The power of solidarity
I work with a lot of brands to help them create positive social and environmental change.
Many of them understand the power of their operations: the difference they can make by introducing new technologies to reduce their carbon footprint, or by upholding human rights standards in their sourcing and supply chains.
Many of them also understand the power of their marketing to connect with their consumers, to build their brand as one with a social purpose that cares about its employees and the world around them.
However, not many understand a secret, almost invisible power that brands have in abundance: the power of normalisation.
This can be easily understood by some world-famous examples: Coca Cola turning Santa Claus’ outfit red, de Beers making diamonds the only choice for an engagement ring. But every brand has this power, and is using it without realising it, every single day. Brand marketing shapes the world around us, shapes people’s expectations and desires and what they think normal is. Toothpaste brands make white, perfect teeth seem normal. Broadband providers make the desire to stream, game and surf at the same time normal. Protein shake brands make a muscular physique and a gym-heavy schedule seem normal.
So far, so straightforward - brands are promoting their product as a solution and so depict the solution they want you to aim for. But brand normalisation goes further than product-related expectations. John Lewis, for example, makes the expectation of a Christmas orientated around family and connection and emotional depth normal. The coded messages within marketing - that marketeers may not even be aware of - subtly communicate the kinds of world views that brands operate within, and in so doing influence their consumers’ world view. (Movement theory calls this “invisible power”.)
As a values-led or impact brand, how could you use this power?
In 2018 in the USA, three companies - Patagonia, Walmart and PayPal - came together to launch Time to Vote, an initiative whereby companies gave employees paid time off on election day to ensure they were able to go and vote. This not only removed a logistical barrier for people to vote, it normalised the idea that voting was important - so important that a diverse coalition of now thousands of companies actively encourage and facilitate their employees to exercise their democratic right every polling day. (Full disclosure, working with Patagonia, Oatly and others I brought this initiative to the UK ahead of the 2024 General Election.)
Another important dimension here is the power of solidarity. In the early Autumn 2025, Brewgooder - a wonderful beer company that was founded to help fund clean water projects across the globe but has since expanded its impact to other areas close to the founders’ values - launched Sun and Stone, a beer brewed in collaboration with a Palestinian brewery called Taybeh. 100% of the profits from this beer go to the Disasters Emergency Committee, a coalition of INGOs working to alleviate suffering in Gaza and elsewhere. But the real power of this collaboration is in the normalisation of solidarity with Palestinians. The Co-op listed and stocked Sun and Stone across the UK - a brave move but one in keeping with its members’ wishes and its historic values, and again a normalisation of the idea that products like this belong on our shelves.
As brands seek to make an impact, let’s leverage the power of solidarity and the power of normalisation for good, for the benefit of marginalised communities and to shape the world we want to see.