How to use brand purpose to drive the power of your brand

Email

Phone

Follow us

Our book

Brand Toolkit

The best brand purpose is the one you never have to tell the consumer. It should be focused internally to steer the culture of those who work behind the scenes of the brand. Front line workers should project the purpose. Your brand purpose should ooze out into the experience it creates for consumers. When your brand purpose connects with consumers, you will see the power of brand. 

Finding your brand purpose answers the big question of “Why does your brand exist?” Most importantly, brand purpose should force you to explore the underlying personal and honest motivation for why you do what you do. 

Brand purpose is not an advertising strategy. If you think it’s a label on your packaging that humble brags about a cause you support, then you’re doing it wrong. 

You can’t just make up a purpose 70 years after a brand launches, just so you can sell more  stuff. If you’ve never once talked about your brand purpose until 2019, your consumer might think you’re just faking it. Don’t mix up defining your brand purpose by attaching to a short-term cause that gets a lot of traction in the market.

What is brand purpose?

How to find your brand purpose

 

Ikigai (生き甲斐) is a Japanese concept that means “a reason for being.” We have borrowed this model to help find your brand purpose. It is an intersection of what you are good at, what you love, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.

As a result, I will show how your brand purpose will come to life at the intersection that meets the consumer needs, fulfills your passion, stands behind your values, and yet still builds a successful branded business. 

Borrowing the model for branding

Brand purpose can be a powerful way to connect with both employees and consumers, helping define your brand soul. While this Venn diagram (above) looks somewhat crazy at first, trust me, it works as an excellent tool for building your brand’s purpose. 

This Venn diagram has four significant factors which match up:

1️⃣ How does it fit with what consumers need or want?

2️⃣ Does it fit the core values of your team?

3️⃣ Does it deliver your passion in loving what you do?

4️⃣ Can you build a beloved and successful branded business?

Beloved Brands playbook

Our Beloved Brands playbook goes in depth on everything you need to build a brand consumers will love. Learn about strategic thinking, brand positioning, writing brand plans, advertising decisions, media planning, marketing analytics, and financials.

Beloved Brands playbook

Our readers tell us they keep our Beloved Brands playbook close by for whenever they need to take on a new project. Clearly, we are thrilled that 89% of Amazon reviewers have given Beloved Brands a 5-star rating. Also, we wrote a B2B Brands playbook and a Healthcare Brands playbook

Branding with purpose

The how-to model helps find your brand purpose.

While the Venn diagram creates the purpose with the intersection of all four circles, you can find your own brand purpose by defining each combination of circles, one at a time, which expresses the four pillars that will deliver your brand purpose.

 

A. Focus your passion on building a tight emotional bond with your most cherished consumers.

To start, the intersection of the consumer needs (1) with loving what you do (2). All the passion you put into your work should focus on becoming a favorite brand of your consumers. You should love what you do and love what it does for your consumers. How your consumers react should drive your inner motivations and the power of brand.

B. Build your branded business around a unique, ownable, and motivating brand idea.

Next, the intersection of the consumer needs (1) with building a successful branded business (4). Build a brand idea to organize everything you do to deliver a consistent brand that will move consumers through their customer journey and become a beloved, high-growth, powerful, and profitable branded business. How tight you build a bond should drive your business success.

C. Inspire a values-driven culture to provide happy consumer experiences.

Then, find the intersection of living the values of the team (3) with creating a successful branded business (4). Your people are the “difference-makers” in delivering an incredible brand. They create a brand worthy of being loved to drive higher prices, lower costs, enter new markets, and create new uses. Link your people to driving the power of brand and the added profits of you generate.

D. Inspirational work makes it a favorite place to work.

Finally, the intersection of loving what you do (2) with the values of the team (3). Your values provide the backbone of your company, a set of beliefs and motivations linked with how people want to work. The values encourage your people to demonstrate their passion and create a culture where your people will never settle for OK when greatness is attainable. Allow them to put their passion into the brand; they can share in the pride of the team when the brand is successful. Tapping into the personal motivation of what’s important to them helps your team go the extra mile. 

Brand purpose example

Brand purpose model for consumer brand

Take the work within the four pillars to build up the brand purpose. The final purpose statement for Gray’s Cookies is, “Our purpose is to help people re-discover the lost secret that the most amazing tasting food is made of natural ingredients.” 

To illustrate, click on the brand purpose model diagram to zoom in.

Brand purpose model for B2B brands

Take the work within the four pillars to build up the brand purpose. The final purpose statement Gray’s Lighting is, “At Gray’s, our purpose is to help theater directors put on the most magical Broadway shows they could ever imagine.” 

To illustrate, click on the brand purpose model diagram to zoom in.

Brand purpose model for Healthcare brands

Take the work within the four pillars to build up the brand purpose. The final purpose statement Gray’s QuitFix is, “At Gray’s, We give smokers a jolt of self-confidence to conquer their demons so they can finally quit smoking.” 

To illustrate, click on the brand purpose model diagram to zoom in.

Treat your brand purpose right

If you love brand purpose, you should treat brand purpose properly, and where it sits within your brand actually matters.

• Purpose is NOT a strategy.

• Purpose is NOT an advertising line.

Purpose answers, “Why does your brand exist?” It is the underlying personal motivation for why you do what you do. Purpose gives your brand a soul. It should sit very high on your brand strategy roadmap, as a guide to the rest of the plan. 

Purpose is not a strategy

To illustrate, click on the brand purpose model diagram to zoom in.

Don't just make up a purpose for your advertising

Brands are making mistakes when it comes to purpose. You can’t can’t just make an ad and think you are done. If you were a product-driven razor brand for 50 years, like Gillette, it might take another 50 years to transition to a true purpose-driven brand. 

This is a fantastic message for our current world we live in. Gillette just hasn’t earned the right to say it. 

There are no clues in anything Gillette has ever done with their purpose for us to buy into this message. I believe it to be too sharp of a pivot for it to work for them. Had this have been a different brand, where they truly lived up to it, then it may have been ideal.

To illustrate, click the arrow button to see Gillette’s TV ad.

Brand culture

Your first audience of your brand purpose should be your employees, not consumers

Internally, the power of brand is driven by values that form the backbone of your organization. They may come from your background, how you grew up, rules you identify with or how you see your priorities in life. 

Your beliefs come from your experience, helping explain why and how you choose to do business, how you treat your people, and how you conduct yourself as a leader and as a person in the community. These beliefs should be personal, ethical, or rooted in frustration for how you see things happening in the world. 

Your inspirations should excite the team members who work behind the scenes of the brand. Inspirations should stimulate your people to go beyond the norms of effort or passion. 

For organizations, I believe it works best when your people have input into creating and building your values. Maybe that is one of my own core values in a bottom-up approach to building brands. However, the closer your values reflect the realities of what your people believe in, the more successful you will be in using those values to inspire greatness. You will realize the power of brand.

To illustrate, click on the brand values that reflect the brand purpose.

Brand credo

Using your brand idea to build a brand credo document

Having spent time at Johnson & Johnson, I was lucky to see how their credo document has become an essential part of the culture of the organization. Not only does it permeate throughout the company, but you will also likely hear it quoted in meetings daily. It is a beautifully written document and ahead of its time.

To illustrate, click on the brand credo that reflects the brand purpose.

First, take your brand idea and turn it into an inspiring promise statement, which explains to your people how they can positively impact your customers.
Next, use your brand’s core point of difference to outline the expectations of how everyone can support and deliver the point of difference. A great exercise is to get every department to articulate its role in delivering the brand idea.
Finally, connect with your people by tapping into their motivation for what they can do to support your brand purpose, brand values, and core beliefs. Make it very personal, and you will realize the power of the brand.

Make sure branding with purpose flows through every part of your brand, before you release it to the public

Patagonia

To read about how Patagonia sees purpose and power of brand:

Patagonia Case Study

Marketing Excellence

We empower the ambitious to achieve the extraordinary.

Without a doubt, our role at Beloved Brands is to help the ambitious marketers who are trying to improve their marketing skills. Most importantly, we will prepare you so you can reach your full potential in your career. You will learn about strategic thinking, brand positioning, brand plans, marketing execution, and marketing analytics. As well, we provide a suite of marketing tools, templates that will make it easier to do your job, processes that you can follow, and provocative thoughts to trigger your thinking. 

Have you gone through an assessment of the marketing skills of your team? Take a look below:

The fundamentals of marketing matter.

Our Beloved Brands marketing training programs cover different streams to suit the type of marketer you are. For instance, our marketing training covers consumer marketing, B2B marketing, and Healthcare marketing. 

The marketing fundamentals that we show in this article are part of what we use in our marketing training programs. Ambitious marketers will learn about strategic thinking, brand positioning, brand plans, marketing execution, writing creative briefs, advertising decision-making, marketing analytics, and marketing finance

Importantly, when you invest in our marketing training program, you will help your team gain the marketing skills they need to succeed. Without a doubt, you will see your people make smarter decisions and produce exceptional work that drives business growth. 

Finally, I wrote our Beloved Brands playbook to help you build a brand that your consumers will love. If you are a B2B marketer, try our B2B Brands playbook. And, if you are a Healthcare Marketer, try our Healthcare Brands playbook.

We designed our brand templates to make it easier for you to do your job.

Moreover, we provide brand templates that help you run your brand. For instance, you can find templates for marketing plans, brand positioning, creative briefs, and business reviews. Altogether, we offer brand toolkits with all the presentation slides you need. 

Beloved Brands video

Everything a Marketing must know about.

Importantly, Brand leaders need to know how to think, define, plan, execute and analyze with the best of them. Moreover, while the brand leaders don’t really know how to do anything, they are looked upon to make every decision. Have a look at our five minute video on everything a marketer must know. To read more, click on this link: Everything.

To view, use the ▶️ controls to play or volume buttons 

If you are looking to make your marketing team smarter, we can help. To get started, email Graham Robertson at [email protected]

What type of marketer are you?

We believe that marketers learn best when they see our marketing concepts applied to brands that look like their own. We have come up with specific examples – consumer, B2B and healthcare – to showcase our marketing tools. Click on the icon below to choose your interest area.

Brand Management Mini MBA

Invest in your future. If you are an ambitious marketer, looking to solidify your marketing skills, our Brand Management Mini MBA will teach you about strategic thinking, brand positioning, brand plans, advertising decisions, and marketing analytics. 

Have a look at our brochure on our Mini MBA program

Use  >  to move through the brochure or  x  to see the full screen. 

We provide key chapters from our Beloved Brands Playbook, and a Brand Management Workbook with exercises to try in real-time. Earn a certificate you can use on your resume or LinkedIn profile. 

Brand Purpose Frequently Asked Questions

What is a brand purpose?

A brand purpose answers “Why does your brand exist?” Undoubtedly, the brand purpose should force you to explore the underlying personal and honest motivation for why you do what you do. The brand purpose becomes an internally rally cry that helps define the culture. You can expand on the brand purpose by looking at values that steers the culture. Moreover, you can use a brand credo that inspires the team. 

How do you write a brand purpose?

Our model for finding a brand purpose looks at four questions to brainstorm the ideas that make up a brand purpose. 

  • First, how does it fit with what consumers need or want?
  • Then, how does it fit the core values of your team
  • Next, does it deliver your passion in loving what you do? 
  • Finally, can you build a beloved and successful branded business?

Once you have the answers to those four questions, try to look for commonality in building out a brand purpose statement. 

Why is brand purpose so important?

Internally, the purpose and values can form the backbone of your organization. It helps you define what you will do and what you will not do. 

Your beliefs come from your experience, helping explain why and how you choose to do business, how you treat your people, and how you conduct yourself as a leader and as a person in the community. These beliefs should be personal, ethical, or rooted in frustration for how you see things happening in the world. 

 

Who is Simon Sinek? What is Simon Sinek's theory?

Simon Sinek popularized the concept of “Why” in a Ted Talk from 2009. It has become the second most watched TED Talk of all time with nearly 50 million views. Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle theory tries to demonstrate how many of today’s most successful companies think beyond the practical, rational benefits of the products and services they offer. His “Start with Why” a book that is quite popular and can be found on Amazon. Start with Why

 
Beloved Brands logo

Graham Robertson

Email us

Call us

Follow us

Our book

Brand Toolkit

Beloved Brands Marketing Training Video

Elevate your team’s performance with our marketing training. The smarter they are, the greater your brand growth will be.

Our Best Posts for Beloved Brands blog

Click to read more

Sample Chapter of Beloved Brands

Use the X for full view and > to turn to the next page

5/5

The cheat code for Brand Managers

It is without a doubt, the most practical book for those who want to follow brand management that I have ever read in my life! Beloved Brands is written by a real, experienced marketeer for marketers. 

5/5

I have Brand Love for Beloved Brands!

As a 24-year marketing veteran at a Fortune 100 company, I thought I knew everything I needed to know about building brands. Graham has an amazing gift of bringing to life the critical elements of brand building and management in a delightful, easy-to-understand way. 

5/5

Beloved Brands is a phenomenal book

I know other brand managers who have used this to review their business and create their annual brand plans. Undeniably, Beloved Brands is phenomenal in concept and execution. Highly recommend.

Brand Toolkits

Brand Case Studies

As a marketing professional, you can learn from what some of the best brands have been doing. We use case studies to showcase the fundamentals of marketing.

Video on our Beloved Brands Mini MBA

Our video lessons

Everything a marketer must know how to do

To view, use arrows or click to go to YouTube.

How to build your brand positioning

To view, use arrows or click to go to YouTube.

Beloved Brands graham robertson

Contact Information

Graham Robertson

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 416–885–3911

Search our site for any marketing topic

M a r k e t i n g    B o o k

beloved brands

the playbook for how to create a brand your consumers will love

With our Beloved Brands playbook, you will learn to think strategically, define your brand positioning, write a marketing plan, make execution decisions, and analyze your brand. Our readers tell us they reach for Beloved Brands as a reference tool to help them with the day-to-day management of their brand. We are proud that 89% of online reviewers have rated Beloved Brands a 5-star. As a result, Beloved Brands has been a #1 bestseller in brand management. We also have the B2B Brands playbook and our Healthcare Brands playbook

Marketing Training

The smarter your team, the better the results you will see!

As a marketing team leader, you know that your team’s success is essential for your company’s growth. Our Beloved Brands marketing training gives your team the skills they need to make strategic decisions, produce exceptional work, and drive business growth. They will learn to define brand positioning, write effective plans, improve brief writing, make informed execution decisions, and analyze their brand’s performance.

We have designed our marketing training program to build the fundamental skills to help your team reach their full potential. We will work with your team to help them learn to take on Strategic Thinking, Brand Positioning, Marketing Planning, Marketing Execution, and Brand Analytics. 

Brand Toolkit
Beloved Brands Popup
Beloved Brands Mini MBA