PRSay Houston

Why Purpose-Driven Marketing Works

• Season 3 • Episode 3

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Welcome Anh Nguyen, to PRSay – the podcast of the Houston PRSA Chapter.

In this episode, Anh shares about Why Purpose-Driven Marketing Works.

Anh Nguyen is the Chief Brand Amplifier at Amplified Marketing, where she helps purpose-driven brands, social impact ventures, and nonprofits through #MarketingThatMatters. She’s also passionate about empowering women professionals and business leaders to uncover their unique stories and build personal brands that spark confidence and growth.

As a consultant and speaker, Anh loves being a catalyst for growth—helping her clients find their voice, embrace thought leadership, and build meaningful connections. Known for her down-to-earth style and knack for sparking big ideas, Anh inspires leaders and brands to discover their potential and create a ripple effect of impact in their industries.

Connect with Anh at:
LinkedIn- https://linkedin.com/in/anhtnguyen170
https://linkedin.com/company/AmplifiedMktgTX
Facebook- https://facebook.com/AmplifiedMktgTX
Instagram- https://instagram.com/AmplifiedMktgTX
Youtube- https://youtube.com/@AmplifiedMktgTX

Learn more about the PRSA Houston Chapter, our events and opportunities at www.prsahouston.org.

PRSay is brought to you by Veronica V. Sopher, Public Relations.

Veronica Sopher:

Welcome to PRSay, the podcast of the Houston chapter of the Public Relations Society of America on PRSay, we spotlight our talented members and get to know each other a little better. If you are a PRSA Houston chapter member and don't get a chance to network as much as you like, or are unable to attend our in person events, here's your chance to connect with your fellow members. Hello and welcome to this episode of PRSay, I'm your host, Veronica Sopher. I have the pleasure of bringing amazing members of our Houston chapter of Public Relations Society of America to you, to get to know, to get to connect, and make sure that you are putting a name with your with the face, especially when we are out and about at our different membership events. So if you are joining us for the first time, make sure you hit subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes of PR say. And if you are watching on Facebook or LinkedIn, drop us some comments, because my guest, and I love to connect with members who are new to the chapter or who are wanting to build that network. So let's go ahead and get this episode started. I have the amazing anwin joining us. Welcome Ann, thank you.

Anh Ngyuen:

Thank you for having me. It's really, truly an honor, and I appreciate the opportunity.

Veronica Sopher:

Oh, I'm so glad so and tell us a little bit about yourself, and I'd love to get to know you a little bit better.

Anh Ngyuen:

Absolutely, I am first generation Vietnamese immigrant. In fact, my family and I immigrated here in 1975 and that's huge part of my story, and I'm bringing it more to the forefront. I'm a marketer, and I've been a marketer now for gosh, of worked for myself for over 10 years now, but I've been in the advertising marketing arena for over 25 when I say that, I go, Oh, gosh, wow.

Veronica Sopher:

Yeah, yeah, that was fast,

Anh Ngyuen:

Right? So, so long ago, and I've seen the evolution of marketing towards online and digital efforts, and I love it. I'm here for it. And recently, probably within the last year, I've had a little bit of a of a professional crossroads, if you will. I don't want to call it a midlife crisis, but I love what I do, but I wanted to be able to help make an impact of some kind in the world. I'd historically mostly worked with B to B brands, but after some, you know, introspection and thought, I really wanted to move forward and still use the skills and experience I have serving and supporting purpose driven brands, social impact ventures and nonprofit organizations. Which brings me to our conversation today.

Veronica Sopher:

Yeah, perfect, perfect segue. I love that, and I and I think that some of us get to that crossroads sooner than others, but eventually, as storytellers and as marketers and communication professionals, we all get there. So I love that you were like, Yeah, I'm owning it. This is what's next for me. I'm doing it. So, yeah, tell us what you're up to that's so exciting,

Anh Ngyuen:

Absolutely, and I feel, uh, really excited and happy about it. I'm for a while. And I think many marketers and Marcom professionals can can understand when I say I felt like I was just going through the motions, like I was serving my clients. I was going through the motions. I was still doing it, but it just wasn't sparking any kind of creativity in me or joy. And now I feel like moving this this purpose, and focusing on this segment or group of clients has really made me be happy about what I do again, and so it's really a great start to the new year.

Veronica Sopher:

Oh, that's fabulous. So yeah. So tell me a little bit about what that looks like when people talk about purpose driven work, especially the creativity other than you know how it makes you feel. What does it look like for a professional who is transitioning from a more corporate background or an agency background into this kind of work?

Anh Ngyuen:

Absolutely, I do want to share that purpose driven is can be a for profit brand as well. It isn't necessarily a nonprofit organization. I think oftentimes when people hear those terms, they think, Oh, it's a nonprofit. It's somebody who's not making money. But you can be a for profit brand and be purpose driven and and that's what it looks like. I'm looking for a client who is looking to make an impact in the world with their product, their solution, what their movement, if you will, think about, for example, Toms. Everybody's familiar with the Tom Shoe, shoe brand, and they have always, from the get go, had a purpose to help share their product with the world. You buy, they give a pair. So it's beyond just making a profit, it's actually helping to make an impact in the world. And that's what purpose driven means to me. And so I wanted to definitely start off with that in the conversation. So I. That it's, you know, it's not just nonprofits. Everybody can be a purpose driven brand and make an impact.

Veronica Sopher:

Yeah, absolutely. And giving yourself permission to do that, no matter the size of your organization. So I think that's, that's a really great reminder. So tell us about when you're looking for an ideal project or client now, in this phase of your career, this season of your career, what What draws you to what that organization is doing? Are you more focused on environmental Are you more focused on how it impacts certain communities? What for for you, and what is it

Anh Ngyuen:

That's a great question. And I because at this point in my career, I'm fortunate enough to to be a little bit more picky about who I work with, and I want to be able to work with a client who whose values align with mine. I know that's such a buzzword, right? People talk about the values aligning with one another, but I truly mean it. I want to. So for me, a lot of things that are very important is education, specifically education for girls and young women. Because I think about growing up in high school, and during that time, I grew up in the 80s, there were not a lot of opportunities for girls and young women to explore career opportunities. You know, at that time, it was, oh, go be a nurse. Go be a secretary. Go knew these traditional, traditional gender roles in the past, so that's very important to me. So I'd love to work with an organization that supports those initiatives. I also love animals. Animal Welfare is very important to me. And so those are the kinds of brands I would love to try to find to work with, but I wanted to share too why purpose driven marketing is so important, and why it has made me so happy to be able to shift. Because if you think about the shift of consumers nowadays to aligning themselves or buying from a brand that stands for something is very important to a lot of consumers nowadays. And if you think about that environment, as a marketer, as a brand, it's really time for many brands to go ahead and take that stand.

Veronica Sopher:

Yeah. Yeah, it is. And I think no matter where you are on the political spectrum, everyone's watching, everyone's got an opinion. And we're at a point, and I think in our society where people want to know where are you, I have power in spending my dollar or donating my dollar. I want to know from you where you stand. So I think that that's really relevant, and it seems to me like a natural fit into a marketing strategy.

Anh Ngyuen:

Oh, absolutely. Because, as brands we talk about, or as marketers, we talk about humanizing your brand. Well, what better way to humanize a brand to than to stand for something so that your consumers know what you stand for it aligns with what they their values are, then they know that they can trust and they want to support your brand. And whether it's a political issue or social issue, I know there's such a political divide, right, and people think in terms that way, but it's not necessarily just politically it is a social issue, as you mentioned, the environment or animal welfare or education for children around the world, whatever it is that is important to you, there's a brand out there that you can find that aligns with that value and that you want to purchase from.

Veronica Sopher:

Yeah, yeah, that's so true. Okay, shifting gears, just a little bit. Talk to me about your involvement in professional networking organizations. Obviously you're a member of prsa Houston chapter. What's the type of value and that you find being involved, especially at this point in your career, in organizations that are really hyper focused?

Anh Ngyuen:

Absolutely, it's the connection, I know. Again, many people say that, but it truly is the connection, and especially in Houston, for being such a large, diverse metroplex, the Marcon community is small, knows one another, and it's not only an opportunity to develop professionally through webinars and learning opportunities, but it the connection is, what's most valuable is finding others who can collaborate with you, who could mentor you, who could support you. And so you know, having that benefit with prsa or with any other business organization is absolutely invaluable.

Veronica Sopher:

Yeah, for sure. And do you get an opportunity to participate in more of the digital events that happening with the webinars, or do you find yourself trying to attend some of the in person events? What works for you at this point in

Anh Ngyuen:

your career? It's a mix. It just depends on what the schedule is. Is like if it's a webinar and it fits. And it's convenient. I don't have to get dressed up to go to

Veronica Sopher:

Yeah, that's so true.

Anh Ngyuen:

Some of that laziness, quote, unquote, from the from the pandemic, is still within me, but I love going to say the conferences that prsi Houston does each year. I've been fortunate to have been a speaker twice now at the conference, and it's just amazing day, and you learn from everyone, and you connect with people. And so to me, it's, it's a mixture, and I really intentional about the the in person events that I go to.

Veronica Sopher:

Yeah, yeah, I know, and I we encourage all of our members to attend as much as you can, because you do, you get to make connections, and you never know when someone's gonna have a passion project or something that you are interested in supporting. And having that face to face connection sometimes make it makes it easier. So, for sure, so And before we wrap up, tell me about a passion project you've got on your plate right now.

Anh Ngyuen:

Absolutely. When I introduced myself, I mentioned that my family is from Vietnam, and we were refugees in 1975 and this year is the 50th anniversary of when the war ended. And I have been spending the last few years curating stories from Vietnamese refugees. There are other families like mine, and that's my passion project this year, is making sure that those stories are shared and published. So if anyone is a Vietnamese refugee or knows has a friend who is, please get in touch with me, because I'd love to share their stories. Oh, that's so beautiful and so profound. Having been raised in Houston, I can tell you that I'm I think we're probably of a similar generation. So a lot of my classmates were very young, 456, years old when they immigrated, and most of them came in 1975 which is, it's not surprising. So I look forward to connecting with you, for sure, because I'm going to share some names with you. Awesome. I'm thankful for that. Yeah, that's awesome.

Veronica Sopher:

All right, how can people connect with you, Anh?

Anh Ngyuen:

I am very active on LinkedIn, so find me there. And then I just started an Amplified Marketing page. Business page was for a very long time, it was more just my personal brand, but I have parsed out both my personal brand and the business brand. So personally, you can definitely connect with me on LinkedIn, and then, please, I would appreciate a follow the amplified marketing page. It's amplified mark, MKTG, TX, because I think there's another amplified marketing out there, but I'm the one in Texas, yeah, because I would love to be able to live stream on my page. And thanks to LinkedIn requirements of having at least 150 people who follow the page. I can't quite live stream there yet.

Veronica Sopher:

We're gonna get you there. We're gonna get to Anh, I promise that's awesome. We'll make we'll make sure that there's a link in the show notes for all of our listeners and viewers.

Anh Ngyuen:

Absolutely. Thank you.

Veronica Sopher:

You bet. All right, that was awesome talking to Anne Wynn, one of our members here in our Houston chapter of PRSA, be sure to connect with Ann. If you have any colleagues or friends or family who you think would be a good connection for her, make sure that you contact her and put them in touch. It's so important for us to be supporting our network of members who are working so hard to make sure our chapter is robust and brings lots of value. So with that, we're gonna wrap up this episode of PRSay, if you are listening on the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes. And if you are watching on LinkedIn or Facebook, drop us some comments. Anh I would love to connect. We will catch on the next episode.