Problems with purpose

At our January 2023 event, Chris Bosher of Borne challenged today’s obsession with brand purpose.

If we want to talk about brand purpose, let’s start with a definition of brand.

Here’s a good one from the clever clogs at McKinsey & Company that encapsulates it pretty neatly:

“A brand is a consistent and appealing short-hand articulation of what a specific organisation stands for.”

Strong brands are consistent (so they can build meaning over time), appealing through lots of visual and tonal cues and the delivery of their products and/or services – it instantly reflects what they do and stand for as an organisation.

There is perhaps a small addition we might make. Why do we need to be consistent and appealing? Why do we need to demonstrate over and over again what we stand for?

We do this to influence behaviour. It sounds a bit dictatorial but if we’re not trying to get people to do something with our brand (‘buying stuff’ being the most obvious), what’s the point?

So, for the purpose of this article (no pun intended), we are working with…

“A brand is a consistent and appealing short-hand articulation of what a specific organisation stands for that we create to influence behaviour.”

Cool – so what about a working definition of brand purpose?

*Google enters the room*

“Brand purpose is essentially a brand’s reason for being beyond making money – it’s a framework that guides business decisions and thought processes.”

Ok – so brand purpose is a raison d’etre; the lens we use across all decisions we make as the managers of a brand, and indeed, leaders of organisations. And it’s bigger than just selling stuff.

Purpose can be rooted in a category, tied intrinsically to the product or service that we release into the world. Take Crayola for example, whose brand purpose is to ‘unleash the originality in every child.’ It’s not trying to solve or contribute to a big societal problem (necessarily) but describes a clear role for the brand that extends beyond (and makes sense of) the function of the product.

Very often though, brand purpose is tied to a social currency or social purpose – like wanting to improve people’s lives, make people happy, solve the world’s problems. Big, aspirational fuel that moves brands away from the simple functions of capitalism and returns value to the world, extrapolated (or removed) from their products and services.

For strategists, marketers and brand leaders, brand purpose is a great tool for many reasons.

1.    It gives strategic focus and clarity – as an organisation, brand purpose gives us a lens through which we can filter the direction we take, the decisions we make and the goals we set.

2.    It provides logic through volatility – closely linked to point 1, especially in today’s environment and the future that we’re facing, a brand purpose provides the compass in a storm through which we don’t lose sight of why we do what we do.

3.    It can lead to powerful, highly effective marketing – as most effective marketing, presenting it in a beautiful, emotive, purpose-led wrapper moves it away from just product/service features to an ownable, distinctive space. In return, it delivers a higher recall likely through a more emotive positioning.

4.    It unlocks growth opportunities – when a brand purpose is manifested in the organisational culture, it can serve as an incredibly handy tool through which growth can arise: product differentiation, entering new categories, internationalisation – the opportunities are endless but they all revert to the same ‘why’.

5.    It describes a long-term journey in a short-term world – In a world where we need instant sales spikes, more customers through the door, more clicks – our brand plays the long-term game. We invest in our brand throughout the year with the goal to stay healthy in challenging times. It’s the brand purpose that determines what this long-haul game is with the marketing as a more tactical execution.

6.    It gives us something to work for and believe in – not only is brand purpose a great external communications tool, but it can also be extremely powerful internally as a motivator for recruitment, retention, collaboration, and ambition through which all noses are pointing in the same direction.

Here you go. Six great things about brand purpose.

And we’re not disputing that brand purpose is useful.

BUT 🍑

There are some challenges.

Like…

1.    Brand purpose is often skin deep

Hand-in-hand with brand purpose is the notion of authenticity – brand purpose as a genuinely held belief that governs an organisation, deeper than simply a marketing edifice.

There are countless numbers of brands in the world, and subsequently brand purposes. All with an individual story, reasoning, belief – you name it.

But a vast number of the world’s best-known brands are part of a large portfolio of corporate conglomerates such as P&G, Nestlé, LVMH, L’Oréal, PepsiCo, Unilever, Kraft, etc.

You get the idea.

Some have a group-wide purpose. Some have their own. Some have both. What’s more dominant? What should we believe? It’s all a bit of a mess.

To give you an example, Audi ran two ads simultaneously in different parts of the world. The first one, broadcasted at the 2017 Super Bowl, advocates for gender equality and committing to equal pay and work across Audi of America.

The second one aimed to revive Audi’s its sales in China through promoting its pre-owned option. Sounds fair enough. However, whilst they were advocating gender equality in the States, the Chinese ad depicts a pre-owned car as a bride-to-be who is inspected, checked and quite frankly harassed by her soon-to-be mother-in-law right at the altar.

When brand purpose is simply a marketing tactic it is subject to market conditions, pursued or abandoned as and when it’s beneficial for the bottom line.

And, as a vast number of the world’s major brands exist solely as marketing tools, most of what we see as brand purpose in action, is pretty skin deep.

2.    Even if it’s true, it might not motivate as much as we think

Of course, there are brands that act authentically on their brand purpose. But let’s not forget that the consumer also plays a massive part in their success.

One of the earliest proponents of brand purpose was Simon Sinek, famed across the internet for the idea that “People don’t buy what you do: they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”

Do they though? A recent massive YouGov survey (2023) found that over half of the British consumer population is not positively inclined to purchase from a brand that promotes its purpose. In fact, 43% stated that they “dislike brand purpose and brands expressing views I agree with will not encourage me to purchase.”

One issue with the Sinek-ism is that what people say and what they do are two different things. Of course, most people will say that sustainability is important to them. Most people aren’t monsters, walking around setting trees on fire.

But how many people regularly look up information, weighing up the pros and cons and then make an informed decision? If you need to do that for every item you buy, you’d never buy anything as 98% of our thinking is done fast, intuitively, automatic (thanks, Daniel Kahneman).

So, if purpose fails to shape behaviour then we’ve kind of gone full circle - which is why we added ‘that we create to INFLUENCE BEHAVIOUR’ to the brand purpose definition.

The other fundamental challenge with Sinek’s assertion is that it’s absolute. A definitive rule of brands, consumers and purpose.

Which leads us to the last, big problem of purpose.

3.    Purpose has become sacrosanct

Having a brand purpose has become a must. A be-all-end-all. And the emphasis on it has been taken to an extreme. To give you an example, 93% of last year’s Cannes winners were “purpose-driven”. Isn’t that wonderful?

The reality is, what we say and show in our advertising is a reflection of society. At the time where brand purpose came to the fore, it made perfect sense. ‘I like what you stand for, you’re not just in it for the money. We share similar views; we believe in the same thing.’ – it was effective. Another great advertising tool was born. Happy days.

But times change, societies change, expectations change, and most importantly, behaviours change. Subsequently, so does the validity and role of brand purpose.

Someone who seems to know a lot about it is Felipe Thomaz of Saïd Business School who puts it into perspective and says:

“The beauty and the complexity of marketing is respecting the fact that humanity and social systems and markets are dynamic systems. They change over time. Effect sizes change, interactions change. We know these dynamics take place and that gives you room to challenge existing knowledge.”

In today’s turmoil, purpose most certainly still feels relevant – but we’re approaching a new era rapidly. And what seems to be lacking is the latter part of Thomaz’ view: as marketing practitioners, we’re not challenging existing knowledge.

And if we’re doing the same as everybody else, we’re not doing it right.