Brand Purpose: How Successful Businesses Propagate Their Beliefs

A brand purpose is important to set out how your company intends to change the world for the better. The role of this tool is to unite customers and cultures together in the pursuit of such an intention. Besides being a statement of belief, it is also one of the best practices used to define an effective brand strategy.

Brand purpose is vital to a business, but most brand owners do not take advantage of the benefits it reaps. Brands simply don’t understand what it is actually about. There is a valuable aspect of taking the time to understand the brand purpose and everything that it can accomplish. Creating strong brand purpose can give businesses authority as well as add a greater meaning to their ideas. This will then separate a brand from its competitors.

Purpose And Belief:

Starting with a purpose for your brand is similar to hitting the trail without a compass. The belief of a brand acts as a compass in the desired direction. The differentiation in the market, as well as a strong foundation, is where your brand purpose lives. If you understand your beliefs, your purpose will become clear and become the most logical expression.

It was reported that nearly 60 percent of Americans thought brands should take some sort of position on controversial issues and this rose to 83 percent when combined with those who wanted companies to take a stance if it related to their products. A company’s stand on societal issues has proven to affect their patronage. Millennials are currently leading this shift in market expectations. A survey showed that 84 percent of them believe it is their duty to change the world. Thus, they are making more conscious decisions than those before them, regarding what they purchase and even where they work.

How Do You Find Your Brand’s Purpose?

Purpose-driven marketing is becoming more popular. This means that a lot of marketers are on a search for purpose for their brands. New businesses especially depend on their brand’s purpose. The main question is how to find this purpose. However, purpose-driven marketing is not a strategy and finding something that adheres to your ideas can be tricky. You can even devolve into manipulating the audience. What you could say to someone to buy, click, or convert in your favor is a long thought-provoking process.

Benefits of Brand Purpose:

There are three main benefits that can come from the brand purpose:

• Adding value to the lives of your customers
• Setting your brand apart from other competitors
• Providing clarification and establishing a strong corporate culture

Consumers Expectations:

Consumers expect brands to align with their personal values. This becomes a challenge for companies who have already underestimated the bottom-line impact of neglecting to have a purpose behind their business. Companies falsely believe that they can avoid taking a position on hot-button issues. These expectations for brand alignment are a way for the brand to showcase agility. When a competitive market is present there is greater opportunity in building authentic and profitable relationships with loyal customers. Such meaningful relationships will hence shift the dialogue to an idea of unity. They will be grounded in a common purpose and built around a collective group, highlighting a sense of brand belonging. The authenticity of these relationships will do much more than just make money.

Telling Your Story:

Science has confirmed that we are hardwired for stories. Narratives lead to better understanding, build trust, perfect comprehension, and engage in receptivity. Children learn important ideas through fairy tales. Religious and historical figures are propagated through dialogues and stories. Humans connect, engage, and are moved through storytelling.

The rules of business always remain the same. Telling your story is an essential part of building a brand. It helps in shaping how people perceive you, enables consumers to begin forming a connection with you and your company and creates the building block to success. For example, your business is famous for making the best logo designs. Do the job right and this will eventually develop a thriving brand with an equally thriving future. People will want to buy from you simply because they love what you do, what you stand for, and the stories you tell.

Examples of Good Brand Purpose:

Take brands like Nike. Their brand is clear and precise. The message is, “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete.” It is simple and effective when telling a story.

Starbucks employs the same strategy. Their mission is, “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” Due to this direct communicative action, their business is so well known worldwide.

And even Google has a cause they stand for. “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” A short statement with clarity and adherence to belief.

If you have a clear and compelling brand purpose it does not mean automatic cosmic ideal. Data collected by researchers point to how purpose-driven companies and brands usually outperform their competitors on many levels. Jim Stengel, former CMO of Procter and Gamble, has shown the results of a 10-year study of 50,000 brands and found that the ones that centered on improving people’s lives beat their category competitors by large margins.

The Commonwealth of a Company:

A question for senior management is what is this company’s commonwealth? How can you help it prosper? Treating the environment of your business as a commonwealth has proved to be highly effective. For example, Patagonia believes that there is no point in making great outdoors clothes if the outdoors has become a climate-baked hellscape. It has thus donated its $10 million tax break to environmental charities. Easily identifying your commonwealth means that you had a purpose all along.

Authentic Brand Purpose:

Cadbury was sold to the food-processing giant Mondelez in 2001. In 2017, Mondelez U.K. managed to pay £122,000 ($157,000) of tax on sales of £1.65 billion ($2.12 billion). The purpose of the brand stated that it would be, “Right for our communities as well as the planet.” We know that this is not true.

While your brand purpose doesn’t necessarily have to fit into one specific category but most of them will. Whichever purpose you choose, you have to make it authentic. Authenticity drives brands. Studies have found that authentic purpose-driven brands are more successful than their competitors. It is easy for them to find and keep customers. Thus, you must ensure authenticity in the purpose of your brand.

Ways to Build an Authentic Brand:

Being transparent is the key to an authentic purpose brand. Saying something will not do anything for your company, instead, show it. Convince people that your business keeps their word and acts on their beliefs. If your purpose is to create more energy-efficient products to help the environment then make sure you recycle and get involved with local conservation efforts.

Remembering your roots is another vital step. Great brand purpose often comes from the very heart of your organization. Thinking about why you started this business, what is driving you into action, and why your customers should care about your brands over your competitors is important. Using your background to tell stories that connect with the interests of your customers and showing your realistic take on relationships will build your beliefs in their eyes.

The careful collaboration will make sure that you partner with people who share the same values as you. For example, Innocent teamed up with a company called “Grow it Yourself”, to keep children in the know about where their food comes from. This collaboration supported their brand purpose to improve the world and earned more loyalty from their target audience.

Author Bio:

Sarah Jay is a leading content writer from Melbourne. She always wants to fulfill her dreams that is the reason she goes to various countries to enhance the writing experience. In her free time, she helps new startup businesses by providing her capability of designing.