When it comes to purpose, is your brand walking the walk or simply talking the talk?
Purpose-led brands do more than talk up their reason for being. They put it into action, infusing purpose into experiences, culture, products and services. Principals employer brand director Claire Gallagher explains.
Australians expect brands to do good.
That’s the key takeaway from the 2024 Good Study that found 96% of Australians believe it’s important for brands to do some form of good in the world, while 57% do their best to avoid brands that aren’t doing any good at all.
In this climate, it’s more important than ever for brand guardians to be clear on what the brand does and why it does it. That means articulating purpose and providing a north star – something for your people to orientate around and aspire to.
You could call it being purpose-led.
To be truly purpose-led means ensuring your purpose lives through experiences, culture, products and the services you offer. More than messaging, it’s all about action.
So how can you ensure you’re walking the purpose walk and not just talking the talk?
Taking action versus talking action
The idea of purpose (that many associate with Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why) has rightly encouraged many organisations to think about the inspiration behind their organisation – the ‘why’. But articulating purpose alone is not enough.
Consumers, investors and employees are looking for organisations that can authentically back up their claims, are clear on the real difference they make in the world, and can demonstrate this through their culture, experiences, products and services.
A strong purpose statement should be a call to action, an idea that makes people feel excited, galvanising and motivated. It must also speak to what is special about your organisation. What makes you stand out from the crowd?
Finally, a purpose statement must endure. In their book Built To Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, Jerry Porras and Jim Collins argue that, unlike campaigns or propositions, a purpose should stand the test of time because it captures why you exist and the positive impact you make.
Claire Gallagher
Making it happen
To be purpose-led and to ‘make it happen’ requires paying attention to three things: what you say, what you reward and what you challenge.
What you say: Leaders at all levels must communicate clearly and positively. This means talking about the purpose, making it part of everyday conversations and language, explaining how it guides decisions, how it applies to roles and sharing what it means to them personally.
What you reward: You must link purpose and performance. Netflix talks about ‘freedom and responsibility‘ as a core value, which is also part of the brand’s employee performance management criteria. At Patagonia rewards and benefits align with the idea of protecting natural resources, climate action, collaboration and wellness.
Employee benefits include ‘activism support’, which covers 18 hours of paid time for employees to engage in activism. Patagonia will even pay bail money for staff members who get arrested when participating in protests. Unsurprisingly, employee turnover is just four per cent, way below the retail average of 13 per cent.
What you challenge: A strong purpose will set the direction based on what you believe to be important in the world. This will also define the things you need to challenge or avoid. When users of Airbnb, an organisation that exists to‘create a world where anyone can belong anywhere’, complained about racial discrimination, the leadership team reacted quickly. They set up Project Lighthouse to understand and address the issue and partnered with civil rights organisations to explore further and put in place measures to fix the problem while ensuring it didn’t happen again.
Remember, actions speak louder than words
If you want your brand to be purpose-led, decide what positive change you want to make in the world and articulate a purpose that will activate this thinking. This purpose needs to embrace and support your commercial success, not come at its expense.
Use purpose as a guide to build your identity, brand and operating systems. Then hardwire the purpose into everything you do. Don’t forget to measure it and focus on your leaders, as these are the people who translate strategy into action.
In challenging and complex times, being purpose-led is about simplifying and streamlining what you do, creating laser focus on your purpose and the things (and only the things) that will help you achieve this.
And remember, the results are great. Not only will you be working towards a meaningful goal, making real and positive change, but you will also build customer loyalty and advocacy, attract and retain the right people and appeal to like-minded partners and investors.
Be focused, be brave, be determined and be proud of what you have and will achieve together. In other words, be purpose-led.
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