Brand Purpose

Brand Purpose can be defined as a brand’s mission statement that encapsulates how it helps people. In short it is a mission statement of why a brand is in business. It’s the why of an organisation; what the objective is other than making a profit and it often encompasses points of differentiation and words of motivation for both employees and consumers. A great article written by Afdhel Aziz with a lot of information about brand purpose can be found here: https://medium.com/@afdhelaziz/brand-purpose-101-everything-you-wanted-to-know-but-were-afraid-to-ask-21593fb37d33 When thinking about brand purpose, think why. Think why is a brand doing what it does and think about why consumers or stakeholders should engage with your brand.

Focus on the benefits of your product of service offering rather than for example the aim of becoming the most successful at... Being the most successful in a sector or industry is an objective not a brand purpose. When creating a brand purpose statement think about how your brand helps society. This will help you to create and convey the right style of message to build brand trust, brand loyalty and brand recognition. A brand’s mission statement should be used to convey its purpose. However it must be remembered that brand purpose is the why, a vision statement is the what and mission statement is the how this will be achieved. The following mission and purpose statements from different companies all encompass their brand purpose. These examples can help give context to develop your own brand purpose and the communications messaging that follows. Google’s brand purpose is to ‘Organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’ https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/mission/ (02/04/19)

Patagonia write about their brand purpose by talking about their origins and their reason for being as well as subheadings of their core values, build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to protect nature and not bound by convention. Writing about brand purpose doesn't have to be a short statement, it can be based around a story or even a conversation with consumers and stakeholders. https://www.patagonia.com/company-info.html (03/04/19)

Twitter have written about their brand purpose as part of their mission statement: 'The mission we serve as Twitter, Inc. is to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly without barriers. Our business and revenue will always follow that mission in ways that improve – and do not detract from – a free and global conversation.' https://investor.twitterinc.com/contact/faq/default.aspx (03/04/19)

Dove's 'mission is to ensure the next generation grow up enjoying a positive relationship with the way they look – helping girls to raise their self-esteem and realise their full potential.' https://www.dove.com/uk/stories/about-dove/dove-self-esteem-project.html (03/04/19)

PWC write that their 'purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems.' https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about/purpose-and-values.html (03/04/19)

Belron state that they make a difference by solving people's problems with real care and have part of their website dedicated to what they stand for. They mention that they have formalised their approach into four strong corporate responsibility commitments that guide day-to-day operations: 'Environment, Giving Back, Our Way of Working (Ethics) and, underpinning all of these, Our People' (03/04/19)

Deciding on and wording your brand purpose can be difficult and it's often best to share ideas with colleagues and consultants. PR4CSR have techniques and insight that can help you to decide and develop your brand purpose. If you would like help to determine, clarify and promote your organisation's brand purpose, send us a quick email: info@pr4csr.com.