Question

Topic: Other

What Do We Do With Our Purpose?

Posted by broadhurst.jason on 12/8/2016 at 10:23 AM ET 250 Points
Hello experts,

This might be a dumb question, but here goes.

I'm the marketing director for a growing, mid-sized, international manufacturer. We've done quite a bit of work on developing our Purpose over the last 18 months or so.

This was stimulated by Simon Sinek and his book "Start with why". We did some research and saw other successful companies who had defined their purpose successfully. And we felt that's what we needed to develop alignment with our employees, connection with our customers and strengthen the meaning in what we do every day.

We're now pretty much done. We've got consensus after presenting to all staff and modifying the purpose statement accordingly.

Now my dumb question: What now? We have a purpose... great, right? Now how do we make that part of us? Do we print cards and have our purpose on everyone's desk? Do we have a web page, a video, a looped recording of someone repeating the purpose over and over (I'm joking!)?

I actually do have some ideas on how we carry this forward, but I'd love to get people's opinions on how this could play out both in internal and external marketing.

Thanks,

Jason
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 12/8/2016 at 12:54 PM Member
    You could add that purpose as a check step for every decision you need to make. Ask the question of whether doing this project or activity goes toward the goal of fulfilling the purpose.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 12/9/2016 at 12:29 AM Member
    Perhaps a simple way to reinforce your WHY is to capture stories of staff who have used their WHY to guide their decision making - and the benefits of that choice. That'll make the WHY more concrete and therefore more easily internalize.
  • Posted by Mike Steffes on 12/9/2016 at 10:53 AM Member
    Okay, now you've defined your purpose. What strategy (out of the many possible strategies you could use) do you want to use to accomplish your purpose? Now, what will it take to implement that strategy? Those are the tactics employees will use in their day-to-day decisions and consequent actions. Tactics require training in order to be performed well. So... eventually, your training sessions will teach people how your business wishes to work toward its purpose.
  • Posted on 12/9/2016 at 11:08 AM Accepted
    Your question obviously goes deep into the issue of branding – especially branding a company, even more than a product. A few thoughts in this regard:

    1. Perhaps the most important thing you can do with your Purpose is to demonstrate, or “prove,” you mean it -- consistently. You have to walk the talk all the time. Everyone must see concrete examples of how the Purpose drives decisions in the company.

    2. It has to start with the CEO and the other senior people in the organization. It would be good if you can get the senior people to ask each other and associates, “How does this fit with our Purpose?” at every opportunity, especially before making key decisions on a proposal.

    3. Internally, the message should be clear when the Purpose is referenced often and explicitly. It wouldn’t hurt to send periodic reminders to folks in the form of examples or case studies in which it’s clear that the Purpose drove a particular decision. A company newsletter or email blast each month can be used for this.

    4. Externally, the company Positioning Statement should embrace the Purpose, and be at the core of every piece of marketing communication, including sales presentations, brochures, trade show materials and website content. If the Positioning message is clear and consistent, and assuming you deliver on the Positioning (and thus the Purpose), your target audience will get the message pretty quickly.

    5. Point #1 above is still the most important thing you can do. You need to walk the talk all the time. That’s how strong brands are built. You can’t fake it or cover up lapses with clever advertising.
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