Have you noticed a pattern?

When Orla Kiely closed all her UK stores last week it was a bit of a shock. Many of my chums have an Orla cushion, candle or set of blinds somewhere in their home. But when I thought about it in relation to a pattern I started to notice earlier this year (no pun intended) I'm more shocked that I didn't see it coming.

You see Orla and her fellow failing retailers (House of Fraser, Maplin, Toys R Us etc) have all got something in common?

None of them have a purpose. 

No, all of them had their heads stuck firmly where the multi-stems don’t shine when it comes to fulfilling a purpose... I'm talking about a beautiful heart-melting, people and planet loving purpose?

The Little Book of Marketing

Ruth and I share a co-working office. Last week she handed me a beautifully written wake-up call for 'ad and marketing folk'. ‘Read it and then let’s talk,’ she said with a glint in her eye.

Numbered 115 of only 300 copies in existence, Looking Up is a limited edition A6 book written by ad-man, turned conscious marketeer, Jonathan Wise back. Written back in 2014, it charts the story of his awakening. But it’s everyone's story really.  

Within its 50 beautiful pages Wise shares the moment and his subsequent journey of realisation that the media and its associated worlds of advertising, branding and marketing are all major players when it comes to  f**king the planet up. 

He's got a point. And what do all of them have in common? They need great stories to ply their wares. None more so than the story we keep telling ourselves of ‘endless growth’. A myth that encourages companies to keep on growing, supported by consumers who keep on buying with reckless abandon.

A New Story vs Growth

On pages 46 Wise asks: ‘Do you want to a) be part of the endless growth story? Or b) do you want to contribute towards a new way of life?’

It's a question we all need to ask ourselves. 

As businesses, we are increasingly being presented with an urgent opportunity. The world is shifting. Marketing must evolve. Either we carry on as we are, or we come together and help re-write the existing story of 'business as usual' and help to transform this myth of endless growth. 

Because when you change a story, you begin to change the world.