to see results.
In the world of performance marketing, we see this through data. We know that segmenting and targeting audiences especially with an emotional approach will yield results. More recently, data has become an extremely valuable currency, and being able to own and interpret it in a savvy, intelligence driven manner sets up a brand for success and opportunities for growth.
We could have the best idea in the world with the most creative way to relay it to the audience, but without performance marketing our product or output will remain stagnant and struggle to grow. However, when purpose, experience and performance come together in a deftly executed way, both in ourselves and in our work, a perfect storm can occur—and storms create remarkable and successful disruption, both to the market or our lives.
Old Siloed Model vs. New Model
Takeaways
The Performance Branding Ecosystem is nothing without all three of its organs working in harmony. A body in peak physical health without a purpose or meaningful relationships is just that- a body, an incomplete pyramid of self-actualization. But without optimal health, our soul lacks the ability to meet interesting people, travel to beautiful new places, and try everything the world has to offer. That’s what’s so beautiful about being human, we are a complex ecosystem working to constantly innovate who we are and what our output is into the world.
Advertising is successful when it connects and resonates with people and the communities they interact with day to day. A Performance Branding Ecosystem reflects our own human behaviors and emotions which is why it’s so successful at sustaining long term growth as a business model while still delivering immediate results, because what’s more human than a human ecosystem?
To the next young person who gets their first or second job here: Embrace it. Learn the craft. Put yourself in the meetings, and volunteer for everything with enthusiasm and optimism. Always be in motion, showing your passion even if you think it’s irrelevant. Take back as much energy as you are giving. Be obsessive with your words and work from start to finish. “Be a maniacal tiger” in the most pleasant way possible.
While I may not have my purpose fully articulated yet, I am so grateful for the invaluable time spent at Morning Walk. Learning. Listening. Walking. Laughing. Riffing. Writing. But most of all, beginning to find and activate my purpose to create my own healthy Performance Branding Ecosystem.
About Eliza Christoph
Eliza is a Morning Walk alum from Northwestern University. As an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction she loves being able to flex her creative skills while defining strategy for various brands.
A midwestern native, she has lived in both Wisconsin and the suburbs of Chicago but her happy place is being anywhere outdoors: the Wyoming backcountry, Wisconsin Northwoods, or traveling the globe.