It’s all about brand doing

Brand purpose is all over the place, just look at the last edition of the Cannes Lions. And that’s a good thing. At least as long as it originates from the DNA of the brand and it’s not considered the newest temporary marketing tactic.

Let’s start by explaining what a ‘brand purpose’ is.
A brand’s purpose is its overall reason for existing. It’s what a brand or company sets out to change for the better in this world and the value it aims to bring. The brand purpose defines the core beliefs and DNA of the brand. This transcends commercial objectives.

Purpose-driven brands have a higher goal and the fundamental drive to be a force of positive change in the world, whether it’s to reduce our environmental footprint, strive for equal rights or bring people closer together through food.

Every company was founded with a core purpose, a challenge it wanted to solve. But many have neglected their foundations along the way, often under the impulse of short-term revenue growth or the fear of polarizing customers.

The challenge today is that the bigger part of the brands we interact with on a daily basis don’t have this view or vision embedded in their core, yet. But they see the benefits it brings in today’s society, with consumers and employees having more opportunities than ever before to link up with the brands the feel connected, and so they jump on the bandwagon.

A brand with a strong purpose acts from this core as a starting point for everything. And that’s exactly the difference: it can’t be about ‘purposeful marketing’ and brands claiming to be purposeful without taking real action. It has to be about behaving as a purposeful brand, in everything you do, every single day. Taking inspiration from a purpose-driven brand: you have to just do it.

Which brings us to this: being a purpose-driven brand is not about being all fluffy and stuff. It’s about working towards the ambitious and world-changing goal, and translating that narrative into your brand actions.

So, it should be part of your marketing activities, but backed by concrete and everyday brand behavior.

Being a brand is, in all its simplicity, about the first word of this sentence, ‘being’.
Define your core, translate it into everything you do and fight for it when it’s put under pressure. Your purpose guides every business decision and helps to be passionately consistent in delivering the same experience across every touchpoint. You can set-up whatever marketing campaign you want, if you’re not ready to walk the talk you will not create connections with your stakeholders.

Looking at brands like Starbucks (who defines itself “not as a coffee company that serves people, but as a people company that serves coffee.”), Nike (with its mission “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”) or sweetgreen (that is “passionate about inspiring healthier communities by connecting people to real food”), they work every single day on bringing their purpose to life. And it’s what enables them to claim a differentiating and successful position on the minds of consumers.

To be honest, ‘brand purpose’ shouldn’t be ‘a thing’, it shouldn’t be a hot topic. It’s actually just the essence of being a relevant brand.