What does it mean to win with purpose?

In the past few years, more and more companies have been incorporating purpose into their marketing strategies. Just scrolling through social media, you’ll likely come across a letter from a CEO or a pledge of commitment to an important social issue from companies in a variety of industries. 

While it’s great that so many companies are getting on board to make a positive impact and use their platforms for good, it’s easy for these efforts to quickly become lip service. For true impact, purpose needs to be deeply integrated into strategy and fit with brand values.

In a recent episode of CMO Pulse, Scott Finlow, Global CMO Foodservice at PepsiCo shared how PepsiCo and his team in particular are incorporating purpose into their overall strategy, and how they’re staying true to their commitments. Read on for some of Finlow’s insights and experiences in the world of purpose.

Can you speak about what "winning with purpose" means to you and how that connects with you personally?

"Winning with purpose" is our PepsiCo strategy, it means pivoting to be a long-term sustained partner for our communities, both for our customers and for people more broadly. It's something we're incredibly focused on and are doing a lot of work on across the company. For me personally, it is something I care deeply about in terms of connecting the work I do to the world I live in, setting a better future for my family and for people and communities at large. I think I speak not just for myself, but for my team and the broader employees across the company, that winning with purpose by having a clear set of values and acting against those is incredibly important and motivating for our employees and we see that play out every day.

Why don't we talk about the Dig In initiative-  tell us all about how it's going and how it came to be? 

The combination of COVID as well as the murder of George Floyd had a massive impact on the world we live in. We as a company responded with a broad racial equality commitment, a five-year commitment to invest in support of that community. And since that time, we've taken significant action against it. 

As part of the work we do on my team, we have responsibility for supporting our Black-owned businesses and, in particular, Black-owned restaurants. We have been working against that over the last 18 months with an initiative we called Pepsi Dig In. And that initiative has three pillars and three objectives. One, to help with structural inequities and problems that Black-owned restaurants face in areas like access to capital. Two, supporting and accelerating the businesses themselves in particular around technology, delivery, and changing consumer behavior.  And thirdly, building more awareness for those restaurants. In support of all three of those areas, we made a commitment to drive $100 million in growth for Black-owned restaurants over the next five years with our Pepsi Dig In program and the initiatives that we've put together. The way we've approached it is to work on supporting the broader community and supporting existing Black-owned businesses and partners that are part of the ecosystem of Black-owned restaurants. 

You must be incredibly thrilled with how that's kicked off. 

We're excited. It's a moment, but it's important that it's also part of a movement. So we're trying to make sure as we build that awareness, we're also sustaining that support. And that's going to be really important for us and it's a huge part of what we as a team are committed to. Companies that have made pledges in support of the Black community and Black businesses in general haven't necessarily upheld those. It's important to uphold those commitments, it's important to resource those commitments, and it's important to sustain the actions in support of these communities. We've seen numbers that suggest only 1% of the pledges that were made in 2020 have actually been upheld. And you know, I'm proud to say we're part of that 1%, but that's not enough and we need other companies to really uphold that commitment and that support. We'd love to work with other organizations. We believe in building a big tent working with lots of partners to have the help and impact we want to have.

Can you talk a little bit about what your perspective is on how companies should be thinking about purpose and we can make this more than a moment where everyone gets excited, embraces it but then lets it go for whatever the next big thing is, in a week, a month, a year?

That's the challenge.  I think what's most important is to ensure that your company really has the initiative or the plans embedded in their strategy, and they've made a commitment and a commitment from the top. Our CEO has been vocal and continues to be very supportive of all of the racial equality charity work that we've committed to including the Dig In program.

It's important that whatever the work that an organization is committing to is consistent with that company's values, and is very much part of the values of that organization.

It's important that it's consistent with your brands and your business in some way. For us, we're in the foodservice business, we support restaurants and work with restaurants as part of that business. And so it's natural for us to lean in even further and to a greater degree with Black-owned restaurants and that community. It's worth asking yourself, are you positioned over the long term to make a sustained commitment as a company as an organization? 

For more, check out the full episode on YouTube.