BOSTON–A man who walked away from overseeing a marketing budget bigger than the asset size of most credit unions said he did so because of the “power of purpose.”
Credit unions that wish to survive and prosper will need to be driven by the same philosophy, he said.
Jonathan Mildenhall said he is an avid believer that company brand and marketing should play a role in shaping humanity and society for the better. It’s a lesson he learned while overseeing global advertising strategy for Coca Cola for eight years, where he had a $1.2-billion marketing budget.
“All you have do to is spend 15 minutes on Google-searching ‘the power of purpose-driven companies,’ and you will find thousands of articles on how purpose-driven companies outperform their competitors in all metrics,” said Mildenhall in remarks to CUNA’s America’s Credit Union Conference. “And the younger the workforce, the more powerful that message is to them.
“If you cannot articulate the purpose of your organization, your ability to succeed will be that much more challenging,” he added.
Understanding purpose doesn’t just apply to institutions and corporations, said Mildenhall, explaining that “everything I do is either driven by my attempt to be a really decent human being, or to be really, really creative and to try new things. I have a conversation with myself every Friday evening, and that is, ‘Have I been the best human being I can be this week?’ If I start to identify that I haven’t been a good human being, I start to identify patterns stopping me from being a purpose-driven executive. I encourage you to think about the values you have that build your sense of values, your enthusiasm, and then to recognize the things that get in the way of your ability to lead in that way. Think of the work that gives you energy and the work that drains energy.”
Explaining a Career Move
It was that personal philosophy that led Mildenhall to leave Coca Cola in favor of joining Airbnb, where he had a fraction of the budget he previously had with $25 million earmarked for marketing. While some people couldn’t understand why he would join the upstart Airbnb, Mildenhall said he did so because he could see the company’s three founders were all “purpose-driven.”
Beyond that, Mildenhall called the mission of Airbnb “historic,” saying the company “will not rest until it is the next global superbrand.”
To become a superbrand, it’s important to understand those companies’ DNA, said Mildenhall, who is now CEO of TwentyFirstCentury Brand. He took his audience back to the 1980s when Coca Cola was the dominant brand identifying a generation. “It’s marketing was insanely audacious,” said Mildenhall. “It’s ad line didn’t reference the soda brand. It was simply ‘Coke is it.’ Its brand dominated culture.”
But as Coca Cola became more introspective, another superbrand began to emerge in the 1990s: Nike. “Nike realized that African-American street culture could become the platform from which the global brand stood,” said Mildenhall.
In the 2000s, yet another brand became dominant: Apple. It was so successful, observed Mildenhall, that students around the world began stealing its Apple iPod posters.
“Apple dominated pop culture as the result of technology and brilliant storytelling,” he said.
What Studying The Best Brands Revealed
Airbnb studied those three brands, according to Mildenhall, and discovered it’s about more than just a marketing budget or cool product.
“Brands that become superbrands are led by purpose-driven leaders who are not just about building a business, but also shaping society for good. They all have a recognizable value proposition. They have an iconic brand marque and visual identity. They represent a universal ideology that transcends the business.”