A brief on my research as a Young Scholar at St. Thomas. I explored brand storytelling versus product centric messaging to see what is more effective and if the former can influence consumers to participate in the social mission.

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UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AT UST
YOUNG SCHOLARS GRANT recipient
Reggie Aspelund is aware of the negative
connotations that can come to mind
when people think of marketers. “In some
ways, marketers [earned this reputation]
by getting people to buy stuff they really
don’t need,” Aspelund said. “But I also
think that the market has changed now,
and people are actually requiring brands to
do something with a social component.”
As an example, Aspelund cited a research
project he did during one of his classes.
“I was talking to some millennials—
younger than me, as you can see I’m an
older student—and one of the big things
that they say is
younger people
don’t have brand
loyalty,” Aspelund
said. “That was
definitely true
when doing
research in jeans,
but the minute
you start talking
about TOMS,
they wouldn’t even
think about using
a replacement or
copycat brand.
And it’s because
of the social
mission.”
For his summer
2014 Young
Scholars grant
project, Aspelund
took it a step
further in his
research, and
investigated
whether
brands that use
storytelling to
share their social
mission are
effective in not just creating loyalty, but
also in engaging consumers in the social
mission that they support. He looked
at Chipotle’s “Cultivate” campaign, and
invited people to participate in a survey—
and then at the end, asked if they’d like
to donate some of what they received as
compensation back toward Chipotle’s
efforts.
“In my project, I was hoping people
would donate a third of what they
received for doing the survey back to the
cultivation foundation—but what I’m
finding is that it’s all over the board. It
takes multiple touchpoints to move people
to get more involved,” Aspelund said. “I
think that was the biggest takeaway–as
much as you think that something can
happen really quickly, or you think
something based on your intuition or
wishful thinking, that’s not the case at all.
There are so many other variables.”
Aspelund believes that the type of research
he is doing in this project could be helpful
to other organizations in the future,
especially those who provide products or
services with the purpose of advancing a
social mission. “There has been a lot of
research in the past on why storytelling
works—for convincing people to buy
something, or maybe even liking the
brand because it creates an emotional
connection. But there is nothing that
really talks about how that can go beyond
the purchase,” Aspelund said.
“There are a lot more brands that are
doing this now—Finnegans Charitable
Beers is a big one—and benefit
corporations are legal in Minnesota now,”
Aspelund said. “They’re trying to figure
out the best way to advance their social
mission while at the same time delivering
a product or service, so this could be
something of value for them as well.”
When brands share their social mission,
everyone wins, Aspelund says. “Not only
does social entrepreneurship help someone
out, but it creates this glue between the
brand and the consumer,” Aspelund said.
“I think that’s the key part in how this
kind of research has helped me see what I
want to do next, whether I work with an
ad agency or a brand.”