CHAPTER 05

POWER OF WHY

Unlocking Your Organization’s Purpose for Increased Brand Value

What is the common denominator across the 50 brands showing the fastest growth, both in depth of customer relationships and financial value, between 2000 and 2010? That was a question posed by Karlene Lukovitz in a MediaPost article on January 18, 2012, referencing a study by Millward Brown and Jim Stengel.1 The answer? “All of them, regardless of size or category, have been built on an ideal of improving lives in some way.” That ideal is what we call Brand Purpose. It’s a cause or a belief that the organization subscribes to, believes in, and exemplifies. It’s the Purpose from which the brand should think, act, and share. This Purpose is the foundation under your entire enterprise, and it answers the question, “Why?” Why are you doing what you are doing? There is such a grand power behind why, and it has to be much greater, vaster, and wider scoped than merely earning profits. Remember, people’s Spidey sense throws up the red flag on that! Foundationally speaking, we cannot stress enough the power of why and being right with yourself and your organization first. Everything, and we mean everything, ripples out from there, even the unseen.

The most successful and most enduring companies convey one clear and simple story through every action they take, not solely through their marketing. These companies believe in something much more aspirational than simply making money, and they behave accordingly. These companies know what they stand for; everything they do is informed by their Purpose, and everything they say follows—in that order. A recent summation from advertising industry leader Dan Wieden supports this: “The kind of brand that can thrive, is a brand that can tell a very simple and clear and coherent story about who they are, where they come from, who they work with and what they intend to do.” The best of these companies learned to deliver their narrative through the products they make, the experiences they create, the services they provide, and even in the way they treat their employees and the communities they affect, not just in the way they communicate.

Erect Pillars for Strength. In Storyscaping, Purpose is the key pillar and the first of the four pillars. We consider each pillar as a support structure that serves critical characteristics for consumer connection, and this one is established through brand strategy. That strategy is also derived from consumer insight. As such, it should never be defined in isolation. Brand Purpose also serves as a guiding principal for the Organizing Idea. The Organizing Idea is key to making Storyscaping powerful. It connects the Story System, enabling a world of engagement and experience that every brand desires for heightened success, all of which will be explored in the following chapters.

There are plenty of books that tell great stories about Brand Purpose, for example, Joey Reiman’s The Story of Purpose2 or Simon Sinek’s Start with Why,3 and much of our thinking is inspired by them. Our goal here is to evolve that thinking for application in Storyscaping. We will explore how valuable it is and explain why it’s important for context while we dig into the role of brand strategy to discover Brand Purpose, the dimensions of Purpose, and how it relates to Storyscaping.

We believe that Purpose-driven organizations and brands are more inspiring for employees, stakeholders, and customers. True Purpose comes from within. Therefore, our approach is always one of discovery, not invention. Your statement of Purpose, cause, or belief needs to be the driving motivation for action. It should create relevance and meaning in everything your organization does and all that your brand represents. That is no small task. What does your Purpose sound like or look like? Do you already have a Purpose, or do you still need to define one? If you have one, is it appreciated universally, articulated well, and applied effectively? Let’s look at what we define as the characteristics that make Purpose important.

What Purpose Is Not. Brand Purpose is vastly different to a company vision. A vision, although useful for setting goals and targets, has a limitation; you can see only so far into the future. A vision is about defining where a business wants to be. At the same time, your vision should be able to shift with the maturity of your business successes, failures, environmental influences, and so on. It should serve to guide a path, whereas a Purpose should be more timeless, more ethereal (in a good way). A Purpose is not a goal. Goals are what you want to achieve. Goals change over time as they are achieved or modified. Brand Purpose is not a strategy. Strategies are how you’re going to get to your vision and achieve your goals. Your strategy today needs to offer more avenues, be more flexible and more dynamic than ever. Strategies employ tactics, which are also changing often. A Purpose is different from all of these defining elements of business and brand planning.

What Purpose Is. Purpose is emotive. It should be emotive for the people within the organization and also include an emotional dimension to how your brand behaves. As described earlier in the MediaPost article, it’s about an “ideal of improving lives”—that is emotive. The U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers have a Purpose, “So others may live.”4 Some call it a motto; some call it a rally cry—we call it an emotive Purpose. It embodies the spirit of the rescue swimmers. It’s critical to their belief and spirit, which enables them to do their jobs in the face of personal risk, adversity, and suffering. After all, a person doesn’t just jump from a helicopter into a raging surf to rescue someone because upon awakening that morning he or she thought it was a good idea. Rescue swimmers do it because they believe in something bigger; they have a cause, and they personally connect with that cause in an emotional way, which inspires them to take action. For the highly trained and amazingly dedicated rescue swimmers, this Purpose is powerful.5 It isn’t a marketing line, tagline, or slogan for an ad. It’s their why—why they do what they do, not how they do it or what results they hope to gain from doing it. It’s not even an offer of service. And that’s why Purpose is very different to marketing expressions. It should be the primary underpinning belief, a pillar of your foundation. The U.S. Coast Guard’s motto and positioning as an entire organization is, “Semper Paratus” (always ready). This motto embodies their spirit (why), and in this case, it also works as a tagline and statement that positions how they serve. If you ever need the help of the Coast Guard, knowing that they are “always ready” provides a comforting and secure feeling. Can you see how this motto is emotional and personal and how “always ready” also has external consumer relevance as a positioning statement? Purpose doesn’t always translate to a consumer expression (“So others may live”), but sometimes it just might (Coast Guard as a whole with the positioning tagline “always ready”). Now, stop and think about that for a second. Why do you get out of bed and go to work in the morning? Now, remove all the rational responses you just thought of and dig deeper to pinpoint your emotional connection. Why are you going to work? Hopefully you have a Purpose, one that inspires you and also connects with your brand.

Purpose should also be very simple. Walt Disney founded the entertainment empire with a simple statement: “To make people happy.”6 As part of the Disney team, this Purpose is inspiring and gives great focus on what they believe Disney is all about. You may also appreciate that this simple statement is rather generic. That’s okay because Purpose isn’t about differentiation. How you do things differentiates; why you do them does not. The ability of your Purpose to be universal and shared among the organization is critical. That’s why simplicity and familiarity are key. What really counts is the defining of spirit and relevance to the company, culture, and how it inspires action.

When Sir Richard Branson, often considered a brand master in many respects, set up his first airline, Virgin Atlantic, he said, “I don’t go into ventures to make a fortune. I do it because I’m not satisfied with the way others are doing business.”7 It’s a simple and universally relevant premise. He wanted to create an airline he himself would enjoy flying on. His spirit was infused throughout all aspects of the new and growing airline. If you were a ground crew person or cabin crew person or pilot and you felt you were part of creating an airline that you would like to fly, you can imagine that amazing spirit alone would make the results better than average. The experience would be relevant every day. You would feel inspired to find things you could do to make the whole airline better. You certainly wouldn’t throw guitars around the tarmac.

Having a clear Purpose enables everyone to think differently about the brand. It creates an emotional connection to the brand’s existence beyond the rational reasons. Marc Pritchard, P&G’s global marketing and brand-building officer, said, “Purpose certainly gets people to think about the brand differently, broadens their thinking about how the brand fits into their lives and is more relevant.” The P&G brand Pampers is an example of this. Pampers’ Purpose is “Baby’s happy and healthy development.”8 Pampers’ core product (diapers/nappies) serves a simple functional role: they keep the mess off the floor. They reverse gravity and catch the messy things babies do without warning or conscious consideration. They solve a simple need for clean floors (and other things of course). But, so do other diapers and nappies. How Pampers does it is different, as is their belief in why they are doing it. Pampers believes in “babies’ happy, healthy development.” As a brand, Pampers does everything it can to bring its Purpose to life—through products, content, experience, design, and much more. Pampers thinks about the baby, the mom, and the overall reasons why it does certain things, rather than just focusing on solutions to simple problems.

A statement of Purpose, cause, or belief is an internal platform that answers the question of why you exist. It’s great when that Purpose serves some form of good for people and even better when it inspires emotional connections that are told through your brand narrative and brand experiences. Having a real and relevant Purpose as the foundation for your brand allows you to create shared values with consumers. This becomes the connection that motivates action. It creates relevance and meaning for employees and consumers because of the way it guides our actions, not because of its mere existence. It is the difference between inspiration (desire and loyalty) and manipulation (rational and functional satisfaction).

Unlocking, discovering, and defining your Purpose will give your brand new power—power to connect many stories and many experiences to an emotional platform. It must come from within the spirit and culture of the organization. Your history and foundation is always a good place to start, and don’t settle on some historical premise if it lacks relevance. When working with clients to discover their Purpose, we involve as many of their people as we can, through many means, including storytelling. We also look deeply into the business to find emotional equity and its relevance to consumers. We seek real insight into how the brand improves people’s lives. Don’t settle on a nice, well-written line; strive for something real, inspiring, and relevant. Here’s a real-world example. While working with a huge real estate development company to draw out their Purpose, we engaged a rigorous journey of discovery. Part of it entailed interviewing all of the board members, executives, and the chief executive officer (CEO), who by all accounts was a great leader. His role was critical to giving the Purpose credibility and value beyond the words themselves. He was also accountable for integrating the spirit and culture in a more pervasive way—a challenge he accepted. During his enlightening interview, we explained that the expectation was not for him to be amazed by what was defined; rather it was to be satisfied. When his response became “of course it’s that,” we knew it would be truly aligned to the organization. When this new powerful Purpose was presented at an executive meeting, he looked across the boardroom, smiled, and nodded with acknowledgment, comforted that what his entire company had created was true to the organization and was inspiring for their future. Since that day, they think, act, and share from their Purpose, “there is a better way to live.”

Applying Purpose with Purpose. The application of Purpose is critical for effective Storyscaping. It defines the premise of the brand story, and it defines how the brand acts and what it does. We describe this as think, act, share. Let us explain that a bit. Think is about approaching everything from a perspective of Purpose. It is also being true to it. Ask yourself if you are in line with the belief or if you are solving for the cause. Act is about how you deliver, what you do, when you do it, and so on. It’s about building great experiences. Share is part communication (saying it), part interaction (enabling), and part listening (dialogue). Sharing while being in line with your Purpose also means involving people in your Purpose. You have to be willing to lean into criticism and listen attentively. This creates participation with your brand instead of just sending people messages. It should be about the enablement of sharing and the act of sharing in content and in spirit. Beyond think, act, share, the order of your approach is also critical. We learned this from the leadership model shared by Simon Sinek.9 In fact, we always say, “inspired by Simon Sinek,” partly because that is what a Brand Purpose should do and partly because it’s his Purpose to inspire others.

This is the model we apply; it is based on the Golden Circles by Simon Sinek.

Simon’s Golden Circle Approach teaches us to always work from the middle out—start from your why (Purpose), move to the how (means), and finally address the what (things you produce or do). This is how leaders work and how great brands work like leaders. What do great leaders and great brands have in common? A clear, meaningful, and relevant Purpose. Yes, they always think, act, and share from the inside out (why, how, what). Another benefit they also share comes from what Purpose achieves—a form of inspired magnetism, earned because people share in the values expressed and desired.

The Journey of Discovery, Not Invention. When working to discover your Purpose, you may find it to be a natural extension of the reason you set up your business in the first place: what you wanted to do to improve the lives of others. This is a great foundation, and it is especially effective when you are just starting out or if you’re running a small enterprise. When you become well established, the journey is a little more complex, as is the case if you are a large enterprise with many people. Either way, your goal is to be clear and inspiring so that the Purpose can serve as an effective foundation throughout the organization, be that 10 people or 10,000 people.

The way you go about discovering your organization’s Purpose can vary according to the type of business and the nature of brands. Is your brand a product brand or an organization brand? If you are an organization brand, your journey of discovery looks more deeply into the spirit and culture of your people. If you are a product brand, like a consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand, you will need to look more deeply into consumer relevance and consumer desires. Recognizing these differences, we will share the elements of discovery and approach we use. And, as you explore your Purpose, you may lean into these with more or less detail as is appropriate. One thing remains universal: the spirit of discovery, rather than invention. Don’t just make something up. Either think deeply into your real Purpose if you are a sole trader or take the time and effort to dig into business and brand, allowing these to inform what you define as your Brand Purpose.

The approach is to establish the consumer connection and relevance through insight while establishing and defining the why, how, and what as discussed previously.

The process we follow has four steps

Process for establishing consumer connection.

First, Immerse: This stage is about digging into the history and spirit of the organization. The goal here is to understand the foundation of the organization and how that has manifested over time. Additionally, through the use of research, we also seek to understand the consumer to ensure relevance. During the last part of this step, we interact with employees through both direct interaction and research in efforts to understand how they witness the brand improving people’s lives. Having them tell stories of the past and provide thoughts and feelings based on potential scenarios can be a powerful means of unlocking insight into the reasons a brand exists, how it operates, and how it is relevant to consumers.

Second, Assess. Here we connect with and explore how organizational leadership sees the brand, the culture, and the future of the brand and business. These leaders are the most powerful influence on how a Purpose is extended among the people and through the actions of the business. As such, getting firsthand insight is critical. The analysis of research and strategic distillation is used to draw out insight and key learnings. We seek information about what has been said or done in the historical past that has defined the brand. What role has the brand played in people’s lives over time? What values have been consistent through history? Additionally, we start to distill the learnings down to consumer insights so that we can establish areal platform for relevance. In doing this, we look for cultural insight, category insight, and emotionally relevant consumer insight. When analysing these insights, we describe them as

• The cultural influence lens: consumer trends that influence how we see things, how we behave relative to others, and how we want to be seen.
• The category/product interaction lens: how we engage with the category/products now, what we know, think, how we behave.
• The consumer insight lens: a revelation about human behavior or an emotion that can be leveraged.

This is drawn from category interaction and cultural influence. We look for the conflict or unmet needs and desires that are established between cultural influences and how we engage with the category.

In step three, originate, we apply this content to interactive sessions with a team of mixed organizational representatives. This is where final insights are defined, values are explored and articulated further, and expressions of Purpose are examined. The discussions and exercises are centred around the content drawn from the previous steps, sometimes in video stories, quotes, pictures, research data, and so on. Encourage these discussions to be immersive, expressive, engaging, honest, and spirited. Remember, your desired outcomes answer the why, how, and what as described earlier.

Last, we articulate. The outcomes are tightened and tested against the insights for relevance and expressed in their most inspiring way. Communication is determined by what is appropriate for the brand and organization. Strategies are articulated, and now with this coveted and customized information, the brand has a new foundation where it can establish emotional connections with consumers.

Of course, this is just the beginning of your discovery with Purpose. You may choose to leave this newly discovered Purpose as words and values, or maybe you will add some pictures and sounds, or you can take it to a higher level by applying it to how you think, act, and share. When you do, you create the opportunity to build powerful emotional connections with people through shared values. Creating shared values happens when a consumer believes in the same values that a brand portrays. How does a brand portray these values? By thinking, acting, and sharing based on their Purpose—a Purpose that is relevant to the consumer’s emotional desires. In Storyscaping, we use consumer insights to draw out emotional desires so that the brand finds emotional relevance and can then truly connect with the consumer.