PURPOSEFUL CREATIVITY: Brands Must Find Their Why and Prioritize It

A purpose-driven brand is a successful brand. In today’s highly competitive business world, how do you stand out from the crowd? Modern consumers care about more than just your products and services. They want to work with brands that have found their “why” and are prioritizing it. Taking your brand to the next level of success means finding a sense of purpose - a purpose that makes a strong connection with your audience.

The “Why” is Important

Your brand’s “why” or purpose, will have a significant impact on how consumers view your specific company within the wider marketplace. Ultimately, a brand’s “why” becomes the ethos of its success. How you determine your “why” and market that purpose should align with who you are, and the spirit of your company. This definition or purpose is the driving force behind the connection with your ideal customer. Build a better brand when you define your unique “why.”

Brand Purpose: A Definition 

At its core, brand purpose is your reason for starting a business and what you and your company stand for in the first place. Sometimes, brand purpose is referred to as a “North Star” or “why.” Your “why” is the heart of your brand purpose, but that’s not all. Brand purpose is also about how you serve not just your customers, but your greater community. What are the unmet human needs your brand can fulfill?

When determining your brand purpose, it’s best to look at the matter holistically. How does your company represent your core values, and create value for your target audience, partners, and community? Purposeful creativity and North Stars boil down to how everyone touched by the company thrives together.  

Prioritize Your “Why” for Greater Results 

In the end, you’re brand is serving people with real needs and desires. Having a well-defined brand purpose will make your company stand out from the crowd and speak to your target audience and the community members you serve. People are drawn to the fact that their purchase can do more than simply get them access to the goods and services they want. Your brand purpose will make them feel like an integral part of something much more significant. With a brand purpose, you:

• Demonstrate that your brand is more than its products

• Show customers that your brand thinks beyond the next advertising campaign

• Inform customers that your brand goes beyond merely turning a profit, but wants to make a difference

We’re living in a post-consumerist age, where people are far more conscious about the products they buy and the companies they do business with. Consumers want brands to do more than just sell products or services. They want brands to stand for something bigger than their bottom line.  

Brands that inspire, believe in something, and make a positive impact in the world will reach a greater level of success than companies without a brand purpose. By prioritizing your “why,” you’ll forge a greater connection with your core audience, and build lasting relationships with your customers.

IS FAILURE THE QUICKEST PATH TO SUCCESS?

Fail Until You Can’t Anymore: Why Failure is the Path to Success

We’re taught to dread the big letter “F” from the time we are six years old. Before we even learn to tie our shoes, society is hammering into our heads that failing is one of the worst things you can do. But no matter how anguishing it can be, failure is the tried and true path to success. For business owners, especially, failure is not something to fear, but something to embrace.

Why is failure a problem?

Failure isn’t the problem. A person’s response to failure is where the problems start. No one is born wise or knowing how to make the best decisions in all situations. People are limited by their own experiences of the world and the information they have on-hand at a particular moment in time. Failing is inevitable. But another issue with failure is the way society views failure and those who fail.

A lot of shame goes into the word “failure.” People may be embarrassed to analyze failure and go into denial about it or avoid the topic altogether. Another issue is that people will get a sense of schadenfreude, and ridicule those who’ve had some success, but have made mistakes. Their accomplishments are minimized, while their failures are magnified. But getting wrapped up in negative emotions hampers a person’s ability to use a failing experience to their benefit, either their own personal mistakes or as a witness to someone else’s.

What are the consequences of how society views failing?

People are obsessed with avoiding failure, no matter what. This is one of the reasons why helicopter and snowplow parents exist. Failure becomes the big bad wolf that everyone must protect themselves and their loved ones against. The shame, ridicule, and embarrassment of failure when someone attaches a lot of emotional baggage to it can become too much. But when you’re able to move past the emotions and baggage associated with failure, you can see how failing can sometimes be the best thing to happen to you. If not, it’s impossible to grow, take risks, and become the person you want to be.

Why is failure a good thing? 

Failure is how someone builds confidence. People become confident when they do something, persevere, and eventually succeed. Also, failing gives people valuable learning opportunities. Failing, and seeing how to pivot your strategies keeps life interesting, and encourages self-sufficiency too. These benefits are incredibly useful to adults, children, and entrepreneurs.  

Is failure the quickest path to success?

Yes, it is. Failure is not the enemy of success, but comfort is. When someone stays in their comfort zone, they stagnate. Stagnation is the death knell of a company and personal growth too. Instead of avoiding failure, companies should learn to embrace it instead. For brands, failure shows you weak spots or holes in your skillset that you’ll need to refine. In this way, failure helps your company grow. The faster you fail, learn from your mistakes, and take action, the quicker you will succeed in business.  

WHAT'S MORE IMPORTANT, A GREAT BRAND OR A GREAT PRODUCT?

They say that perception is reality, and when it comes to having a great brand versus a great product, this adage becomes even more profound.

In marketing, both offline and online, there are two competing schools of thought. In University 1, marketers believe that the product is more critical to a company's success. Students and professors of University 2 diverge, thinking that brand is more important than the product. Here, we're proponents of the University 2 school of thought - that having a great brand is more important than selling superior products.
 
Why do more people believe that having a great product is the key to a company's success?
Logically, it makes sense that a great product comes before a great brand. The thinking goes that the product comes first, then a great marketing strategy is built around the product to influence perception. If a company has a superior product, then the goal of the marketing department is to communicate the product's unique features and benefits effectively.
 
It's simple, logical, and intuitive that a company would first develop a superior product and then work on developing a marketing or branding strategy to move the product. But while this may seem accurate on its face, this line of thinking completely ignores a key component of human nature; that perception is reality.
 
Why is the brand more important than the product?
It's counterintuitive, but having a great brand is more important than having a great product. Why? Because of perception. In reality, there are no "facts," when it comes to which product is better. There are only perceptions that your target customers hold that drive their purchasing decisions. Think about the ongoing feud between Apple and Microsoft supporters or the iPhone versus the Android. It's impossible to pin down which product is factually superior, as opposed to which product the customers perceive as being better.
 
Also, which is easier? Creating a "better" energy drink than the most famous of all energy drinks, Red Bull, or changing people's perception of Red Bull? Perception is not only the key to creating a "superior" product and building a great brand; perception is also difficult to change. Once someone's perception of a brand is established, it's hard to change it. Unless a great brand does something idiotic, it's nearly impossible to damage a customer's positive perception of a brand.
 
What do businesses need to create perception and build a great brand?

• Differentiation - It's better for brands to be different than to have a superior product.

• Believability - Become a market leader to influence positive perception.

For businesses, establishing positive perception in their target audience's minds is the way to build a great brand. And a great brand is superior to having a great product. But this isn't binary. Product is also essential to a company's ultimate success; it's just not as important as great branding.

What do you think is more important?