Talk, don’t talk, walk, don’t walk

If you’ve read the marketing press recently you probably have the impression that every brand has a ‘purpose’ and if by some chance it hasn’t got one it needs to get one immediately.

Jim Stengel in his book “Grow” defines a purpose as “a business’s essential reason for being, the higher-order benefit it brings to the world”

HBR & EY in their paper “The business case for purpose” define it as “an aspirational reason for being which inspires and provides a call to action for an organization and its partners and stakeholders and provides benefit to local and global society.”

In “On Purpose: Delivering a Branded Customer Experience People Love” Shaun Smith and Ian Milligan define it as “a reason ‘why’ you exist beyond the desire to make profit”

Paul Twivy suggests it should be a new USP for marketers, “Marketers sell products and services but purpose is the ultimate end-benefit, and long-term selling point; USP should be Unique Selling Purpose”

James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog makes the case for a brand purpose in his book “Business for Punks” in typically forthright terms

“Businesses fail. Businesses die. Businesses fade into oblivion. Revolutions never die. So start a revolution not a business.

It is no longer enough just to start a business. You need a clear purpose, a mission, a reason for existing. Martin [Dickie – his best friend and business partner] and I did not just start a brewery – we set out on a mission to make other people as passionate about great beer as we are. This promise and premise underpins every single thing we do and acts as a resolute reference point for every single decision we make.”

There is also some evidence to suggest that there are real business benefits of, to paraphrase Smith and Milligan, standing up for something, standing out for doing it and standing firm in delivering it consistently.

Jim Stengel’s analysis is based on Millward Brown and other data and he says that, “evidence suggests that over a 10 year period, businesses with clearly defined and consistently executed brand purposes deliver on average 400% better returns to shareholders”

The results are more subjective in the HBR/EY paper, which is based on claimed performance from a global survey of 474 executives. They conclude that, “in those organizations where purpose had become a driver of strategy and decision-making, executives reported a greater ability to deliver revenue growth and drive successful innovation and ongoing transformation”

However, before we all sail off into a purposeful future, it is worth actually taking a critical look at what is actually happening with brands and whether having a brand purpose is an absolute necessity.

Some brands like BrewDog are talking the talk and walking the walk but not every brand is following the same course.

There are very successful businesses that don’t have brand purposes. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that Primark doesn’t have a clear brand purpose but you might be a little more surprised that Apple doesn’t have one either.

There are brands that act in ways that would make you think they have a brand purpose; brands like The Breakfast Club who despite being a relatively small brand donated £100,000 and 2000 hours to charity last year. Their commitment to their staff is pretty impressive too. They want to be the best employer not just in their industry but across all industries. They want to develop, to build careers and to provide opportunity for everyone that joins them. It’s not just talk either; seven out of eight of their head chefs started their Breakfast Club careers as kitchen porters. They too don’t however have a stated brand purpose.

Then there are brands that claim loudly that they have and are serving a higher purpose but unfortunately, their actions speak louder than words, and their actions contradict their stated purposes. Sometimes when it comes to a choice between their principles and their profit, they wobble. It’s here that discretion becomes the better part of valour and while I could name a few names I think it may be wiser not to!

Finally, and I wouldn’t be living up to my job description as a consultant, albeit a brand consultant unless I found a way to introduce one, here is a neat 2x2 matrix to summarise different brands’ approaches to Brand Purposes. Enjoy putting your favourite brands into the appropriate segment.



The axes are named with respect to Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats and their hit “Rattrap” – “Walk, Don’t walk; Talk, Don’t talk”
So while I believe that there can real merit in defining and delivering a brand purposes, before you set out on the journey ask yourself three questions:

Do I really need one?
Will it really help my brand succeed?
Will we honestly be able to consistently deliver against it?

Image: John Metcalfe | www.picfair.com