Brand Purpose / Promise / Mission

Marketers are still fixated on the notion that purpose drives growth, when the whole point is that for most brands it will cost money and require sacrifice. Just look at Patagonia.

Brand purpose campaigns underperform ‘traditional’ marketing on average, but for the right brands purpose will still be the most effective strategic choice.

We're standing extractive capitalism on its head in an unprecedented way. Patagonia created a way to lock in its purpose as a company—we’re in business to save our home planet—and unlock more funds for fighting the climate and extinction crisis.

Yvon Chouinard has forfeited ownership of the company he founded 49 years ago. The profits will now be used to fight climate change.

Major shareholder attacked the FMCG giant’s sustainability strategy.

Purpose is more than a marketing tactic; it’s much more than a term thrown

A study finds that when comparing two brands, purpose can make a big difference.

Our bespoke process embeds sustainability into the heart of corporations and brands for commercial and societal impact.

I wonder how it does this: The book provides a clear pathway of how to take brands through the journey of developing impactful social missions and driving business growth, and is an essential guide for both managers and students alike.

Social purpose: Look at the big picture. Many corporate social responsibility programs are little more than public-relations exercises: collections of charitable initiatives that generate good feelings but have minimal lasting influence on society’s well-being. Excellent CEOs spend time thinking about, articulating, and championing the purpose of their company as it relates to the big-picture impact of day-to-day business practices. They push for meaningful efforts to create jobs, abide by ethical labor practices, improve customers’ lives, and lessen the environmental harm caused by operations. Visible results matter to stakeholders; for example, 87 percent of customers say that they will purchase from companies that support issues they care about, 94 percent of millennials say that they want to use their skills to benefit a cause, and sustainable investing has grown 18-fold since 1995.[17] And not demonstrating such results isn’t an option—wise CEOs know they will be held to account for fulfilling their promises.

Every CEO should know their company’s mission and values. Good CEOs know that these statements need to amount to more than slogans for office posters and use them to influence decision making and day-to-day behaviors. Excellent CEOs go further: they reinforce and act on a corporate purpose (the “Why?”) that involves not just making money but also benefiting society. This posture, along with a granular approach to prioritizing stakeholder interactions and a sound corporate resilience plan, lets CEOs minimize the company’s exposure to customer- and stakeholder-related risks, and capitalize on new opportunities.

Brands on a Mission explores the importance of creating a performance culture that is built on driving impact through purpose, and the type of talent required to drive these transformational changes within companies – from CEO to brand developers. Using evidence from interviews and stories from over 100 CEOs, thought leaders and brand managers, the book presents an emergent model that organisations can follow to build purpose into their growth strategy – The book provides a clear pathway of how to take brands through the journey of developing impactful social missions and driving business growth, and is an essential guide for both managers and students alike.

It’ll help consumers recognize your organization as more trustworthy

I was asked recently to give a talk answering the question ‘does brand purpose really drive profit?’. My very short answer to it was ‘yes it can, but mostly it probably doesn’t’. And the slightly l…

Does your brand have a purpose? This article aims to define the concept of brand purpose and why it’s so essential to any organization’s brand strategy.

It leads to engagement and a sense of meaning.

Brand purpose gives companies the competitive advantage in crafting brand identity and winning an evolving market with new consumer expectations. Read more.

Learn from the best. See our list of brand promise examples that meet the needs of their customers and often exceed expectations.