Mission vs Purpose: The Difference in Branding

Branding

Jun 10

Written By brandmerry

Mission vs Purpose: The Difference in Branding

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

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One of the key pieces of branding, and one of the things that I've stepped into as my business has grown, has been this idea of creating mission-driven brands.

In true Michelle fashion, we must start with a story.

For those of you that don't know, I love storytelling. It's how I built my entire business, and I encourage all entrepreneurs to tell stories all of the time as a way to connect with their ideal customers.

So it wouldn't be a kickoff episode on The Brandmerry Podcast, without a story.

Before I had my online business, before I even dreamed of creating Brandmerry, I worked in the nonprofit sector. I've been volunteering in nonprofit work since I was a kid. It was something that was expected of us, and I'm so thankful for that.

It was honestly something I just always did.

When I first went to college, I went to school for musical theater. And when my brother got sick with cancer, I ended up coming home.

Some of the classes at the local university were focused on Nonprofit Management, so I started exploring that avenue and found that I truly loved learning more about creating a nonprofit, messaging and communicating the mission of the nonprofit, and building a profitable nonprofit that can make a difference in so many lives.

That's kind of where my introduction to marketing and communication started, in the nonprofit sector.

Fast-forward a couple of years, and we, unfortunately, lost my brother to cancer, which many of you know. If you've read my story you know that my family created a nonprofit in his honor.

That process was so interesting to be on the other side of as we had to get super clear and specific on the goals and mission of the organization.

One of the things that stood out to me, although again, I didn't put it in connection to branding until much, much later, was the fact that to even begin an application as a nonprofit, you have to clearly state your mission.

What is the focus?
What is the objective?
What is the mission behind the organization that you are creating, and how will you do that with your day-to-day activities?

I just found that to be so fascinating, and I remember helping my parents write the mission statement and learning so much about that process.

Fast-forward a few more years, and my now-husband, Ben and I moved to Chicago, where I pursued a degree in Public Relations, Marketing and Communications. So I went to school to learn how to work with journalists, how to craft messages, studying advertising, studying marketing and communications, studying messaging, and that landed me an internship at a very large nonprofit in Chicago that helped children with cancer.

Later in life, right before I started my business, I was the Communications Manager at a large non-profit in St. Louis, Missouri, and again, I was constantly reminded of the mission and that everything we did came back to the mission.

When I started Brandmerry, I didn't craft my mission right away because I was all wrapped up in, "What's everyone else doing, and what am I supposed to do?" But, there was a moment before my third webinar I remember sitting down and thinking about how I had a company name, Brandmerry, and what did that mean?

What was the point of it?

What was the mission?

I spent a few minutes identifying my mission statement, and it's been the same ever since.

As I began to work with entrepreneurs and work with businesses and consulted nonprofits, I’ve always come back to the importance of crafting a mission statement for your brand and business.

MISSION VS PURPOSE

Now, what is the difference between mission and purpose? They're kind of connected, but I find people interchange them a lot and it can be confusing.

Simon Sinek has a wonderful approach to identifying your why. What I have found in working with entrepreneurs and small business owners and navigating this myself is that typically, the purpose or why is really focused on why YOU’RE building it.

What it will allow you to do in your life; the personal benefits to you.

I know for myself and many of my clients, my why is the fact that I want to travel, and I want to create a legacy for my son, and I want to create financial freedom for my family, for my clients, and their future. A big driver for me is experiencing what I call the freedom trifecta - time, financial and location.

In the beginning, my why was so simple it was literally that I wanted to shop exclusively at Whole Foods for my groceries.

So, as my business has grown I’ve recognized that my why or purpose has changed a lot over the years. And while, I’ve always had a goal to impact the lives of others, “Impact others!” isn’t really a brand mission.

So when it comes to writing a mission statement I want you to think of it as your ultimate objective. It’s the long-term mission behind your brand and specifically how you want to make an impact and support your audience.

The difference here is that its super long-term, and I think this is where a lot of entrepreneurs get hung up.

There are setting goals for the business, typically three, six, nine months and a year and thinking this is what I can do now.

A mission statement is less of a goal (i.e. deadline) and more of a compass.

It is a compass for the work that you are going to do. It's going to help you in your decision-making processes.

When you start to hire team members, it's going to help you in the hiring process.

It's going to help you with your stance on social responsibility.

It's going to shape your values.

It's going to impact who you will and will not work with.

Ultimately, your mission statement provides a focus for your brand.

It's the guiding force for everything that you're going to do in your business.

So from the standpoint of a business owner, it's incredibly powerful to determine a mission statement and to be able to ask yourself, "Is this in alignment with my mission?"

It's something that nonprofits do all of the time and it’s required by the government to say, "This is the program that we're doing, and this is how it connects to my mission," and so forth. I think this clarity and connectedness is what so many small business owners are missing.

If I'm launching a new program I might consider:

How does this connect to my mission?
How does this connect to my objective and how I am committing to showing up?

So having a mission statement early on in your business can truly impact a lot of the decisions that you're going to make.

BRAND AFFINITY

In addition to your decisions as the brand owner, we also know that brand affinity comes down to a connection between a brand and a consumer on a deep, deep level, typically around brand values and a clear brand mission statement.

I'm going to be talking about brand values in a future episode, so I won't get too into it now, but I want you to remember that your values and mission matter when it comes to selling your products and services.

We have the statistics that tell us that people will buy because of this connection, because of shared values, because of a shared mission.

I'm about to share with you my mission statement, but before I do, I want to say that this isn't something that you have to broadcast everywhere. You don’t need a title that says, MISSION STATEMENT on your page, you can work it into your content, story, etc.

And remember, it’s not just about saying it - it’s about honoring it as you grow your business!

You can absolutely say your mission. People do it all the time, and I love that, but you don't have to.

This is for you.

This is your guiding force.

This is to make sure that the things that you're doing are in alignment with your mission, with the ultimate objective for your company, whether your company has a name like Brandmerry or it's Michelle Knight.

It does not matter. It's still a company.

Remember, it’s important to treat your businesses as a business, so take the time to get in touch with what you want to be remembered for and the impact you want to make.

At Brandmerry, we believe in two outcomes, income and impact.
Because one without the other kind of sucks.

You can have a lot of income and not be making a difference in the world. I think that's a true disservice as a company and something that we're seeing more and more of over the last few years in social responsibility and companies taking a stand, and standing behind their missions and standing behind their values through action.

You can also be making a huge impact, but limiting yourself because you don't have the income. You could be doing even more good in the world if you had the income and the funds, and that's one of the ways that I love to look at money. Yes, of course, I want money for travel and I want money to support my family, and there's nothing wrong with saying that.

I want to be a millionaire, but I also know that with that money, I can do more.

I will have the resources to do more, and so my impact will be greater.

Here's the last thing I'll share with you before I share my mission statement.

When you're thinking of your mission statement, it's not about a particular product, it's not about a particular service. It might be so far away from where you are right now, and that is okay.

It's a compass.
It's a guiding light.
It can evolve.

Just like all things with branding and marketing and running a business, things will evolve, and your mission statement may evolve as well. However, it doesn’t have to, my mission statement is the same one I wrote back in 2016, right before my third webinar with about two attendees!

The Brandmerry mission is to help women uncover their story and their authentic voice so they can build a movement and brand around their mission.

So everything that I do comes back to working with entrepreneurs, women specifically at this stage of my business, who want to make an impact, who have a mission of their own, and who’re creating a business and a brand as a way to reach more people.

In doing so, my mission is to make sure that these CEOs and these business owners are connecting to their story, they're connecting to their authenticity, and they're sharing that with others because I know that through that, you can create a greater movement.

If you think about how I show up on social media, how I show up on my website, the copy on my website, if you think about my products and my services, they all come back to this.

Brand storytelling, authenticity, mission statements, they're in all of the work that I create for my clients.

WRITING YOUR MISSION STATEMENT

This week, I want to encourage you to sit down and answer a few questions:

What is the impact that I want to make?
How can I share that objective and how do I want to reach that objective with my audience?
How can I craft a mission statement and use that as a sounding board for all of my decisions moving forward?

Because as I mentioned, you might be a solopreneur right now, but you're going to grow and you're going to expand, and you're going to need to hire a team and choose to work with brands, there will be collaborations, and you can come back to your mission statement to say, "Is this in alignment with my mission statement or isn't it?"

It makes making decisions a heck of a lot easier as a business owner.

Not to mention, I just think you're super rad for having a mission statement and doing the work to support it.

The other cool thing is that it puts you in the CEO role of your business, and that's powerful, especially when you're just starting, to step into that mindset of like, "This can be bigger than it is right now, and I see that. I see that future."

When writing your statement keep it simple and have fun with it.

HELPFUL LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Episode 2 of The Brandmerry Podcast: The Difference Between Branding and Marketing

Build a Better Brand Method Free Class >> BetterBrandMethod.com

SUBSCRIBE to The Brandmerry Podcast here

P.S. If you are ready to build a better brand, a mission-driven brand, a brand that makes an impact, a brand that builds a community, and of course, a revenue-generating business you need to watch my free training.

This on-demand training will teach you my signature Build a Better Brand Method, walk you through the power of storytelling, messaging and more. Plus, give you the confidence to build your brand online.

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