EP.79 Carolyn Butler-Madden on Cause Marketing, Social Change and the Benefits in Taking a Stand

Today’s business landscape is no longer just about turning a profit. Organisations must demonstrate what their brand stands for and how that is shaping the world. For those that are seen to be socially ambiguous, or worse, disconnected, the potential for consumers to bypass them is very real.

On The Dent Podcast, we interview key people of influence in all walks of life. We delve deep to unearth how these successful people got to where they are, their trials and tribulations, as well as their successes, and what their experiences can teach us all.

On this episode, we welcome Carolyn Butler-Madden. Carolyn is an Amazon #1 best-selling author for her book “Path to Purpose: How to use cause marketing to build a more meaningful and profitable brand”, keynote speaker, marketing consultant and social activist.

With 30+ years’ international experience in the agency world, she’s worked with some of the world’s biggest brands including Pepsi, Cadbury, Caltex, Panasonic, Microsoft and Evian. During this time she owned and ran two independent agencies in Sydney, Australia.

In 2017, she left the agency world to pursue her passion for cause marketing and social purpose through her marketing consultancy, The Cause Effect. Today she specialises in enabling brands to do well by doing good. As Chief Purpose Activist of The Cause Effect, she uses speaking to deliver on her mission – to put social purpose on the business agenda in Australia and beyond.

Carolyn takes us through the buzz words and slogans to demonstrate exactly what it means to manage an organisation focused on delivering for the better good. Carolyn has been able to find the balance for businesses between the desire to grow brand awareness and the bottom line while supporting and championing social, political and environmental causes important to those organisations, and their consumers.

Here’s some of the inspiring stuff we get into:

• Carolyn’s journey from agency owner to full-time change maker

• What is a cause marketing campaign

• Why there is a difference between social enterprise, cause marketing and social impact

• What is the definition of corporate social responsibility

• Why there is a growing scepticism towards “social purpose” and what it actually is

• What brands are managing social purpose well (and some that aren’t)

• Why there is an expectation of people that companies support causes as much as Governments

• The reason that consumers will pay more with a brand that has a strong social footprint

• How social purpose is a commercial reality for businesses with the generation of consumers entering the market

• The power that a strong social purpose has for business partnerships