Serving Up A Good Cosmopolitan Brand At The World's Table.

The world is moving toward Cosmopolitan branding. Cosmopolitan comes from the Greek word kosmos or cosmos meaning world. If there is one thing that unifies all people everywhere it is the food we eat and the beverages we drink. All you have to do is look at the popularity of shows like Food Network www.foodnetwork.com or Anthony Bourdain of the Travel Channel www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Anthony_Bourdain to see that people enjoy a fascinated with food worldwide. We eat. We drink. We are the world. In a recent white paper for brandchannel.com titled "The Coming Cosmopolitan Brands" www.brandchannel.com/images/papers/495_CosmopolitanBrands_4.pdf I covered how Food and Beverage companies such as Frito-Lay's Sun Chips, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, and Starbucks Coffee are brands, amongst others, that are taking leadership roles on being good sustainable brands that look to serve humanity. Brands have tremendous power to influence behaviors of people globally. They can literally be bridges of communication over which people and brands share a universal vision for a better world for everyone.

In the recent catastrophic earthquake in Haiti we can see how food and beverage brands like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Uniler, Yum! responded to the desperate humanitarian cries for help. It is examples like these that open up what Cosmopolitan branding can reach out and become not just in times of humanitarian crisis but as an ongoing dialogue with the citizens of the world. Creating a Cosmopolitan brand is no longer confined to brand and marketing departments it is now opened up to input from the very people buying your product.

"Brands that engage in social purpose can do more than just stand out in the marketplace," said Mitch Markson, president of Edelman's Global Consumer Brands practice and founder of Goodpurpose(TM) www.goodpurposecommunity.com. "They can bring 'double value' to their customers, who get a product they want, plus support for a cause they believe in. Since 58% of consumers globally think it's OK for brands to support good causes and make money at the same time, marrying profits and purpose may prove to be a powerful strategy during these harsh economic times." There is also a new term that is being used to replace the old ROI which was "Return On Investment". The 21st century version of this is ROI "Return On Involvement".

Doing good in the world always comes back to your brand many times over.