How does your brand define Purpose?

Ryan Sproull, Strategy Counsel to 6AM, shares findings from Finding Purpose Survey and two key questions for marketers to ask when defining a brand’s purpose.

In today’s environment of global pandemic, economic turmoil, racial injustice and an ongoing climate crisis, the role of purpose in marketing seems more crucial than ever. So how do you know where your brand stands on purpose-led marketing?

The 6AM Agency surveyed 20 of Australia’s leading CMOs to get their point of view on purpose. At first glance, the respondents disagreed as much as experts seem to. From “Purpose is useless feel-good nonsense” to “Purpose is the salvation of failing brands”, what initially appeared like a confused mess of different opinions was resolved with one simple realisation: they weren’t all talking about “purpose” as the same thing.

If you can’t decide your brand or client’s definition of purpose, answering the following two questions will tell you which definition you should be using.

Is purpose one focused thing or many good things?

If purpose is one focused thing, then for you, purpose is vision-oriented.

For vision-oriented, a company’s purpose should be easily expressed in a simple sentence. “To help women and girls raise their self-esteem.” “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport.” A vision-oriented purpose gives a clear indication of how to direct resources and choices.

If purpose is many good things, then for you, purpose is virtue-oriented.

Those which have a virtue-oriented definition, purpose is about companies doing less harm and more good in the world. But that good is non-specific. It’s about environmental responsibility, championing diversity, ethical supply chains, etc. By this definition, purpose-led marketing includes comms which highlight the company’s efforts in doing good and/or promote those causes generally to the world.

Questions worth asking yourself if you define purpose as…

Vision-oriented

• What milestones are we working towards in our purpose?
• Does everyone in the organisation understand our purpose?
• Is our purpose giving us focus? Are our efforts unified in achieving it?
• What are we choosing not to do because of our purpose?

Virtue-oriented

• How are we measuring success for purpose?
• How do we compare to direct competitors for doing good?
• Are we walking the walk internally while talking the talk externally?
• Is our approach to avoid doing harm or actively promoting good – or both?

Assuming the survival of the business is not at stake, if you had to choose between purpose and profit, which would you choose?

If you would choose purpose, then for you, purpose is an objective.

If you would choose profit, then for you, purpose is a tactic.

That’s a huge difference in meaning. If purpose is a tactic, we can talk about whether or not it’s a good tactic. Will it achieve its goal? Maybe you think purpose is an effective way to resonate with audiences and motivate staff. Maybe you think it’s ineffective in doing these things, and a different tactic would be better. Either way, to you, purpose is something that either works or doesn’t work.

But if purpose is an objective, we can’t talk about whether or not it’s a good objective. We can only talk about whether or not our tactics will achieve that objective. How close are we to success? Which choices should we make in order to better achieve our purpose? If purpose is an objective to you, then it’s your measure of how well other things work – not something that either works or doesn’t work itself.

Questions worth asking yourself if you define purpose as…

Purpose as a tactic

• Do we expect purpose to yield results in the short, medium or long term?
• How is purpose supposed to contribute in our business? How does it connect with business objectives?
• Is our audience internal, external or both?
• Do we stand out from competitors through our purpose efforts?

Purpose as an objective

• How are we measuring success for our purpose?
• How much would we compromise on purpose in the short term to be better placed to do more in the long term?
• Do we understand how every activity in our business ladders up to our objective? Does our team understand that contribution?

It’s better to understand than to be right.

Of course, there’s nothing stopping anyone from declaring one of these definitions the True Proper Definition and arguing with anyone who disagrees.
But when your agency is briefed by a brand manager on a “purpose-driven campaign”, what’s more important – what they mean by purpose or whether or not it’s the “right” definition? When your CMO refers to purpose in the three-year strategy, what’s more important – understanding or orthodoxy? A few simple questions can prevent more complicated misunderstandings further down the track.

We have all experienced the onset of COVID-19 and the dramatic impact it has had on business and people globally. Given the need for businesses to recalibrate in order to thrive and survive in the new normal, understanding purpose is more imperative than ever.

For further information about unlocking the power of purpose in your business, contact 6AM CEO Gillian Fish gill.fish@the6amagency.com.au + 61 400 200 441