It's the old chicken-or-the-egg debate. On the one hand, you need brand to live out your purpose. On the other, you need purpose to define who you are as a brand. Could it be argued that brand and purpose are one in the same?
Two sides of the same coin: Purpose & brand experience
- Health systems need to approach branding differently than they have in the past to compete with powerful consumer brands establishing footholds in healthcare. One of the ways systems can embark on a new path is by rethinking "purpose.'
- Most health systems and hospitals assume they have purpose down pat – after all, they save lives every day. But there can be more to purpose.
- FutureBrand looks at the balance of purpose and brand experience. To them, purpose means nothing if it is not substantiated through a brand experience – regardless of audience.
Redefining brand purpose
- What brand purpose is: A promise lived in every action or engagement – it has many hands, many stories, and is felt by all of your customers and employees. It is the tangible and enduring mark a brand leaves on the world, how it lives in the world, and makes it better than it found it.
- What brand purpose isn't: A compulsory mission statement on your website, a promise you make 1-2 times a year in a campaign or activation, or the words that are referred to now and again in company town halls and stakeholder presentations.
What it means to be a sustainable brand
- COVID-19 and climate concerns have up-leveled what sustainability means today.
- Sustainability is no longer taking siloed actions for the good of the planet; instead, it's a full-court press to improve the well-being of the planet, the lives of people who live on it.
- Brand purpose goes beyond consumer experience.
- The difference between a high-performing brand and a low-performing brand depends on the brand's ability to balance purpose and experience.
- The P&G brand does this well by actively living up to its corporate promise of "Touching lives, improving lives."
- A brand-led approach lessens the need to react to heightened public expectations.
This podcast and content was originally featured on ReviveHealth.
