Purpose without commitment has no value
What is the tension?
Every company wants to have a purpose, but few are aware of what is involved and the foundations of its creation.
Once in a while, a new concept trends in the world of marketing and innovation. We had to learn to be “agile,” then to consider the “tipping point”. Now, we are living in the age of purpose. Every company or brand invests a lot of time and money in understanding and communicating why they have come into existence.
But this purpose is not useful if it is not accompanied by a set of clear commitments.
Before getting into the semantics of the phrase, these commitments must be set out as a set of obligations, imposed by the company and/or brand, with a range of control mechanisms that mark our achievements and our compliance with KPIs in a way that can be understood and shared.
It is not necessary to take on impossible commitments. Instead, they must be real and achievable. This means stopping to reflect, coordinating transversal teams, allocating portions of the budget, and possibly making changes in production or to the RTC.
And most importantly of all, we must not share these until they are already underway. Nothing looks worse than communicating plans and intentions that we are not able to achieve. Our words, in this age of the social metaverse, are no longer carried away by the wind.
What do we need to know?
Our experience has shown us that overcoming this challenge requires a combination of learning and empathy. To ensure we do it well, we propose a strategy in 5 steps:
- First, the commitments: with whom, to what and how you are prepared to make each commitment.
- Ensure you have the capabilities and resources to really achieve them.
- Establish your point of view with regard to the commitments that have been established.
- Define and communicate the KPIs that will clearly show your brand’s commitments.
- Define an actionable purpose.
Who can we learn from and what should we look at?
- Oatly, with its way of establishing and communicating its commitments, which go far beyond their stated, simple purpose
- Heura, a brand that communicates its entire USP from an environmental commitment which, in turn, nourishes its understanding of societies and communities.
