Marketing for Social Change - by Kian Bakhtiari

About the Book

Create positive change for both society and your business by embedding purpose into the heart of your brand's strategy.

Book Synopsis

WINNER: Goody Business Book Award 2024 - Marketing - Communications and PR

Business as usual is not an option anymore. We need a new way of doing things and brands can no longer afford to stay silent on important social and environmental issues.

With more consumer and legal scrutiny than ever before, brands need to work hard to ensure they embrace purpose in a long-term, sustainable and authentic way in order to actually create the social change they say they support. This is where Marketing for Social Change comes in. A deeply practical guide on how brands can take meaningful action whilst avoiding backlash, it outlines clear steps to building authentic purpose into the heart of business strategy. This book explores not only how you can find and define your brand's purpose but how you ensure that your purpose becomes an embedded part of your business rather than a mere PR stunt.

By using real-world examples across a spectrum of issues such as The Body Shop's stance on animal testing to Nike's work with Colin Kaepernick, this book offers a guide of how marketers can create positive social change through creativity and action, regardless of the sort of company they work for, and how creating this positive change is beneficial for both society and business.

Review Quotes

"Kian Bakhtiari has redefined the highest use of marketing and communication skills - to help turn business from creating unconscious desire for things we don't need to celebrating the products and services we do need to restore human community and regenerate the natural world. With Marketing for Social Change, he redefines the future of the entire profession in a way that honours our human agency and brings pride to our practice."-- "Vincent Stanley, Director of Philosophy, Patagonia"

"Kian Bakhtiari is an ideas man! Marketing for Social Change is an extremely well-written book grappling with the most important issues of our times in completely new ways."-- "Carole Stone CBE, UK's Queen of Networking"

"A new vision for system change that shows how companies can be more successful by focusing on solving the world's problems, not creating them. This is something I've experienced first-hand, developing both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. Kian Bakhtiari is a bright thinker who brings humanity back to business. Its time has come."-- "Paul Polman, business leader, campaigner and former CEO of Unilever"

"A fascinating and enlightening guide to how to make a difference. Compelling and powerful, this a rare book that makes you think and tells you how to bring about change."-- "Tom Goodwin, innovation leader and author of Digital Darwinism"

"A groundbreaking guide that redefines the role of marketing in the 21st century. Kian Bakhtiari brilliantly illustrates how businesses can prioritize wellbeing and sustainability over mere profit. This book is a clarion call for marketers to harness their power to promote social justice and advance sustainability, offering practical tools and inspiring examples of companies that lead with purpose. By applying his own skills in foresight and innovative thinking, Bakhtiari provides a roadmap for creating a more equitable and sustainable future."-- "Youssef Nassef, Director of Adaptation, UN Climate Change (UNFCCC)"

"A new playbook for 21st-century marketing. It is a valuable resource for marketing agencies, brands and independents looking to have a bigger business and social impact."-- "Gemma Charles, Deputy Editor, Campaign Magazine"

"A powerful roadmap for building stronger brands and changing the world. It centres on a number of big ideas that I have seen play out in practice across Unilever's portfolio: Business that is better for society or the planet is better business; it must start with authentic products and actions; big change requires collaboration to change the system. This is a rattling good read with lots of great examples and practical steps to put the principles into action."-- "Alan Jope, former CEO, Unilever"

"Marketing isn't just about selling people things they want but don't need; it can also sell people things they need but don't yet want. In fact, without mass persuasion, every major societal innovation, from the smallpox vaccine to seatbelts to same-sex marriage, would be met with mass hostility. Only after we have changed our minds do we forget the work that went into changing them. This is what makes this book both so enjoyable and so necessary."-- "Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy"

"Represents a shift from consumer marketing to community building and from top-down management to co-creation and collaboration. Essential reading for progressive marketers."-- "Ellie Norman, CMO, Formula E"

"The world has a new generation of young leaders, and we need them - people like Kian Bakhtari. Marketing for Social Change is an important resource if you're looking to challenge the status quo and transform business and society for the better. This is a compelling call to action for changemakers."-- "Kate Robertson, Co-founder, One Young World"

"This book fills an almost-empty niche in our cultural imagination: how can we redirect the powerful tools of persuasion honed over decades to influence people's buying decisions, to help change our thinking and actions as fast as we must in order to cope with the mounting challenges of our time? Bakhtiari provides answers and suggestions with admirable clarity and precision. It's a transformative set of concepts, and after reading them you can go into the world and put them to use, which is crucial."-- "Kim Stanley Robinson, New York Times bestseller and author of The Ministry for the Future"

"This book on new collaborative business models stresses my statement that "You cannot be successful in a society that fails". Marketing for Social Change is a useful manual on how to use the power of marketing and communications to deliver business impact, and ecological and social improvements. It's important for leaders to change and adapt their companies to make them future proof."-- "Feike Sijbesma, former CEO, Royal DSM"

"This is a book for our times. A much-needed message of hope and possibility. Kian Bakhtiari is a determined young leader who offers fresh ideas and new participatory models for citizens to actively shape the world and create a more desirable future."-- "Mary Robinson, first female President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights"

About the Author

Kian Bakhtiari is founder of The People, a creative company powered by a global community of young changemakers. Based in London, UK, he was formerly Youth Insight Lead at Dentsu and is now Advisor to UN Climate Change and One Young World Ambassador. For his contributions to marketing, he has been named one of the Top 50 Future Leaders by the Financial Times. He regularly writes about marketing through a Millennial and Gen-Z lens for Forbes CMO Network and is deeply passionate about using the power of creativity for good.