How Scotts Miracle-Gro sees its ‘purpose’

“Purpose” isn’t new to Jim King.

“Is purpose really that different from corporate responsibility, corporate responsibility that different from sustainability,” muses King, executive vice president and chief communications officer with The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, when we connected by phone to discuss to discuss a new campaign to share its brand values.

He objects to calling the effort a “campaign.” Perhaps the word carries too much baggage in the business world to adequately represent what an effort to embrace social responsibility and purpose must mean.

When it comes to a brand purpose initiative, you have to have action behind your words.

“What we really wanted it to be is a true articulation of who we are and who we want to be going forward,” King says of the initiative the company calls “Gro More Good.” For King and his team, that meant there had to be operating support behind any message that was put out.

“It couldn’t just be a corporate initiative; it definitely couldn’t be a communications initiative,” King says. “It had to be something that the business operators also thought, understood and bought into.” It had to be something that existed in the R&D department and the supply chain, HR and legal.