Impact Strategy
Approach to Impact Strategy
At BIG Acts our approach to Impact Strategy is to empower brands to create disproportionately positive impact in the world using a process that first brings into balance key organizational elements and then develops actionable strategies for transforming a company’s potential into powerful energy directed toward our world’s biggest challenges.
Impact Strategy Services
Focusing on the positive impact your company wants to have in the world, we help you understand where you currently are; where you want to go; what impact you are uniquely positioned to make; and how your company can transform its potential into powerful energy.
The BIG Acts Approach
We help you answer the question, “How can my company make a disproportionately positive impact on the world?” by bringing into balance four organizational elements: Brand Purpose, Company Assets, Stakeholder Meaning, & Impact Relevancy. Once we understand what your company is uniquely positioned to do, we create actionable strategies and a path to implementation. Our approach maximizes your company’s positive impact or contribution to the world, while also building brand value.
Brand Purpose
Big Acts are constructed from a strong Brand Strategy and Brand Purpose, that is, a brand’s reason for being beyond making money. This is a critical starting point as it ensures we are not only building social or environmental value, but also brand value. We work with our sister company, Brand Intersection Group (BIG) and our clients to build Brand Purpose, brand architecture, and the themes and narratives that will help transform brand potential into powerful energy for your Big Acts.
Company Assets
A Big Act needs resources to come to life. Organizations have a variety of assets to deploy in service of creating a Big Act. We find that many assets are overlooked when a company follows a traditional approach to creating “good acts” in the world: they default to philanthropic giving, volunteerism, and marketing power. We help you step back to identify the unique assets your organization has (e.g., employee expertise, supplier relationships, buying power, intellectual property) which might be deployed in service of creating a Big Act.
Stakeholder Meaning
A Big Act can only create disproportionate impact when it is meaningful to the stakeholders most critical to a brand’s success, such as employees, consumers, suppliers, and communities. We work with you to develop comprehensive behavioral insights on critical stakeholder audiences that lead to actionable strategies.
Impact Relevancy
Some companies are better able to solve certain challenges more than others. We work with you to identify a highly relevant approach that addresses one of the world’s critical social or environmental challenges and which reinforces your Brand Purpose, is meaningful to key Stakeholders, and leverages Company Assets. We call this “Impact Relevancy,” and it is the final element that must be brought together, in balance, to create the conditions for disproportionately positive impact.
Scenarios
Company S
Company S is a fast-growing company that began as a fundraiser for an important neighborhood landmark. The original do-good purpose has become “fuzzy” in how it is being translated across the company. Company S has been creating good acts as they’ve grown (e.g., product donations, environmentally sensitive materials); and they are now seeking to have a greater positive impact.
How we can help: Work with Company executives to refine their Brand Purpose & Mission; listen deeply to some of their key Stakeholders (best consumers & staff); help to identify a unique angle on a Problem connected to one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals; outline a Brand Impact Strategy to guide next three years.
Services: Brand Purpose & Mission Refinement, Stakeholders Mindset & Meaning, Problem Identification, Brand Impact Strategy
Company F
Company F is pre-revenue and is currently developing product prototypes. The co-founders want to ensure positive impact is embedded in the company from inception. Company F’s founders are humble, they are expert B.S. detectors, and they believe in doing something well or not, no “half-assing” allowed.
How we can help: Hold periodic, focused conversations with co-founders focused on asking questions to help them define a social or environmental problem that the Company can uniquely address in the world as the Company product/service & positioning is evolving.
Services: Impact Vision, Problem Identification
Company H
Company H was started as an “impact company.” The executive team decided it was time, after a decade in existence, to amp up their positive impact on the world, beyond product goodness & ethical business practices. The company loves its Brand Purpose/ Mission and leaders know the brand is resonating “well” with consumer fans.
How we can help: Help leadership coalesce around current & future positive impact on the world and available resources; conduct research to understand where key Stakeholders (end consumers, customers, suppliers, & employees) derive meaning & their expectations of Company; conduct research to uncover potential impact opportunities; bring together all the above elements into a Brand Impact Strategy with example implementation activities.
Services: Impact Audit, Impact Vision, Asset Analysis, Stakeholder Mindsets & Meaning, Problem Identification, Brand Impact Strategy
Company R
This 50+ year old company wants to reconnect with its brand lovers beyond making profits & quality products. The Company is already doing many “good acts.” And they have recently updated their Brand Purpose & Mission. Executives want to know what would help them have a greater positive impact and earn more loyalty/ consideration from Brand Lovers.
How we can help: Delve deeper into Leadership’s aspirations to gain alignment on desired future impact / legacy; conduct primary research with key stakeholders
Services: Impact Vision, Leadership Alignment, Stakeholder Mindsets & Meaning
How can BIG Acts help your organization?
Don’t we all want to be able to say at our retirement, “I’ve made a positive difference in the world?” Or even better, “I made a disproportionately positive impact in the world!”
There are millions of ways your company could contribute positively to the world. However, not every approach leads to disproportionately positive impact – or a focus on the most critical social and environmental challenges in a way that benefits the world, resonates with your key stakeholders, and strengthens your brand.
Focusing on the positive impact your company wants to have in the world, we offer a range of services that help you understand where you currently are; where you want to go; what impact you are uniquely positioned to make; and how your company can transform its potential into powerful energy to make that impact. We only do what is necessary, nothing more, nothing less.
Your company is unique and deserves a customized approach. We pride ourselves on flexibility in helping to meet your needs. For example, we can offer our services as workshops, leadership team coaching, consulting projects, ongoing advisor, and/or fractional chief activist champion. Got another idea? We are all ears!
Impact Audit
We will do an immersive look at how your organization is currently creating good in the world, what we call the Brand Impact Continuum.
Impact Vision
Together, we will step back from today’s realities and identify where your company hopes to be on the Brand Impact Continuum in 3 to 10 years and what success looks like: a Big Act of disproportionately positive impact or just a bigger positive impact in the world.
Brand Purpose & Mission Refinement
Having alignment around Brand Purpose and mission is critical before we can understand what positive impact your organization is uniquely positioned to create in the world. We will work with our sister company Brand Intersection Group, and your organization’s leaders to clarify Brand Purpose.
Leadership Alignment
We help your organization’s leaders align when needed.
Stakeholders Mindsets & Meaning
We will uncover the aspirations and behavioral drivers of stakeholders who are critical to your company’s ability to contribute positively to the world, beyond economic profit & jobs. Knowing your key stakeholders better, we can identify what is meaningful to them and how you might best engage them to create bigger positive impact in the world.
Asset Analysis
We will do a thorough analysis of organizational strengths and assets, beyond marketing & money, that can be leveraged for creating bigger positive impact in the world and ensuring Brand Impact success.
Problem Identification
We will work with your team to identify the right problem for your company’s “Big Act” or other “good acts” and a framing that will be motivating to your key stakeholders. We can also help your company refine the focus for its good acts of positive contribution.
Brand Impact Strategy
We will answer the fundamental question, “What would need to be true?” to move your company where it wants to be in making positive impact in the world. We bring together Brand Purpose, Company Assets, Stakeholder Meaning, and Impact Relevancy with actionable strategies for transforming your company’s potential into powerful energy directed toward our world’s biggest social & environmental challenges.
Brand Impact Experience Design
We will work with internal and external marketing activation partners to test, design, and implement an integrated Brand Impact experience.