MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Trust is now the third-highest purchase decision driver in the world, sitting just behind quality and value for money. And yet, according to the UN Global Compact and Kantar’s 2026 CMO Benchmark Study, there is a nearly 20-point gap between how brands feel about their purpose work and what they are actually doing. Most brands believe they are earning trust. Their communities are not so sure.
Lennon Group, a HumanKind independent creative collective based in the Philippines, has released a new paper that gets to the root of why — and what the brands closing that gap are doing differently.
Titled The Grass Is Greener Where You Water It: A Guide on How Brands Can Create Impact and Genuinely Earn People’s Trust, the paper argues that the brands consumers trust most are not the ones with the most compelling purpose platforms. They are the ones that have stopped thinking of themselves as separate from the communities they operate in. They are not visiting their communities. They are part of the communities.
“The question the industry keeps asking is what should a brand do for its community,” says Angela Thakur, Head of Strategy and COO at Lennon Group, who authored the paper. “But the more fundamental question is who the brand understands itself to be in relation to that community. Those are very different starting points — and they lead to very different outcomes.”
The paper maps a three-stage progression that most brands will recognize themselves in. The first is Purpose Saying — purpose expressed in campaigns, manifestos, and brand platforms, but rarely embedded in how the business actually operates. The second is Purpose Doing — real, operational change, but still organized around the brand as the actor and the community as the recipient. The third, and the one the paper makes the case for, is Being a Neighbor — a fundamental shift in identity where the brand’s health and the community’s health become inseparable.
The paper draws on global examples including Patagonia, Dove, Ben & Jerry’s, and Bombas, alongside Philippine examples including Meralco, GCash, Globe Telecom, Jollibee Group Foundation, PepsiCo Philippines, and Ayala Foundation’s PROTEGERI project with OFF!. What these brands share is not a better communications strategy. It is a different answer to the question of who they are and how they behave within their communities.
The paper also offers five concrete practices for brands ready to make the shift — from starting with community before the brief, to letting purpose cost them something — grounded in behaviors that real brands are already doing, at every scale.
Lennon Group is currently presenting the paper to brands and organizations across the Philippines. Those interested in a presentation for their team are invited to reach out at hello@thelennongroup.com or visit www.thelennongroup.com.
