Unlocking Brand Purpose:
Harnessing the power of brand purpose in the marketplace is critical for brand leaders seeking to realize their ambitions for growth. The Stengel 50 index, a stock index whose portfolio consists exclusively of purpose-driven companies, has outperformed the S&P 500 by 390% over the course of a decade. Since this news broke— that companies rooted in purpose are statistically more likely to lead their industries— purpose has become increasingly top-of-mind for executives in all categories.
For the past 10+ years, I’ve put in countless hours helping brands harness the power of purpose and using it to create value. I’ve sifted through hundreds of strategy frameworks seeking out the best thinking related to purpose from strategy leaders. Over time, I stumbled upon IDEO’s Purpose Wheel framework, mutated it, and developed my own model for centering brands around purpose. I call this process purpose-centered brand design, and I’ve applied it to create value for billion-dollar brands like Cirque du Soleil, as well as smaller high-growth upstarts across a variety of categories. The approach outlined in this document is step #1 in a much deeper brand purpose model that can be transformative for any brand, in any category, at any stage in its lifecycle.
I aim to share my full approach over time in the hopes of arming other ambitious strategists with the tools they need to harness the power of purpose and help lead us towards a more purposeful economy— but for now, here’s step #1.
Why Purpose Works
Before we get into things, I want to pause and make sure you truly realize the benefits of having absolute clarity about the purpose of an organization. As Simon Sinek said: every company knows ‘what they do,’ some understand ‘how they do it,’ but only the world’s game-changers understand and have a deep conviction about ‘why they do it.’ Those select companies that find themselves in this last category tend to dominate their competitors and lead the world in their respective fields.
Here are some examples of purpose-centered brands (and their purposes):
TEDTalks - “We exist to spread ideas in the world.”
Google: “We exist to organize the world’s information.”
North Face: “We exist to push the limits of innovation & design for the outdoors.”
Tesla: “We exist to accelerate sustainable transportation.”
Cirque du Soleil: “We exist to advance the arts for a more enlightened world.”
FILA: “We exist to unite beauty with sport performance.”
Patagonia: “We’re in the business of saving our home planet.” Notice how all of these brands have achieved a level of consumer trust and love so high that they are practically immortalized as part of the story of humanity. They are highly influential. They have outsized valuations. People who use their products identify as fans & true believers more than customers or consumers. That’s because purpose-centered brand design delivers real, measurable value for companies. And there are four primary reasons purpose creates net new value, each of which I will elaborate upon:
The 4 Key Benefits of Purpose:
- Purpose drives purchase
- Purpose expands brands
- Purpose fosters fandom
- Purpose motivates teams
1. Purpose drives purchase
[Add image about Gen Z wanting brands to change the world]
Consumers are overwhelmed by the sea of brands (all with at-parity products) vying for their attention in every category. In order to survive in an environment like this, consumers have increasingly turned to purpose as a key reason to favor one brand over all others. This means that brands can no longer rely on having marginally better products to win consumer dollars. Brands need to provide consumers with a powerful and compelling reason ‘why’ they should buy their products. Put simply, consumers require that brands prove they align with their values and interests in order to gain access to a shopping basket. And for this reason alone, purpose helps drive sales growth because it lends brands a significant advantage in the purchase decision process (it’s hard to underestimate the importance of factors that influence purchase decisions).
2. Purpose fosters fandom
It’s often said “consumers don’t care about brands,” but it’s better articulated as consumers don’t care about brands that aren’t centered around purpose. Brands that have a strong purpose that connects and resonates with a large group of energized consumers have an outsized advantage in connecting with and nurturing a relationship with them that results in dedicated superfans who truly care about their brand. This is evidenced by the shortlist of purpose-driven brands listed above. Ask yourself: “Would people be upset if Patagonia, Google, or Cirque du Soleil were to disappear from the marketplace?” Simply put, purpose drives fandom, and Fandom is the single most valuable asset for brands. 20% of customers will account for 80% of your revenues. It’s best to make sure your “20%” is as large and committed as possible (hint: purpose-centered brand design is the key).
3. Purpose expands brands
The benefits of brand purpose don’t stop at consumer choice and fandom. Having a resonant and broad brand purpose can give brands permission to expand beyond the boundaries of traditional categories and activate diverse revenue streams. For example, Patagonia has ventured into food products, Tesla makes home batteries and solar roofs, Google has gmail, drive, android, nest, and more. This permission to “transcend boundaries” is a benefit related to “purpose drives fandom.” Because purpose-driven brands have built-in fanbases, they can leverage their relationships to gain consumer trust in unprecedented ways that expand their product or service offerings, tap into new markets, and increase their revenue streams. Put simply, purpose is a springboard for sustainable growth, diversification, and longevity.
4. Purpose movitates teams
We’ve talked a lot about the external benefits of brand purpose and its ability to move the needle on a company’s bottom line, but we mustn’t ignore the effect brand purpose has on teams internally. To understand how brand purpose transforms internal dynamics of a company, think about your own experience working for a company. Everyday you wake up early, log on or drive to work, and spend countless hours toiling away. Inevitably, at some point in every employee’s career they, too, ask “why am I doing this?”… of course employees are compensated, but we all know that employees, especially younger generations seek a sense of meaning in their work beyond just profit. This moment, when an employee asks herself ‘what is this all for?’ is often a make or break moment for talent retention and engagement. And this is, once again, exactly where purpose driven brands have a leg up. When employees understand, relate to, and believe in the brand's purpose, it inspires passion, productivity, and creativity. It answers this make or break question flawlessly and talent begins to thrive once again. But it doesn’t stop with retention or performance — a shared sense of purpose in an organization can create cohesion across teams, bringing disciplines together and creating powerful alignment that fosters an environment creativity, innovation, audacity, and most importantly — fulfillment.
Pinpointing Purpose
Now that we understand why brand purpose can play such a critical role in the transformation and growth of any brand. Let’s begin to explore an approach for how brands can methodically pinpoint their purpose articulate in a way that galvanizes both their employees internally and their customers externally. Below is my refined process for developing potent & engaging brand purposes from which companies can hinge their existence upon.
Unpacking the Concept of Purpose
Purpose is very simple— it’s the reason for a company’s existence beyond generating returns for its shareholders. For this reason, purpose is closely connected the unique value a brand contributes to society or how a brand makes a net positive impact on the world. But despite being such a simple concept, brands tend to struggle with purpose because it makes operators and executive believe that they must create some grand, world-changing influence on the world which often lead to disingenuous and unrealistic goals. Because of this tendency for leaders to think that “to be purpose led equals to change the world”, many brand conveniently attach themselves to global movements like climate change, inclusivity, and social justice. But these larger movements, though important and positive are not actually a brand purpose unless a company’s product is directly associated with mitigating climate change (i.e. a carbon-capture technology company). This leads us to perhaps the most important distinction for every brand related to purpose.
Aligning Purpose with Problem-Solving
In order to pinpoint purpose, brands absolutely must place the problem that they solve for consumers at the center of their purpose finding process. The problem a company solves is inextricably linked its brand purpose, and it is precisely this point where so many brand leaders fall off the rails and fail miserably to design a purpose-driven organization. Take Hellman’s Mayonnaise as an example: Hellman’s make a spread that consumer put on their sandwiches, yet they claim purpose for their existence is to solve climate change because mayonnaise is a key ingredient for casseroles, which helps eliminate food waste….WHAT? Consumers don’t buy mayonnaise to solve climate change, they buy it to solve the “dry bread problem.” It’s extremely lazy for brands to claim they stand for sustainability, diversity, or inclusivity when their products have absolutely nothing to do with carbon capture, or solving problems for minority groups. Tesla, on the other hand, declares that its purpose is to “accelerate the transition to sustainable transportation.” Climate sustainability, therefore, makes sense as a brand purpose for Tesla because the company literally makes vehicles that alleviate the threat of climate change. The key takeaway is purpose cannot be divorced from a consumer problem— every brand’s purpose must be intrinsically woven into the pain in which its product alleviates and the gains it provides for the world.
Introducing the Purpose Wheel
After testing out countless purpose frameworks and putting them into practice, I can confidently say that the most effective framework for pinpointing purpose is the Purpose Wheel model developed by global design company, IDEO.
The Purpose Wheel is based on Maslow's hierarchy of human needs and nicely outlines the five universal ways companies can solve problems for consumers: Enabling Potential, Reducing Friction, Fostering Prosperity, Encouraging Exploration, or Kindling Happiness.
Here are the basic instructions for how to use the Purpose Wheel Framework:
- Begin at the Center: The middle of the wheel contains five possible ways a company can solve problems for consumers: Enable Potential, Reduce Friction, Foster Prosperity, Encourage Exploration, or Kindle Happiness. These elements represent how a company can add value to society beyond just making money. Select which of the five elements in the center best align with the outcome your brand provides for the world.
- Move to the Outer Layer of the Wheel: Once you’ve chosen which core element best represents the value your brand provides for the world —it's time to look at the outer wheel, which represents 'how' your brand distinctly attempts to solve that problem. This phase promotes conversations about the methods your company uses or could use to make its chosen impact.
- Put it in a Mad Lib Format: The next step involves taking both elements from the center and outer layer of the wheel that feel most aligned with the company’s brand and offerings, and put them into a Mad Lib format “We exist to…(center of purpose wheel) by…(outer layer of purpose wheel)… for the good of… (the people who benefit).
- Synthesize the Mad Lib into a Simple, Powerful Statement: Once you’ve refined the Mad Lib framework, the final step is to use the mad lib as a guide for writing a concise and powerful statement in the form of a short sentence. This will ultimately serve as the brand purpose that can serve as a guiding force throughout the brand’s lifecycle.
Conclusion
Brand purpose is more than a buzzword; it's a key strategic pillar for any successful brand. It's vital for brands to understand their purpose beyond high-level, lofty ideals and root it in the tangible problems they solve for consumers. Tools like the IDEO Purpose Framework can guide brands in this journey, enabling them to articulate a clear, achievable purpose.
In a nutshell, overlooking the power of purpose is a luxury brands can no longer afford. Harnessing it can be the catalyst for the growth, internal alignment, and consumer traction that brands seek in today's competitive landscape. By discovering and embracing their purpose, brands can maximize their relevance, make a genuine impact in their consumers' lives, and secure a sustainable future.
