Ep 93: ‘Marketing for Social Change’ - How to develop a more flourishing society and more sustainable future with Kian Bhaktiari, Founder, The People

Can Marketing Save the Planet?

“We don’t ’speak for young people, we let them be the voice and share their perspective.”

We keep coming back to the S – ‘social and societal impact’ in many of our conversations with clients, leaders and marketers, we’re discussing the role of business, both in how they operate and what they are doing for society.

In this episode of the podcast we have a chat with the brilliant Kian Bakhtiari, Founder of The People, a Gen-Z consultancy. We were keen to know more about the work Kian does both with the youth generation and businesses, how he brings those worlds together (which is very much needed). Kian explains, “We’ve applied such a narrow lens to how business can be done, how marketing can be done that we’ve lost track of the opportunities and all the ways that we can create a more flourishing society and more sustainable future.” Kian tells us about how the younger generation feel and think about the world they are growing up in, making the point, “Wealth inequalities are a bigger determinant of your future than your education and how hard you work.” Kian and his teams bring Gen Z insights into the boardroom, they want to close the gap between as he says, “those who make the decisions and those whose lives are impacted by the decisions”, opening up opportunities to share knowledge and insights both ways and, and create a space to explore how we can change business.

A new author, Kian has recently published his book, ‘Marketing for Social Change – How to Turn Purpose into Business and Social Impact’ , a book which explores and asks the question – What is the role of marketing in the 21st century? Like us, Kian firmly believes that marketing has a significant role to play and if harnessed in the right way can accelerate social change. “We need to find ways to bring business and communities together.” When asked how he would measure social impact, Kian shares, “There are lots of different lenses on social impact- start by being neutral, then bring in meaningful connection and impact.” “Start small – it can be really overwhelming at a system level. What is something you can do today which might have an impact and go from there.”

Tune in and listen as we talk to Kian about:

• The importance of the role of marketing in driving positive impact on society.

• Why he wrote his new book ‘Marketing for Social Change’ and what he learnt.

• Thinking about the way things are done, outside the ways things are currently done.

• The work he does with the youth community and, diverse communities.

• Understanding what businesses want from the future.

• What unifying factors young people are finding challenging.

• Social impact and how we can approach it and measure it.

For more, follow and connect with Kian here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kianbakhtiari/

And to find out more about The People and the work they do - here https://www.thepeople.work/

Kian talks about Earth Watch -and more can be found here: https://earthwatch.org.uk/

And check out his new book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marketing-Social-Change-Purpose-Business/dp/1398616842

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You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player and via The Marketing Society. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this together.

Our podcasts are recorded purely via online conferencing platforms, we apologise for any minor sound quality issues.