Chapter 10
STAND UP SOCIAL EQUITY BRANDS
After 166 pages of cataloguing and criticising brands over the decades, we’ve now a clear – and very possibly overdue – responsibility to offer a detailed impression of what we think a progressive brand should look like; the qualities and traits it should uncover and share with its various audiences.
As the underlying theme through this book, we’ve talked about the need for this new breed of brands to focus on investing in society for the long term, with high quality social equity. This translates into investments and contributions that lead to balanced, healthy and durable stocks of all three types of social capital – bonding, linking and bridging. To reiterate, this focus on social capital is key, since not only does its replenishment and nourishment hold the key to our finding solutions for the sustainability challenges we face, but social capital is also the air that brands breathe. They cannot survive without it.
And as brands (product and, increasingly, corporate) represent more and more value to firms, it seems obvious that there should be a detailed focus on maintaining this valuable and dynamic resource. As we’ve said before, we need to recognise that social capital is the key supplier for any business.
This is opposed to the more typical and traditional approach of brands; focusing on restrictive, exclusive and often intoxicating forms of bonding social capital to create dyadic relationships with a view to quick gains. It is this ...
