In a recent article for WARC, we outlined how brand purpose overlaps with a number of well-established terms from the brand, strategy and corporate social responsibility space. This begs the question: what purpose does brand purpose serve?
An edited version of the article can be read here.
If you subscribe to WARC the full article can be read here.
Brand purpose is very topical. It enjoys an elevated status in the brand marketing community due to the supposed business benefits it delivers.
But there’s a problem with this approach. It’s questionable if these benefits are down to brand purpose or other well-established brand, strategy or corporate social responsibility terms.
In many ways, it feels more like walking a well-worn path paved with by brand, strategy or CSR folk – especially when they are combined.
In the context of brand, this relates to concepts such as brand values, personality, essence and positioning. These are well established and commonly used terms in the branding space. When it comes to strategy terms such as vision and mission (which are frequently used interchangeably or are confused) account for a lot of brand purpose. The overlap with corporate social responsibility is hard to overlook and only adds fuel to the argument’s fire.
This has implications for the credibility of branding professionals in the boardroom who may struggle to see the unique benefits purpose brings.
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