Brand Compass
A brand compass, or a branding compass, is a fundamental aspect of brand strategy. It is a structured messaging framework that encapsulates four key elements integral to a brand’s identity and orientation: its purpose, vision, mission, and values.
This tool typically emerges from an in-depth brand positioning exercise, ideally underpinned by data and insights from comprehensive brand research.
Your brand compass should guide your business strategies and decisions, particularly during challenging times or periods of significant growth.
All your internal stakeholders – including employees, leadership, and board members – must be well-acquainted with your brand compass, particularly those involved in crafting brand messages or developing brand interaction points, like the marketing and communications teams.
In this context, the brand compass fosters internal brand coherence. This means ensuring that your employees deeply understand the brand, enabling them to deliver a consistent and unified brand experience to your customers.
Your company’s purpose transcends mere profit-making; it’s the essence of your brand compass, addressing the most critical question: why does your organization exist?
A purpose statement for your brand should be both energizing and compelling. It should resonate emotionally and intellectually, reflecting your brand’s significant effect on those it impacts, whether they are customers, patients, or the broader community.
When crafting your brand’s purpose, consider these inquiries:
– What is the deeper reason behind our actions besides financial gain?
– Which values do we hold in the highest regard?
– What ignites our enthusiasm?
– What is the driving force behind our organization?
– What unique contribution can we offer to meet a vital global need?
Examples of purpose statements include:
– Netflix: To entertain the world.
– Google: To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
– Volvo: Make life easier, better, and safer for everyone.
– CVS Health: Helping people on their path to better health.
– United Airlines: Connecting people. Uniting the world.
Your brand’s vision statement paints a picture of the future your brand aims to achieve. It’s a depiction of the perfect world your brand strives to create. Your vision should be ambitious, even bold.
Envision your brand’s vision as an uplifting narrative that the leader of your brand would use to motivate and unite the team. It must be straightforward, easily understandable, and clear of complex terminology and jargon. It’s a narrative that anyone connected to your brand should be able to articulate effortlessly.
Key questions to ponder when defining your brand’s vision:
– What kind of transformation do we aspire to bring about in the world?
– Who is our target audience?
– What issue are we aiming to address?
– What does our ultimate goal look like?
– How would we define success?
Examples of vision statements:
– IKEA: To create a better everyday life for the many people.
– Shopify: To make commerce better for everyone.
– Whole Foods: To nourish people and the planet.
– BBC: To be the most creative organization in the world.
Your mission should be a confident declaration of your strategy, reinforcing trust in your brand’s professionalism. Brands should specify the nature of their product or service and the standard of excellence they are dedicated to upholding.
Reflect on these questions when developing your brand’s mission:
What, how, for whom, and why do we do it?
Examples of mission statements:
– Casper: To awaken the potential of a well-rested world.
– Slack: Make work life simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.
– The Honest Company: To create safe, effective products for our families and yours
– Smart Charge America: To make the entire process of purchasing, installing, and servicing your new home charging station as seamless and effortless as possible
Your brand’s core values represent the foundational principles upon which your company’s culture is built. They highlight the most critical aspects of your organization from moral, ethical, and philosophical standpoints.
Achieving consensus within your organization about what is fundamentally important is crucial. This agreement should encompass not just the perspectives of leadership and staff but also resonate with your customers. Aligning your core values with those of your clientele is essential. Customers’ trust in a brand is paramount, and this trust is often rooted in shared values. This is what makes core values a vital component of the brand compass.
When establishing your core values, consider these questions:
– What principles do we uphold?
– What achievements or qualities do we take the most pride in?
– Which values are we unwilling to compromise under any circumstance?
– What matters most to the people we serve?
– How do we wish to be perceived by others?
Example of core values:
Google:
- Focus on the user and all else will follow.
- It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
- Fast is better than slow.
- Democracy on the web works.
- You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
- You can make money without doing evil.
- There’s always more information out there.
- The need for information crosses all borders.
- You can be serious without a suit.
- Great just isn’t good enough.
The brand compass embodies the fundamental tenets of your brand. By steering your business by these essential principles, you can confidently set a course toward genuine and enduring success.
Author | Tyler Vaughn
