With changing times, it is important to have a brand purpose. It is because today’s customers are smart enough to invest in a brand that has a purpose other than just selling its products.
A brand purpose shows the brand’s wish to change the world socially, economically, and environmentally in a positive direction.
When a brand has a purpose, it can have a positive impact on people. It can majorly impact how the brand is seen in the market-leading to its ultimate success.
For a newbie, it is important to know what a brand purpose is and why it is important for a brand. In this article, we will answer these questions in detail. So, let’s begin.
What Is Brand Purpose?
Brand purpose is the intent behind a brand’s existence beyond making money. It represents what it stands for and what are its social obligations towards society, consumers, and the environment.
Brand purpose is also known as the North Star or the noble purpose of the brand. It is all about finding the reason for its existence and how can it use that to help its consumers.
Three benefits of brand purpose are:
- Adding value in the lives of people and society
- Making the brand stand apart from its competitors
- Providing strong values.
Importance Of Brand Purpose
It Makes The Brand Appeal More To The Customers
Having a brand purpose makes the brand more appealing to the customers as they feel like their spending is making a difference in the world. It makes them feel like they are a part of something big.
A purpose makes the consumer work with businesses who clearly think about environment and society too.
It Shows Consumers That The Brand Cares About More Than Just Making Profits
Having a brand purpose lets the consumer know that there is more to just tangible offerings. It shows the target market that the brand cares more about than making money and profit.
It is crucial because this generation is looking for a brand who can take action against the wrongdoings and make a positive impact in the world.
Many strategies like CSR projects, brand activation, social media marketing, email newsletters and blogs are used to communicate the purpose of the brand.
It Boosts Engagement
Everyone wants to change the world, but some people are clueless about where to begin. In such a scenario, if they come across a brand that makes a difference in the world through their products, customers are happy to spend. Having a brand purpose can help you engage more people who love to spend money on products who want to bring about some change in the world.
How Is Brand Purpose Different From Brand Mission, Vision And Values?
People often confuse brand purpose with a brand’s value, mission, and vision. To clear your doubts, all these terms are related to each other, but they are not the same.
The purpose is the foundation of the business, while the other three are its building blocks. Let’s clear the confusion:
- Vision: A brand’s vision is the goals it wants to achieve.
- Mission: Is the procedure or methods the brand employs to reach that goal.
- Values: is the ethical clock guiding the brand towards the right part of achieving a goal. It defines the brand’s behaviour along the way to reach its vision.
While a brand’s purpose is the reason why it exists, which doesn’t cover only monetary reasons, but social and environmental reasons too. It is above the vision, and value, and defines how the brand will bring about a change in the community.
Defining, Building And Marketing The Brand Purpose
How To Define It?
Firstly, you need to ask yourself why you created your brand. It will help you define your brand purpose. For this ask yourself:
- Your passion
- What you can create best and how will it make a difference?
The answers to these questions will help you figure out your brand’s intent of being. It will help you figure the difference you can make in the world. If the answer you find is something you don’t like, keep digging deeper until your talent, ability, and passion becomes one and come up with an answer.
Building Your Brand’s Purpose
First work on your team, make them believers in your purpose and move ahead from there. Once the entire team believes in it, it will show in the way you communicate, market, or design your products and services.
Marketing The Brand’s Purpose
Marketing the brand’s purpose depends on your services and customers and business model. Also, keep these things in mind:
- Have a strategic plan: Your purpose should be felt in every aspect of your business. But it doesn’t mean that you only put that in front of your consumers.
- Stand behind your brand’s purpose: It is not enough to only have a purpose. You need to stand behind it even when it seems impossible. The best example of this is Nike when it stood behind Colin Kaepernick. The quarterback stood for something he believed in and Nike whose motto is ‘Just do it’ stood behind him. In the end, it helped the brand gain more market value.
- Stir start a revolution: Start involving other people in your brand’s purpose by starting a movement. It can be a simple drive related to your purpose. When people get involved, they feel closer to you while uplifting the society too.
Having a brand purpose is important to keep you going especially when things get hard. Thus, it is crucial for you to find your purpose and move from there.
Go On, Tell Us What You Think!
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A startup consultant, digital marketer, traveller, and philomath. Aashish has worked with over 20 startups and successfully helped them ideate, raise money, and succeed. When not working, he can be found hiking, camping, and stargazing.