Brand Purpose is Not the Company’s Vision & Mission
Brand Purpose, two words that are familiar to us. Brand purpose plays an important role as the identity of our company, which will drive customers to use the products we are building.
In the midst of busy brands that keep trying to be different. How do you create a ‘Brand Purpose’ that can be the main guard as a company? How can our persona be understood and also generate the traction we desire?
The brand purpose must represent the understanding of ‘a higher-order reason for a brand to exist than just making a profit’, and the best pinpoint for knowing your ‘why’ is represented by Simon Sinek’s explanation with his diagram ‘The Golden Circle’ (What, How, Why). Try to find out the reasons ‘why’ your company exists. The ‘why’ will serve as a foundation for you to build things for your company.
It goes like this;
- Purpose is ‘why’ you exist: The higher reason why your company is in the world, and not just for profit.
- Vision is ‘where’ you want to go: A destination that your company offers in the future. What will your company become?
- Mission is ‘what’ you should do to get there: How do you go from ‘why’ to reach ‘where’ your company.
So yea, the ‘purpose’ is not the same as the company’s vision & mission.
What’s in it as a company to find out its brand purpose?
Having a clear purpose is proven to have an impact not only on the audience who will become our company’s customers but also on the growth performance of a company. Jim Stengel, the former CMO of Procter and Gamble in his book ‘Grow’ showed the results of his 10-year study of 50,000 brands and found that the ones that centered around improving people’s lives beat their category competitors by significant margins.
Then, if you don’t have a clear ‘Brand Purpose’, how about it? Then, make one. Here’s a simple step by step for it according to fabrikbrands.com:
1. Start with your ideology
Before we determine ‘why’ you exist, we have to think about what we believe, and what we are willing to fight for it. That strong brand will evolve over time. Ideology will be the main compass to stay consistent.
2. Context is very important
What matters to us must also mean something to our target market, otherwise don’t expect loyalty there. That way, we must also pay attention to the cultural and competitive context.
Differentiating our company with a purpose brand not only makes us stand out from others, but also becomes relevant to those who use our products and services.
3. Offer real value
Purpose-driven brands are powerful because they solve real problems for real people. Show that the existence of your company is really useful for those around you. Build a brand persona that supports it. Show real people using your product, and how their life is helped by your existence.
4. Love the haters
Too busy pleasing everyone will not make your brand purpose stand out. Ask yourself who isn’t going to like your brand purpose. As long as you’re not alienating people that you might want to sell to one day, then you should be on the track.
5. Be consistent
This is one thing that is often forgotten when the company has succeeded in building a good purpose brand. Consistency. It is possible that your company will not completely change the world, but with consistency, you can inspire other people who want to change the world through your purpose.
Now, get to work, it’s not too late to find out exactly what your purpose company is, then … start inspiring those that believe in your purpose by building things that are solving their problems and making the world a better place.
