Brand purpose is your brand's superpower
Brook Calverley
We’re all aware of the importance of having a strong brand purpose to guide behaviours and decision-making on the outside – but why is it that so many brands fail to recognise the importance of bringing it to life on the inside?
Today, brand purpose is more relevant than ever before. Beyond articulating why you exist and do what you do, an authentic purpose provides a greater sense of meaning around your brand, drives trust and choice among audiences, and ultimately, helps you to perform better and connect deeper with consumers.
But crucially, brand owners need to remember that activating your purpose internally for employees, is just as important as engaging customers around your purpose externally. To truly serve your business, your purpose should be lived and breathed form the inside, out.
Here’s why:
1. Purpose drives strategy
Purpose helps guide and inspire an organisation’s decision making. It sets the strategic direction for the business, aids prioritisation, and shapes your culture and ways of working to fulfil on your brand promise and drive sustainable growth through improved efficiencies and enhanced collective performance.
2. Purpose inspires your people
Purpose inspires employees to be brand advocates and attracts talent to come and join your cause. Because in today’s world, purpose is now a driver of choice, preference and differentiation for both current and prospective employees. For example, ‘doing meaningful work’ and feeling connected to a bigger purpose is the number 1 factor in workplace happiness, with 59% of workers claiming they’d remain at their jobs for over 5 years if they were satisfied with the company’s sense of purpose. Similarly, millennials who feel connected to the purpose of their organisation are 5.3 times more likely to stay in their current place of work.
3. Purpose provides the ‘glue’ for your culture
A strong purpose holds people together and provides a reason to keep going. It helps them navigate changes and challenges, and provides clarity, meaning and reasons to believe in times of prosperity and crisis. When everyone in the business is signed-up and committed to the same thing it, it unites and galvanises the business – encouraging everyone to rally towards a common cause.
Bringing the world of brand and culture together as one. Brands aren’t about what you say, they’re about the actions, behaviours and decisions your people make every day.
At People-Made, we advise businesses at all stages of growth to define their brand purpose; from strategic thinking to practical activation.
Get in touch. We’d love to hear from you: hello@people-made.com