The most important audience for your brand
“When enough individuals arrive at the same gut feeling, a company can be said to have a brand”
Over the last decade or so—but especially over the last five years—we’ve been told over and over that a brand’s purpose—its higher calling, so to speak—matters a great deal to consumers. In an environment where traditional competition on things like price and features provides less of a moat than ever before, loyalty will have to be earned in other ways, so the thinking goes.
This always struck me as—ahem—hyperbolic bullshit. Yeah, that kind of thing works for, say, Patagonia, but for the vast majority of companies, the value of “purpose” to its customers seems questionable at best, despite what, y’know, everyone has been saying.
Turns out, there’s some research that backs that up, with consumers recognizing a brand’s purpose on average around 10 percent of the time, with even the most recognizable brands, like Nike, clocking in just above 50 percent.
Here’s where it gets interesting. The researchers who conducted that study conclude that their research means most companies can ignore brand purpose altogether. Avinash Kaushik—a very smart guy—has a slightly different interpretation:
A tiny, insignificant, number of your potential customers care about your mission statement or have heard it. And, honestly, why should they? See above “where it lives.”
A few more than tiny, insignificant number of your potential customers care about your brand purpose or have heard it. And, why should they?
A much larger number of your potential customers might care about your ad tagline as it might communicate an important value or emotion. Even if they don’t care for it (like Geico, Toyota, Verizon, etc taglines for me), but they might be aware of it because they are being blasted with it day and night.
He is precisely correct.
A brand’s purpose is, in almost all cases, not for direct public consumption. It can be articulated in more consumer friendly ways and become quite valuable to your business. It is, in this sense, like studs behind your drywall—not visible to the naked eye, but awfully important if you want to hang a nice painting to show off when company is over.
Brand purpose can, in fact, have tremendous value. It’s just that the value comes from getting the people who work there—not shop there—to embrace. One thing I wish people in the enterprise understood better about “brand” is that in a lot of cases in this realm, the most important audience is your co-workers.
That’s a lesson I learned the hard way. Ignore them, and it will show. After all, if you can’t make true believers of the people inside the walls, the people outside will sense it almost immediately.