It’s the question on every marketer’s mind – is brand purpose dead? No. But you need to get it right. And not just Patagonia right.

Let’s back up a minute. Brands are built from the inside out. They’re defined by the decisions and behaviours of the people that create, make and deliver the product or service that sits behind the brand. That’s what drives the experience your customers have. And that experience is what defines their feelings about your brand. The advertising serves to amplify that narrative.

Which means brand building is all about uniting a diverse group of humans, rallying them to create the best possible product or service – and then using that to tell a great story.

So how do you unify and motivate diverse groups of people?

It starts with understanding the fundamental human drivers. Behavioural scientists have researched the science of motivation extensively, ultimately validating what we kind of already know in our gut. Daniel Pink has perhaps articulated it most succinctly, identifying three fundamental motivators:

Autonomy – the urge to direct our lives

Mastery – the desire to get better and better at something that matters

Purpose – the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

In a business context autonomy is the most operational (wondering why remote working is so popular?) Mastery is what is – if we believe it exists then it's there regardless. But purpose is the outlier – because it requires the business to define that thing that’s ‘larger than ourselves’. Or as Simon Sinek calls it – your ‘why’.

Because this concept of a higher order mission is so fundamental it shows up in many forms. It's the reason religion is so important to so many. It’s what unites community initiatives. It’s the basis of any successful sports team. The All Blacks being a classic example. Building on Dan Pink’s work they understand that it’s not material rewards that motivate, it’s emotional rewards. A concept also known as the ‘Hawthorne Effect’. For the All Blacks this is a collective ambition ‘to unite and inspire New Zealand’ (go there on game day and they regularly deliver).

Not all businesses have the ambition of the All Blacks. But all teams – business, sporting or otherwise – need a motivating, unifying reason for being in order to succeed. That’s the role of purpose. And that’s why it fundamentally has a role in brand building.

The Sinek effect

Unfortunately the definition of brand purpose got hijacked along the way. My suspicion is that this misunderstanding stems from the very person who was trying to make us understand how important it is for brands to have a clear purpose; Simon Sinek.

Sinek famously described brand purpose as the ‘reason a business exists, beyond making money’. Fair enough. But such risky wording. Taken in isolation it can be totally misinterpreted. And it has been. Again and again. There’s a generation of brand strategists who believe brands shouldn't be about making money – their ultimate reason for being should be cause related.

WTF?!

Every business has to make money to endure. That’s capitalism. And capitalism is our (current) reality. Of course every business should be a responsible corporate citizen. But not every business should be fighting for causes. In fact, most shouldn’t – it’s not what they do and they don’t do it well when they try. Remember Pepsi and Kendall Jenner?

So let’s agree that brands do need a purpose. Because that’s how they unify and motivate their people to create the brilliant customer experiences that secure their commercial future. But let’s try to make the definition of brand purpose a little clearer.

The ultimate judge of any brand is its users. Those people that chose to part with their hard earned dollars in exchange for your brand. The way they use your product or service is the clue to your purpose. Rather than fabricating a cause related purpose let’s start right there, with those users and the way your brand exists in their lives.

IKEA is a case in point. On the surface they make cheap, modular furniture. But unlike all the other, less successful businesses doing the same, IKEA has a brilliantly motivating brand purpose – creating ‘a better everyday life for the many people’. That’s why they continue to innovate so effectively in making well designed, affordable, functional products. It’s also led them to do social good by creating furniture more accessible for people with disabilities – because their purpose naturally and authentically took them there.

Brand purpose isn’t the reason your brand exists beyond making money. Most times it should be very closely related to the reason you do make money.

Your brand purpose is the reason your brand exists in the lives of the people who use it.