Marketing Examined - 🔍 Patagonia's Purpose Driven Marketing

Last night I was finishing up my newsletter. As I did that, I surfed Twitter for a few minutes and saw the news regarding Patagonia. My mind started spinning. And five minutes later, I was drinking coffee because I knew it would be a long night. The research started, and I knew today's newsletter would center around Patagonia's Purpose Driven Marketing.

It was a long night and early morning to put this together.

I really hope you enjoy it.

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Patagonia’s Founder, Yvon Chouinard, gave away his company to a single shareholder - earth.

The $3B company transferred ownership to the environmental nonprofit The Holdfast Collective and the Patagonia Purpose Trust.

The Patagonia Purpose Trust owns all of the voting stock.

The Holdfast Collective owns the remaining 98% of nonvoting stock.

Why?

Patagonia will continue to be a for-profit business, but after reinvesting into the business - every other dollar will be given to the Holdfast Collective to help the climate crisis.

This is an estimated $100M a year.

This initiative also led to substantial growth:

Patagonia takes this and replaces Performance Marketing with Purpose Marketing.

Performance Marketing chases metric.

Purpose Marketing builds/creates movements.

Patagonia fuels its "Purpose Marketing” like this:

We're going to cover five parts that I believe helped Patagonia create super fans.

Patagonia’s mission and values serve as the base of its voice.

That’s one that communicates the purpose over the product.

To build an army, you need an enemy.

Patagonia creates enemies that support its mission and matches its voice.

I imagine it like a game of Red Rover. Your team locks hands, braces, and collectively holds tight as the enemy (opposing team) tries to break through.

The stronger the bond, the stronger the army.

Any brand can have a purpose.

The brands that create raving fans are the ones that put action behind the purpose and consistently amplify it.

Say it. Show it. Scale it.

Patagonia does just that:

Brand affinity is built on values and driven by advocacy.

Long-form content is the bridge between the two.

Patagonia creates films to amplify the story and scale the awareness behind the purpose.

The goal of this content isn’t to sell more products - it’s to improve the sentiment and perception of Patagonia.

Nothing is more important than Patagonia keeping Patagonia accountable.

Which is how this all ties in.

The latest initiative by Yvon ——- is the ultimate accountability.

It brings the mission and values to life.

I really hope you enjoyed this issue. And if you want to refer back to the article then here's the full article.