Putting Purpose to Work

Throughout the marketing landscape there’s a lot of talk about “Purpose” these days. Unfortunately, when most people think of “purpose”, their minds go directly to CSR and a budget line-item for social responsibility efforts.

But a Brands Purpose is far bigger than just CSR. It is the very reason the brand exists in the world, or its “Why” if you’re a Simon Sinek follower. Roy Spence (the “S” in GSDM) said it perfectly in a podcast I heard the other day, “Purpose is that reason you get up in the morning beyond making money.” And every brand has one. They may have buried it under a pile of features and benefits, or maybe they never really stopped to think about it. But every brand has its reason for being that is greater than just making money.

The brands that the majority of us hold up as being “iconic” understand their purpose and have used it to guide their storytelling over the past couple of decades. The idea of telling stories about your purpose is one that is rooted in more traditional marketing. Be it the brand telling its own stories through mass media to help generate awareness, or a brands fans telling their stories through social media to help generate buzz. This idea of telling stories about your purpose has been around for a while…and is starting to lose its impact.

Today, companies and brands need to go beyond “telling” and start “doing” their purpose. Putting your brand purpose to work by demonstrating it through actions out in the communities in which you do business is how brands will drive impact going forward. And the most immediate place for this to come to life is through brand sponsorships and promotions. But it isn’t limited to those two outlets. The idea of Purpose Doing affects and infects the entire company. It helps supply chain think about how they should be operating. It guides decisions in hiring. It has the ability to lead new streams of innovation and expansion. And it allows people to tangibly feel what you are all about, both internally and externally.

Right now, the vast majority of companies and brands a relying solely on purpose telling. This is due, in large part, to the immediacy and ease of telling stories through social and digital media. The problem, however, is that the sheer volume of messaging is becoming so great that brands are struggling to make deep or lasting impacts with their stories. Add to that the need to continuously fill the content pipes with more and more stories, brands eventually water down the message and get lost in the perpetual flow.

By putting their focus on purpose doing, there’s a tremendous opportunity to deliver meaningful human interactions that have a long-lasting impact on people’s view of a brand. And, as an added bonus, this idea of purpose doing also has the ability to improve communities while also making money for the company.

Brands need to put their purpose to work and move from telling stories about their purpose, to doing their purpose out in the communities they serve.