On Purpose
Purpose is an important word in the world of brand building. Regardless of whether you’re the client or the agency, making ads or identities, or using frameworks made up of circles or squares, you’re probably very familiar with the idea of purpose.
Purpose is often defined as ‘your reason for being, beyond making money.’ Simon Sinek considers it your big ‘Why.’ P&G's ex-CMO and loudest purpose drum-beater Jim Stengel calls it "the difference we’re trying to make, the impact, the force that attracts people."
Defining your business 'Why' - its reason for existence - is challenging, important and valuable. In my experience, the thinking is often there, it just hasn’t been articulated, either well or at all. Founders know at a sub-conscious level why they pursued this particular business idea, and employees know why they joined this company over another. Even though it can be a tricky process extracting that information, the Why is generally in there somewhere.
But too often a business feels under pressure for their ‘Why’ to not just genuinely reflect their reason for existence, but to also solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Or as Kate Richardson put it much more elegantly in her essay 'Authenticity, purpose and fakery - the challenge for brands':
“Brands are confusing the need to stand for something genuine, with standing for something worthy."
The bigger and bolder you expect your purpose to be, the higher up Maslow’s pyramid you want it to sit, the less authentic it may become. Take Starbucks. Their purpose statement is about as lofty as it gets:
To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.
Not sure a giant plastic cup of average coffee is nurturing my spirit per se, but maybe that’s just me?
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Poor Starbucks. We can’t all be Patagonia, we’re not all Ben & Jerry’s. We're not all genuinely trying to save the world. And I personally believe that is 100% ok.
Creating a purpose that suggests you’re all about saving the trees, or inspiring the human spirit, when you are indeed making toilet paper or coffee - isn’t helpful. It’s not helpful to your audiences. For one reason, because recent cognitive behavioural research suggests that consumers really don’t have the interest or mental bandwidth to take onboard these messages anyway. Meaning - they just really don’t care. For another, even if consumers and employees do take onboard your lofty purpose, it will only backfire if it isn’t coming from a place of real authenticity. But equally importantly, beyond the impact it has on your customers and employees, a purpose that is more fiction than fact is a distraction that you as a business do not need. With SMART goals and KPIs and NPS and all the other acronymic buzzwords you’re measuring, a purpose rooted in something that is not central to your business and its goals is just another thing to track, and ultimately fall short on.
I'm not trying to suggest that businesses should only care about profits. I'm just trying to untangle the role of purpose from the act of genuinely doing better in business. Purpose is not the same as Corporate Social Responsibility. Purpose is not Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, or a rigorous approach to creating an ethical supply chain. Those things are vitally important if we want to create a fairer economic system for all - but in most cases, they do not need to have any relationship to why you exist as a business. By all means, set goals and hold yourself accountable to being a better business, whatever that means to you. Look into becoming a certified B Corp, or hire people that are both expert and invested in helping you evolve. But don’t automatically assume that this needs to be your reason for existence and your central defining messaging.
The marketing leader Mark Ritson shared this example from the UK high street sammy shop Pret: “Choosing not to position on purpose does not mean your organisation is evil. Indeed, there are plenty of companies quietly operating with purpose while opting not to position explicitly upon it through their marketing. For two decades, Pret a Manger has quietly taken unsold sandwiches off its shelves and, rather than discounting or dumping them, distributed them to shelters and food banks. Pret doesn’t talk much about this at all. It continues to position on fresh, handmade food instead."
I'm also not suggesting that you should shy away from solving or supporting your audience's big emotional pain-points. One of my clients makes beautiful bespoke beverages; fresh chai, specialty tea, one-off tonics. We defined their purpose as ‘Creating space for calm.’ It’s important to them that the ritual of their product allows a moment of mindfulness and self-care in the lives of their customers. They genuinely care about the wellbeing of their community - and their purpose will allow them to act on this intention in really meaningful ways, through the products they develop, the service and experiences they offer, and the partners they choose. But we also discussed what is authentic and what would be over-reach for them as a brand in living this purpose intentionally and with conviction.
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So what’s my messy kid got to do with this?
Well he gets it. He knows that on purpose means with intent. It is deliberate and action-oriented. It’s not an aspirational goal, or a well crafted sentence in a document. It's something you are compelled to act on - which has real consequences (good and bad).
Unfortunately, sometimes, it’s a bowl of couscous we’re picking up grain by grain from the floor.
