Beers are on me, Patagonia
Patagonia has taken a stance! - Dana Chirps
The image above is the current homepage of Patagonia. This was in response to President Trump drastically rolling back protections on the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. We're talking two.million.acres.of.land. This is the largest rollback of federal land protection in the nation’s history.
Although tempting, this post isn't to tell you how you should feel about the matter. Instead, I'd rather address something I find to be so refreshing and hard to come by these days: a company that lives and breathes its values and brand.
Just last night during my 1am-I-can't-sleep-Twitter-scroll, I stumbled upon an excellent quote that was something to the effect of, "There is not a single marketing tactic or strategy that will correct a company whose brand promise doesn't match their brand delivery."
That statement is the absolute truth. As a business, you can't call yourself one thing, and be another. It is confusing and deceiving for the consumer. When clients ask me what my marketing approach is, I always tell them that I feel the best marketing is honest marketing. If you're marketing a mediocre product - own it. If you're marketing towards people who smell bad - own it. But especially if your marketing is heavily geared towards your company values - you must own it. And that is what Patagonia has done so brilliantly.
The speed of which they addressed this situation is also impressive, and it's as though they are saying, "no, it is not business as usual." Now the marketer in me is reluctant to direct you off my website, but in this case, it's well worth it. Take a look at Patagonia's current homepage. First, they grab the users attention with provocative copy that is best described as straight gangster, eliciting a three-second-damn from all who reads it. They took the most valuable piece of real estate on their money-making website, their homepage, to make sure their message was clearly delivered. They did this knowing that it will likely cost them money. Message received.
From there, the user can either carry on to their regular shopping, or click to learn more. If the user chooses to learn more, they are presented with clear information, a list of allies, and most importantly (from a branding perspective) their statement on why they are fighting to protect the land. The why is what connects the values to the actions, or the promise to the deliverables.
Calls to action (in the form of "take action" buttons) are dispersed throughout this landing page. And if the user clicks on one of those, there are simple instructions for the user to follow. Patagonia took as much "work" out of the equation as they possibly could have.
From start to finish this initiative has been executed perfectly. I applaud them for boldly standing up for their values, and providing effective tools for others to do so as well. They put their money where their mouth is. It's like a modern day story of David and Goliath... and we all know who won that battle...
