Purpose has been having a tough time over the last couple of years. It’s slipped from being something that every brand desperately wanted, to become a strategy bogeyman accused of distracting a brand from its fundamentals. But as Purpose shuffles off to join Mission and Vision in the lost pantheon of strategy gods, it’s worth asking why it was there in the first place, and whether anything can be retained from it.
The overall concept behind Purpose was that a brand should aim to be more than its immediate offer. That it should aspire to mean something more in the world. It was recognised that consumers found brands that did this more compelling, and that employees were more motivated. This is a great insight. The problem was overreach. Beauty brands that would conquer death. Cheese brands that would feed the world. Car brands that would take you on your greatest adventure…. rather than nixing your spots, filling you up at lunch, and having enough boot space for the shopping.
But branding can’t only be about function either. That’s a product for a price. They need to inspire minds and engage the emotions – because these are just as motivating as the practical offer. The best brands combine functionality with aspiration. They take the lofty purpose, pointy proposition, tonal personality and competitive positioning, and wrap them all into one unique idea. An Unordinary Idea that can’t become unreal because it has function tethering it, but is simultaneously stretched upwards by the brand’s ambition. So perhaps Purpose hasn’t really gone away, it’s just evolved.
