PURPOSE : SENSE OF EXISTENCE

Let's start by defining what Brand purpose is.

In the most simplified term possible Brand purpose is the why behind a Brand does what it does. Aside from the most obvious reason which is money. Brand purpose answers the question aside from commercial intent. Why is it that we do what we do, and we all love to do.

This question asks the Brand to look inside itself for an answer that has a bit more substance than just simply being another entity that makes money.

It asked the Brand leadership to identify the greater good behind what they do and then commit to that greater good for both the internal benefit of the brand as well as who or what that calls help helps. Be it people animals or the planet. For example, if the purpose of a brand is to work towards a solution for poverty then the Brand makes a commitment not just to the cause but to the people that it vows to remove from poverty. Aside from the causes that they look to address modern Brand purpose serves two purposes.

The first on the original is to foster a sense of inner belief within the brand amongst the brand leadership and the personnel a belief that the work that they do is more than just the work that they do that there's more meaning behind it and that it ultimately does some kind of good for someone or something when there is a genuine purpose that fosters inner belief.

The impact is evident right through at the business inner belief breeds positive culture and a sense of camaraderie and that expresses itself in every department of the business and it can be felt by people outside of the brand as well as inside of the brand.

The second purpose of brand purpose is to ensure that the belief behind the purpose is shared with the belief of the audience which will ultimately foster a sense of connection. This connection is steeped in human emotion and communicates this sense of togetherness which helps brands to build that trust.

So, in other words it's important that your audience believes what it is that you say your brand believes this latest version of Brand purpose has become highly relevant in the modern branding era. Due to these evolving relationships between brands and consumers that human relationship consumers are increasingly making more and more buying decisions based on the substance of our brand not merely their products or their services or their features or their benefits or even their price. In fact increasing numbers of consumers are happy now to pay a premium for brands that contribute to the greater good and positively impact a shared belief that they have brands that get the seal of approval from their customers about their purposeful endeavours not only cement that loyalty with their customers but those customers instantly become vocal advocates which helped to spread the word and ultimately grow that brand.

When we feel as people that the work that we do has a higher purpose than just the nine to five hours that we put in every week then there were far more likely to excel in whatever it is that we are doing because it feels that it's part of our journey that is part of our purpose and is part of why we're here and it probably means that we enjoy it a lot more as well.

 If a person feels that the work that they're doing is meaningful or if they're making difference, then it feels that they're exactly where they're supposed to be and doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing which is quite liberating.

More than ever before people are asking questions about the work that they're doing. They want to feel that there's meaning behind what they're doing and that the work that they do can't just simply be replicated by a robot. And ironically robots are quickly overtaking these robotic types of jobs which is contributing to this push by people to more towards this meaningful work that they're looking for in the past.

Most people went to work and did mind-numbing tasks that had little meaning and that was the norm at the time and although that remains a reality for a lot of people today. Increasing numbers of people in the workforce are looking for answers to the questions of what the meaning is behind what I'm doing I'm like contributing to the world positively or am I helping to make the world a better place. Or am I making difference in someone's life.

The people that are asking these questions are the same people who reclaimed the power from the brands on the back of the digital transformation. Millennials followed closely by Joneses have this much higher expectation from their employers which mean that brands are feeling this meaningful pressure both from externally as far as their consumers are concerned but also internally from their personnel as well as recovered a little earlier.

Modern brand purpose or these purposeful endeavours are relatively new within branding and they've only come a since brands have changed their behaviours and have started listening to what their audience wants. You certainly didn't have financial institutions in the 80s willingly giving up some of their profits for the greater good. And if they did, they were silently being mocked by other financial institutions because that's just not what they did. That all changed with the rise of consumer power. When consumers found their voice through social media the conversations went beyond simply bashing brands.

The smart brands that were listening began to communicate beliefs that they shared with their audience whether these were pre-existing beliefs before the rise in consumer power or they were newfound beliefs and customers started to respond with their voices and with their wallets as well. It didn't take long before brand purpose became this highly discussed topic of branding and more and more brands began to adopt these purposeful endeavours which just so happened to be supporting the beliefs of their audience.

Most importantly Brand Purpose should be used very carefully, and you arrive at the brand purpose after much carefully done research and hours or days of consumer research and crafting great insight. And it is not necessary to have brand purpose compulsorily and if its not fitting your category then you can’t simply force purpose into your brand. Pornography is $97 billion industry (as per google search) surely it can't have brand purpose by any mean. Its better to have no purpose than to have sub-standard purpose which might get back-fire.

Brand with purpose grows; people with purpose strive; company with purpose accelerate

Check out few links below as a source of inspiration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGH-V2mYt2Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGth5cfAb7w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2caT4q4Nbs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYP9AGtLvRg

#stayinspired #staypurposeful