There! I've said it. I've been meaning to for a while now.
I write this on a day that Patagonia has announced that Earth is their only shareholder. I don't decry the authenticity of Yvon Chouinard. I respect him loads for putting his money literally where his mouth is. In fact, Patagonia is one of the strongest examples of a purpose driven business. However, they are an exception.
99.999% of the Brands cannot and should not have a purpose.
My views on this topic are fast evolving. In a previous post, I'd said #BrandPurpose is a luxury. It isn't. It can actually be a burden at times to optimize your business potential. Little good can come off it unless you are a billionaire philanthropist trying to buy yourself a Nobel prize or at least protect yourself from an Epstein scandal.
Brand Purpose just does NOT matter. Not to consumers anyway.
Customers seldom care what your purpose is. It does not matter. Only customer value creation does. Why can't customers just have a transactional relationship with the products and brands they buy? I can tell you that is all they're looking for.
I don't have data to prove this, but I have a vague feeling that I'm a 100% right, when I say nobody goes to Starbucks so they can have their human spirit nurtured. Not by the cup nor by the neighbourhood.
People go to Starbucks for the Brand it has become. The way they make you feel, for the ambience, for the brag value of walking around with their paper cup and sometimes even for the coffee. And nobody, not one person stopped going to Starbucks because how they are treating their employees by not letting them unionise.
People haven't stop using Google because of the low taxes they pay or for their great privacy policies. Amazon is not pressured by their customers to improve their working conditions as long as their prime shipment is delivered on time. Closer home, people haven't given up on Chinese mobile phones and apps despite general political sentiment against the country.
Let's face it. People are self-serving. They want the products and services they pay for, to deliver value before anything else. Brands are a product of capitalism, meant to deliver this value in exchange for money. This is the truth. There is nothing to be ashamed of here. There are other avenues for philanthropy and people who have the opportunity to nurture their human spirit, do it anyway.
Brand Purpose ≠ Positioning
#Positioning is not your 'purpose'. It is your positioning. It is the best thing to happen to your brand. To be positioned right. Over time, the brand's position might adapt to changing consumer behaviour. Imagine Kodak insisting on helping people see their memories come to life as a photograph from the negatives. 🙄
Brand positioning is how you register your narrative in the minds of consumers. If you are able to do that with a purpose statement, then by all means do it, but remember that if you have any success in that registry, you will be judged by it. Any missteps can lead to merciless crucifixion. Is 'purpose' the broken glass laden path you choose for your brand?
Unilever was recently mocked by their investors and consumers alike for giving Hellmann's, their mayonnaise brand, a purpose: "Fighting Against Food Waste". No matter who is saying it, it still doesn't matter to the consumer who is looking to just buy a jar of mayonnaise.
Last year Danone lost its CEO for not focussing on shareholder interests and focussing instead on their ESG objectives. I'm not blind to all companies facing the heat on having to reduce their environmental impact and good governance is a must.
The problem begins when this becomes the main story and brand building and customer value creation takes a back seat.
I credit Procter & Gamble for having peaked on this a little earlier than the others. They recently flipped their mission statement. They now promise to be 'a force for growth to be a force for good' than the other way around. Their CBO Marc S. Pritchard recently said profit is the means to fund the good. Good!
He believes brands risk being distracted by trying to take a stance on exponential social issues. He says consumers want products that work and are also sustainable. The said sustainability, however, will not become the primary communication position.
Can you believe that it took a pioneering house of brands like P&G to understand THIS! To only think Unilever is still holding strongly on this course. Bloody hell!
Corporate Purpose
Purpose is not all bad. Not yet at least. (I told you that my opinion is evolving. I do have an open mind after all) It can be a great tool for organisational culture and mission setting within the system. No matter how romantically and passionately Simon Sinek puts it, show me one public communication that apple ever said what he says they said. At best 'The WHY' is an employer brand position that gets everyone on board to pull in the same direction.
Conclusion
Do yourself a favour and get off the high horse. Your business and customers will thank you for it with a growing revenue trend line. Unless you are in the 0.0001% of the business world like Patagonia, in which case you shouldn't have been reading this in the first place.
