Brand purpose comes in a many flavors. Which is right for you?

In a recent post we discussed how a robust brand purpose can help an organization succeed by creating a strategic “north star” that provides both guidance and motivation.

We defined brand purpose as your answer to the question: How will your brand make the world better for your customers?

The point was that an effective brand purpose is about what customers want and need, not what you want to give them. And most important, the brand purpose should aim for something beyond purely instrumental financial targets. If the purpose is bigger than business success, success in business will be the by-product.

It’s easy to leap from “bigger than business” to the notion that a brand purpose should be purely altruistic. Should we all be out there saving the world?

Well, it’s a possibility. Patagonia’s brand purpose is more or less just that.

But there’s an unfortunate tendency to define “higher brand purpose” in terms too lofty for us working stiffs. We only have room for so many saints and philosopher kings. For B2B brands especially, it’s sometimes more effective to stick a little closer to the business at hand.

So what does it mean to have a brand purpose that “makes the world better for your customers”? The purpose can be found on a number of levels:

Level 1: Something better

Improve on something the customer already has or does. In B2B, that usually means making it possible for customers to do their work more easily or effectively.

• Google organizes the world’s information and makes it universally accessible and useful.
• Pitney Bowes provides technology that helps customers build loyalty and grow revenue with their customers.
• Indium promotes relationships with customers – “from one engineer to another” – to help them work more effectively.

Level 2: Something unexpected

Bring something new to the customer that makes life better in unexpected ways, often in the form of a novel experience. For B2B that could mean a new way of doing business.

• Dove builds self-esteem by changing the way women look at beauty.
• HubSpot wants to transform how organizations attract, engage and delight their customers by creating a new “inbound world”.

Level 3: Something big

Change the way customers think about or relate to the world. This enters the realm of the subjective—a proposition that speaks to values and beliefs that are bigger than the actual product or service offering. For B2B, the purpose might reframe how the brand relates to the customer’s business or even how the customer’s business relates to the world.

• Crayola helps parents and teachers raise inspired, creative children.
• Coca-Cola inspires moments of optimism and happiness.
• Patagonia uses business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
• Itron works to build a sustainable future through more resourceful use of energy and water.

There’s no ideal level for the brand purpose. Any level will be effective if it offers a meaningful improvement in the customer’s well-being. The key is to move from “what” to “why”, to shift the focus from outputs (yours) to outcomes (for the customer).

It’s not only customers who connect to a compelling brand purpose. Within your own organization people will see the purpose as something meaningful to do with their work lives. They feel more willing to help the business, more motivated to collaborate and innovate.

If your organization does not have a clear, customer-focused purpose, it might be time to re-define and activate your brand. Let a purpose-driven brand be the engine that propels you forward.

Photo by Ksantome via Flickr