On a very serious note, it is really important to understand why your brand exists, what purpose it aims, and how it makes your customers’ lives better.

As we have a clarity on this, we can easily build a content strategy, ensuring that everything we post has a purpose. Building a cautious, focused strategy means that our each update becomes another brick in the foundation of our brand, which then enables us to connect with people that are aligned with that mission. And those people are our target customers, the ones that will keep coming back, time and time again.

Here’s one method for breaking down our brand purpose, and building a strategy around a focus goal.

Back in 1996, Harvard University researchers James Collins and Jeremy Porras authored a series of papers on building our company’s vision, which were based on various interviews with marketing leaders, as well as their own experiences in working with major brands, including Nike and Disney.

As per Collins and Porras:

“Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a core purpose that remains fixed while their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world.”

Clearly, while trends and mediums may change, the brands that have best endured throughout the years, and established stronger connections with their customers, have a defined focus in place.

For example, here are the core purpose statements of some of the world’s biggest brands (from Collins and Porras’ ‘Building Your Company’s Vision’ report):

Nike – To experience the emotion of competition, winning, and crushing competitors

Wal-Mart – To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same things as rich people

Walt Disney – To make people happy

We won’t necessarily read these in their marketing collateral – Nike, of course, has its ‘Just Do It’, which is what most people would likely assume is their core statement. But these purpose points – these ‘north star’ type statements – are the result of honing in on why each business exists, not what they sell.

How we can establish the same type of singular purpose statement for our brand?

Collins and Porras’ ‘The Five Whys’.

You start with a statement, either ’We make X products’ or ‘We provide X services’, then you ask ‘Why is that important?’ and you provide an answer to this question.

Then, in response to that answer, you probe a little deeper, by asking again,

‘why is that important?’

For example, a dairy product retailer might follow a sequence like this:

We sell Dairy Products

‘Why is that important?’ (1)

Because we enable people to have access to diary product directly to their homes

‘Why is that important?’ (2)

Because consuming quality dairy based products makes you healthy

‘Why is that important?’ (3)

Because quality of life is everything, it enables us to be fit, strong, happy, and to live longer

‘Why is that important?’ (4)

Because we all want to live long, happy, healthy lives.

The theory is that after around five ‘whys’ we’ll be much closer to defining the true purpose of your brand – which, in this case, might end up being something like:

‘To facilitate happier, healthier lives in all that we do’

That then becomes the guiding principle for everything that we share, everything that you communicate, aligning all of your outreach with this focus.

It’s not about the products that we sell, it’s why our business even exists, and that can play a key role in defining our approach, and ensuring that all of our staff are on the same page.

Which is another important consideration – not only does this help to build your brand externally, but internally as well.

As explained by Influence & Co CEO John Hall:

“When people have a clear understanding of what they’re doing, and why they’re doing it, they’re more likely to take emotional ownership of the work.”

Our mission statement provides that understanding, and with various studies showing that Gen Z employees, in particular, are seeking more purpose in their career, and alignment with their own goals and passions, this one exercise could play a critical role in establishing our overall brand vision, in all that we do.

Take away from this blog:

It may take some discussion, and debate to define your brand’s true purpose and mission statement. But ideally, through processes like this, you can move closer to establishing a clear goal that you’re striving for, which can help to guide your social media marketing process at each step.

Which, again, will eventually mean that every post, every update, every Reel, every TikTok, every tweet – all of your social updates are guided by this singular purpose.

If something doesn’t align with your brand goal, then leave it out.

This is how you build your brand identity online.

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