Article originally written for AEBRAND
Every day, those responsible for brands of all sizes and from various sectors contact consultants seeking help to clearly define their purpose.
A question that we should all ask ourselves when faced with a project of these characteristics is what is the real motivation, the true reason for the search for this purpose.
Sometimes, managers who are related to the brand but do not represent the center of management want to give their brand a purpose at all costs as a means to connect with their audiences or, directly, to sell more or improve their reputation.
This approach is fundamentally dysfunctional since an organization cannot transmit a purpose and not take it into account in internal decision-making or in the behavior of the company. Let's imagine that it is a person in our environment who acts in a way contrary to what he claims to be, could we trust that person?
The same thing happens with brands, a brand that claims to have a purpose but that does not make it a real motivation for the company, a way of seeing the world sought from top management that permeates the entire organization, is not a functional brand.
A brand with a purpose created from a communication point of view solely to clean up image or improve perception, is doomed to suffer the consequences of living in a paradox, risking not being whole and being forgotten by brands that disappoint .
They may continue to live as a company, even continue to have a lot of business, but as a brand they will not have credibility and at some point this will work against them.
A decision maker for a brand must ask questions directly related to its purpose:
- How has it influenced the last decisions we have made?
- Have our decisions brought us closer to him?
- What action plan have we defined to reach our purpose in the coming months / years?
- What have we had to say No to to be true to our purpose?
If with these questions we realize that the company is not consistent with its purpose, without a doubt, it is better to rethink it than to put it “with a shoehorn”.
Photography: Michal Parzuchowski