Social Movements Can't Happen Without Branding and Marketing

Yes, marketing and branding is about getting people to buy more stuff. But it can also be used for creating social change.

In Brene Brown’s recent conversation with branding genius Debbie Millman, Debbie shared how brand building is part of who we are as people. Humans have been “mark making” for thousands of years. At first, we created symbols to signify our beliefs in gods. To represent our belonging, we created family crests and flags.  

Today, we wear companies’ logos on our apparel and as stickers on our water bottles to broadcast our beliefs and affiliations to others. We do this because successful marketers have created consensus around what a brand (and its customers) represents.  

Corporate marketers aren’t the only ones tapping into the human desire to belong. Leaders of social movements, like Black Lives Matter and Me Too, are doing it too. They understand how to create a ground swell around certain beliefs and offer belonging to those who identify with its values and vision. When people affiliate with what a movement represents, it changes how they think and behave, and when that happens on a large enough scale, it can change culture. 

“[Marketing and branding] should be a profound manifestation of the human spirit, because people like Alicia Garza, people like Tarana Burke are showing what’s possible when you create consensus in this really important, significant way,” Debbie Millman says.