{"id":11946,"date":"2022-01-03T11:01:39","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T10:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rosaparks.es\/blog\/brand-purpose\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T09:09:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T07:09:51","slug":"brand-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rosaparks.es\/en\/blog\/brand-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Brand Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To understand what Brand Purpose is and what it means for a brand, let’s start by understanding what it isn’t.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

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Your Company’s Purpose Is Not Its Vision, Mission, or Values<\/strong>.<\/p>\nGraham Kenny en Harvard Business Review<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n

If purpose is neither a company’s vision, mission, nor values, how does it differ? And, above all, why is another way of expressing a company’s direction necessary?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

When we talk about where a company wants to be in the future, the standard has always been phrases like: \u201cbeing the leading car brand in the industry,\u201d \u201cbeing the company that sells the most computers,\u201d and so on. This way of formulating visions and missions is outdated and 100% focused on making money, and, for good reason, the world is demanding a different kind of company\u2014one that works not just for itself, but for society.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

A company’s purpose is the why behind what it does.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Missions, visions, and values also differ from purpose in one key way: their permanence. You can change the former as easily as changing a jacket, but you can’t change your purpose. Purpose is permanent, forever, which is why it’s so important to understand it well.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

A company’s purpose is its permanent reason for existing.<\/h2>\n\n

A great example of the rare occasions when a company’s purpose can be touched is the one given by H.J. Barraza<\/strong> in Entrepreneur<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\u201cOnly in extraordinary cases is it ever modified, and even then, only to adapt to major changes. For example, in October 2015, Google realized that its operations had expanded far beyond its original purpose (organizing the world’s information). Instead of changing their company’s purpose, its co-founders created Alphabet, a new organization under which they could incorporate the additional interests Google had acquired over time. The plan is to grow to more than 26 different subsidiaries, with Google being just one of them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Purpose isn’t CSR either<\/h2>\n\n

(Corporate Social Responsibility) or CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).<\/p>\n\n

So, is purpose the same as social marketing? No, not that either.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

The concept of social marketing<\/strong> has evolved over the years into what can now be defined as a set of strategies, ideas, and actions (still marketing, so far) aimed at linking a brand to a social cause. Today, we prefer to talk about impact marketing: marketing that, like all marketing, takes consumer desires into account, but also aims to add value to society, raise awareness, and solve global problems such as the climate emergency or poverty. Does it do good? Yes. Is it purpose? No.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Purpose is intrinsic to a company\u2014it’s its heart, and it guides every single strategy, idea, and action the company undertakes. Purpose is the North Star, guiding every decision and every step the organization takes. Everything, absolutely everything, must be aligned with purpose.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

By now, it’s clear what purpose isn’t, and that gives us a glimpse of what it actually is, starting with:<\/p>\n\n