Brand Purpose. It’s all the rage in marketing circles as we work to occupy valuable emotional territory and define how each of our brands makes the world a better place. And that’s great—who wouldn’t want to make the world better, especially as it seems to be falling apart in so many ways?
But let’s not forget that people who buy our products aren’t buying them simply because we believe in “Empowering Every Person’s Potential” or “Bringing People Together” or “Making Dreams Happen” or whatever other high-minded purpose we attach our brand to.
People buy our brand because it does something they need done. It tastes good. It gets my clothes cleaner. It’s easier to use. It helps me look my best. It helps me or my company succeed in new ways. And because it makes me feel something.
A food product that tastes crappy but is supported by a million dollar, tear-jerking ad campaign might get that first dollar, but it won’t get the second.
A few years ago Simon Sinek’s TED talk lit the marketing world on fire, and for good reason. It powerfully reinforced our shared belief in making an emotional, purpose-based connection. But as marketers are sometimes wont to do, we’ve taken that truth too far. We’ve too often walked away from the functional truth about a brand (the what/how) in favor of the emotional truth (the why), when both are important.
Or worse, we’ve tried to force-fit our brands into purpose-based discussions they have no place participating in.
When we think about brand purpose, let’s build dual purpose brands: brands with a functional purpose and a higher purpose.
Sinek famously said, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
Actually, people buy both. Even everybody’s favorite emotional brand, Apple, was radically easier to use before it was about celebrating creativity.
People don’t just buy what you do, they also buy why you do it.
Single purpose brands aren’t enough. A great brand needs a functional purpose and a higher purpose. Let’s be sure we use our insight-seeking brains to address both.
