The challenges of balancing ethics and competence for purpose-driven brands: an exploratory case study on social impact company Too Good To Go

Recent years have seen a considerable increase in companies following a purpose-based brand strategy. Pursuing purpose instead of solely profit has been pointed out as a means to reposition corporations in society and especially to counter growing skepticism toward corporations from society and stakeholders. Consequently, incorporating purpose in brand building can establish the much-desired brand trust, and as such purpose could be the answer to the prayers of many brand managers: a brand strategy capable of creating trust among both internal and external stakeholders. The question is whether working with purpose in branding is indeed a fix-all solution, or if it also comes with challenges? In order to explore this, this paper first develops a theoretical conceptualization of brand trust in the most consistent and exhaustive purpose strategy, the purpose-driven brand. This conceptualization of trust is afterward applied to the illustrative case of the purpose-driven, social impact company, Too Good To Go. The qualitative case study combines an external stakeholder perspective with an internal company perspective and demonstrates that while purpose easily translates into trust based on perceived ethicality of the brand, the brand trust component of perceived competence is more challenging. The study contributes with knowledge for both brand theory and practice and suggests implications for brand managers following a purpose-driven brand strategy.