Brand purpose: why an ambitious one matters

In short

Brand purpose is the reason your business exists beyond making money. It is more enduring than a mission and broader than your values. An ambitious, credible purpose gives your brand direction, unites your people and gives buyers a reason to care.

Key takeaways

• Purpose is a strategic tool, not a tagline. It should be short enough to repeat, written down, and used when the business has to choose between two reasonable options.
• Purpose, mission and values are not interchangeable. Purpose is the enduring reason to exist, mission is the goal you are working towards now, and values are how your people behave getting there.
• A report by The Economist places ambitious purpose at the centre of brand strategy, with former Procter & Gamble CMO Jim Stengel linking sustained growth to brands aiming at a larger impact on customers and the world.
• Purpose only counts once it shapes decisions. GraysWine.com.au, separated from its parent GraysOnline.com, needed a purpose of its own: 'We help Australia's wine lovers discover their next favourite drop for a bargain price.' That purpose drove both the design and the user experience of the site.
• A useful test: could a competitor claim your purpose word for word? If they could, it is a category description, not a purpose.

What is an ambitious brand purpose?

At its simplest level, branding is a way to differentiate one business from another. But more than describing just what you do, brands that leverage the ‘why’ or an ‘ambitious purpose’ are able to create a more emotional connection with their customers that can influence their buying behaviour. 

Why does an ambitious purpose matter?

Every business knows what they do. Some can describe how they do it differently from competitors, but few organisations can articulate WHY they do what they do. Visionary thinker, Simon Sinek, believes we should always start with the why. “When we communicate our purpose or cause first, we communicate in a way that drives decision-making and behaviour. It literally taps the part of the brain that inspires behaviour.”

According to a report by The Economist, a growing theme in leading brands is the concept of ‘ambitious purpose’ and that it should be central to the brand strategy, guiding how it communicates and operates. “Companies aspire to have a much larger impact on customers, consumers and the world. And these are brands that have experienced sustained growth,” claims Jim Stengel, ex-CMO of Procter & Gamble. “Everyone in the world wants to figure out what’s going on at brands like Red Bull and Nike. They are winning by being consumer-centric and driven by ambitious purpose.”

What does an ambitious purpose look like in practice?

A local and successful example of putting an ambitious purpose at the centre of a brand is GraysWine.com.au. A new dedicated wine online retailer, now separated from its parent GraysOnline.com, required it’s own purpose - ‘We help Australia’s wine lovers discover their next favourite drop for a bargain price.’ This ambitious purpose is centre stage to the brand’s storytelling and is well articulated through the brand’s website where ‘discovery of bargains’ has driven both design and user experience.

So if you are building a brand from scratch, or looking for inspiration to tell your brand’s story, a great place to start is with your ambitious purpose.

Frequently asked questions

What is a brand purpose?

Brand purpose is the reason a business exists beyond profit. It states the contribution the organisation makes to its customers or its industry, and it should stay largely fixed even as products, markets and leadership change.

What is the difference between brand purpose, mission and values?

Purpose is why the business exists. Mission is what it is setting out to achieve in a defined period. Values are the behaviours expected of its people along the way. Purpose sits above the other two and should outlast both.

What makes a brand purpose ambitious?

An ambitious purpose points at a change the business wants to see in the world beyond its own. Jim Stengel, former CMO of Procter & Gamble, links sustained growth to brands that aim for a much larger impact on customers, consumers and the world, a view set out in a report by The Economist.

How do you know if your brand purpose is working?

It shows up in decisions. If the purpose has shaped your website, your hiring, your product range and the work you decline - it is doing its job. If it only appears on a wall or an about page, it is a slogan.

Explore our brand strategy, the power of storytelling for brands and aspirational branding.