A well-written brand vision should be the ultimate end-in-mind achievement, which answers, “Where could we be?” Use these examples of brand vision statements to inspire you as you write your own vision statement. Maybe you will see something that feels familiar to what is in your mind or at least a structure for how you would write your own vision statement.
Think about significant accomplishments that would make you feel completely fulfilled. Put a stake in the ground to describe an ideal state for your future. Every smart brand plan must start with a brand vision statement. When I see brand teams who struggle, they usually lack a brand vision.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you might not get there.” Yogi Berra
Some organizations get so fixated on achieving short-term goals; they chase every tactic in front of them just to make their numbers. Your vision should steer your entire brand plan. Choose the language and phrases within your vision that will inspire, lead, and steer your team.
To illustrate, click to zoom in.
Focusing your vision statements
Your vision should scare you a little and excite you a lot. You should wonder if you can achieve it and then think of how it would feel if you did. While we do not always accomplish every vision, we rarely achieve more than we thought was possible.
Once you establish your vision, it sets up the key issues of your plan, including obstacles in the way of achieving your vision, which then sets up the strategies for how to reach the vision. As mentioned earlier, a brand plan has to flow like an orchestra, with each element directly related to the others.
Imagine the perfect picture
To be a visionary, you must be able to visualize your future. You should be able to imagine the perfect picture of your brand in the future, to helps answer, “Where could we be?” Imagine it is five or ten years from now. You wake up in the most fantastic mood. Think about where you are in your personal life and your business life. Start to imagine an ideal state of what you want. Visualize a perfect future of what has you in such a good mood and write down the most important things you want to achieve.
- What is your future revenue or market share?
- Describe the future culture of your company.
- What do you want people to say about your brand?
- What do your own to people find motivating about working on your brand?
- How do you want customers to describe their experience with your brand?
- Name some of the future accomplishments that would make you proud.
- What do you do better than anyone else on the planet?
- Name something out-of-the-box that would make people talk about your brand.
Use these questions to brainstorm what's important to your vision
To illustrate, click to zoom in.
Checklist for what makes a vision great:
- Your vision should last 5-10 years.
- It should help you imagine the ideal picture of “where could we be.”
- Describe your dream, describing what you see, feel, hear, think, say, and wish for your brand.
- It should be emotional to motivate all employees and partners to rally behind it.
- It must be easy to understand, in plain words, which may already be a familiar phrase within the company.
- A great vision is a balance between aspiration (stretch) and reality (achievement).
- Consider adding a financial (sales or profit) or share leadership position (#1) number.
Cautions and caveats when writing your brand vision statements:
- A vision should not be a positioning statement.
- Make sure you have not already achieved it.
- Do not make strategic statements. It is not the “how.”
- Try to be single-minded. Keep tightening it. Do not include everything!
- Focus on how to build a purpose-driven beloved brand
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.
The fundamentals of marketing matter
The marketing fundamentals that we show in this article are part of what we use in our marketing training programs. Marketers will learn strategic thinking, brand positioning, brand plans, writing creative briefs, advertising decision-making, marketing analytics, and marketing finance.
Examples of best-in-class B2B brand vision statements
To illustrate, click to zoom in.
Examples of brand vision for healthcare brands
To illustrate, click to zoom in.
An interesting story about coming up with your vision
Dan O’Brien was a U.S. track and field superstar back in the 1990s. He competed in the Decathlon and won pretty much everything: World Champion, Olympic Champion, US Champion, and World Record Holder that would stand for 10 years–a lifetime in the track and field world. His story will inspire you.
