Consciousness meets branding at Resonance
As we emerge from crisis, will our leaders integrate their most important lessons into business as usual?
The story of Resonance™ is one that’s deeply personal and perfectly situated in the duality of intersection. A bridge between old and new, inspired by a scientific principle that we seek to integrate with what we do: evolve the intelligence and more importantly, consciousness of brands. Because despite our passion for building brands, we are just as psyched about the world of science, particularly supernatural living.
Inspired heavily by Dr. Joe Dispenza’s “Becoming Supernatural,” we particularly resonate with the language he brings to “consciousness,” and the entire lexicon around it. As a bridge person himself crossing science with spirituality, he so masterfully opens up this word to more people, drilling home the point that we are all indeed supernatural. In other words, to be human is to be supernaturally alive in this quantum reality. Translation? We have the capacity to create whatever we wish — very simply by thinking and feeling our way ahead of the wish. Creativity is our birthright and we best live out its potential while we’re here. Not just personally, but also professionally.
This simple truth catalyzed the conscious renaissance that became Resonance, a creative practice inspired by multi-displinarian thinking, bridging consciousness with all the other actionable “hard” skills and knowledge to bring a creative agency into being (we’ll dive into the role consciousness plays at length as we continue). What it’s not? Another creative agency in the business of churning out perceptions over truths.
To build on the original point of “duality,” let’s go through a few examples that give us pause:
Cosmic, corporate
Quantum, Newtonian
Personal, professional
Spirituality, science
Conscious, marketing
Planet, profit (think: Patagonia)
Ethics, business (think: B Corp)
Political, commercial (think: Nike)
Systems thinking, bottom line thinking
Unpacking duality is a whole series of conversations that we can’t wait to have. Today is about the intersection of one duality in particular.
Now more than ever, there’s a particular relevance and dare we say urgency in bringing these polarities together — for the health of our entire environmental, political, social and cultural ecosystem. Business can no longer carry on “as usual.” Within this current climate, our particular mission is to give story and scale to the values-based entrepreneurs, small businesses and organizations striving for a healthier Earth and humanity.
We’ll journey through the past, present and future of “consciousness” as it intersects with business + profit — reclaiming our responsibility to bring forth a new model of conscious marketing for what we believe matters most.
The origins of purpose-driven branding
While the spiritual genesis of “consciousness” go thousands of years back, the word’s essence assimilated into modern day business within the last decade.
The brilliant Simon Sinek was instrumental to this movement when he took the bold step of leaving New York City advertising. Going on record to say “advertising is stupid” after the events of 9/11, he like many of us were left questioning our greater purpose in life. When the fragility of life presents itself, we face the hard but important questions, and Simon jumped on that wagon with full force. In his seminal TED talk “How great leaders inspire action,” Simon re-introduced the world to the paradigm-changing three letter word, “Why.”
Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle
People don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it. Over 50 million people watched a man turn this commonplace word into the new staple for business and branding. A company’s reason for being trumped everything else, and became king. His decision to keep the methodology of the “Golden Circle” (leading with the why) trademark free was intentionally made to democratize the playing field and give every human, entrepreneur, small business and corporation a shot at their true north — in service of better leadership, company culture, and overall impact on the world.
Preceding the acceptance of “consciousness” in a business context, this moment defined a new paradigm. A breath of fresh air for those of us in pursuit of meaning and purpose in the work we do, products we consume, manner in which we design our company culture, content we post on social media, and the list carries on. If we look at the numbers, a company’s stakeholders benefit from a shared sense of doing good — call it smart generosity, consciousness, conscience, purpose, service. They are all iterations of the same ilk.
From the millennial perspective, the data points to a story we all know too well — 63% under 35 believe the “primary purpose of businesses should be ‘improving society’ instead of generating profit” and 94% of them “want to use their skills to benefit a cause.” (Source) The ever continuous shift shows no signs of slowing down, in large part because millennials inherited the “hangover of the over-consumptive 1980s” and harbored greater appetite for the higher values of esteem and self-actualization prescribed in Maslov’s timeless hierarchy of needs. (Source)
From the perspective of bottom-line success, a similar trend comes into view — as far back as 2013, Harvard Business Review revealed that companies practicing “conscious capitalism” outperformed their competitors by ten times, marking the grand entrance of the word “conscious” with business, alongside its tangible applications. (Source)
While semantics can definitely kickstart our collective gears of consciousness, it’s clear a whole systems change is needed to reboot the current operating system. Beyond traditional ads, branded touchpoints and one-off CSR and social impact initiatives, what we need is an ecosystem resilient at heart (with a strong why, or mission statement) and holistic in its approach to service. Serving “company culture, programs, products, materials, processes, policies — and metrics — that make up the full expression of the business.” (Source) This goes without saying that we need profit just as much as we need mission in action. Profit is the regenerative tool that drives the mission’s moving parts, turning the wheels of social impact in a sustainable life cycle.
When we started Resonance™, we were driven by the conversation of consciousness and how this could fuel the world of business and capitalism. Profit is an important function of exchanging valuable goods and services, and we welcome the tools so long as they’re used (not abused) consciously. Like Simon, an ethnographer by trade, we like to see ourselves as anthropologists and forever students of societies and cultures different than our own. Listening, learning and coming into curious symbiosis with those around us gives us a deeper lens into the world around us. Inspired by the laws of nature, we Dig, Seed & Grow our methodology when the opportunity is ripe.
Entering the decade of conscious branding
As business consciousness evolved over time, we began to see interesting interpretations of the core flavor. Fast forward to present day, we see ourselves in the midst of global trauma and collapse, starting with COVID and now peaking with George Floyd’s recent murder in the US. A domino effect has been catalyzed and the conversation has shifted in a pretty massive way. No longer are we tolerating condolences and compassion — the rhetoric has shifted to, “enough is enough” and “pause, stop, listen, learn, and most of all, donate (if you can).” People are using their platforms to speak their personal truth, demanding immediate and long term action over supportive semantics.
In this compounded crisis of human rights violation, we are no longer standing by the sidelines waiting. We are actively creating the solutions needed when governments have failed its people most — the old story is no longer acceptable. This brings us to a closer examination of the role brands can (and have) most effectively played in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. Their reach and platforms have shown up most prominently with #blackouttuesday, muted feeds for collective listening and learning, and the specific organizations where our donations are needed most, now.
There’s no playbook for official business etiquette, yet the vast majority of business leaders have used their privilege of power to speak out against the current injustice — Apple, Amazon, PayPal, the list goes on here. The space where consciousness and capitalism intersects only seems to be growing with potential and promise.
Remember when Colin Kaeperneck took a knee for Nike, in response to police brutality? Whether that campaign made you love, hate or stay indifferent, it still managed to open conversation around the voice that brands can (and should) express during politically charged and racially divisive times. Mark Parker, Nike’s CEO at the time, went on record saying in short, brands can’t afford to be neutral. If you’re one to take a stand, don’t try to please them all. Simply find your position and make it count for something (and someone) meaningful. An Edelman study supports this very trend, showing two-thirds of Americans expecting brands to “make their moral and ethical positions clear,” and 65% “would not buy from brands that have kept quiet when there should have been an obligation to speak up.” (Source)
The Nike ad that you love or hate
We believe the future of branding will have no choice but to be deeply authentic and honest about its relationship to the world, particularly the shadows. With the responsibility to speak up comes a powerful potential to have impact, especially as we emerge from a series of crises that have exposed the broken systems of our economy, healthcare, political leadership, culture and relationship to black lives.
Every brand must speak their truth
As humanity and businesses reckon with these difficult times and issues, we are hopeful about our current trajectory.
We consider ourselves quite lucky in that we dodged the big bullet of lockdown — in Bali, there was no official mandate to stay at home or to close your business. While we did our part to lay low, we also managed to sneak in a few meetings with business owners of restaurants and yoga centers. Time and time again, the same story surfaced — “we don’t have much budget these days to invest,” “we are just trying to get by, keeping our staff paid,” and “how can we be of service right now?”
As we continue to upgrade the ways in which we show up consciously for our clients, we are heartened by the depth of opening and quality of conversation that’s becoming the new mainstay.
It’s been humbling to have such authentic conversations, beyond business as usual, that have shine a promising light on leadership. The question is whether we’ll see this leadership during crisis integrate its most important lessons in our upcoming re-emergence — taking courageous actions, asking important questions and assuming bold positions for the sustainable health of all its stakeholders and the community at large.
In conscious branding, we trust.
