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A B2B brand is much more than a tagline, logo or color palette. It’s an ethos built on multiple higher-concept ideas—with the business’s purpose chief among them.
But while a clear statement of why the company exists is appealing internally and externally, it needs to come to life to create enduring value. Employees, prospects, customers and investors need reasons to believe in the business and a compelling, aligned experience that builds their trust and drives their loyalty.
That’s where a brand promise comes in. As core elements of B2B brand strategy, purpose and promise work hand in hand to ensure the company meets deeper audience needs at every moment that matters along their journey. The result is connection—and value creation.
Brand purpose vs. brand promise: What’s the difference?
A brand purpose is a company’s “Why”: the reason it exists. Purpose used to be closely associated with corporate social responsibility goals, but this is no longer the case; it’s about value to any external audience, whether customers, the marketplace, our society or the world. Consider tech giant Cisco and its bold stated purpose “to power an inclusive future for all.”
A brand promise, by contrast, is a point of value that audiences can expect to gain and experience in every interaction with the brand. Beloved outdoor apparel and equipment brand REI, for example, works to “bring the outdoors into the retail experience.” It’s both a signature feature of the customer relationship and a compelling recruitment message, attracting exactly the types of enthusiasts who would buy REI products to join the team.
Leaders typically focus on defining a company purpose when rebranding or working to enhance corporate culture, while promise is usually associated with customer journey mapping and brand experience design. This doesn’t mean they are totally discrete ideas, however. Purpose drives everything a company does, serving as a guidepost for decision-making and strategy, including those about customer experience. Promise makes even an aspirational purpose feel achievable and, most importantly, tangible. Each interaction conveys the company’s authenticity and understanding of audience needs and priorities.
Articulating an effective, externally-focused purpose
Before brand purpose can be used to create brand promise, it must be strategically crafted. So to start, ensure your purpose is authentic, compelling and succinct. An ideal promise expresses a goal that is specific enough to be differentiating but broad enough to be dynamic and flexible.
Your purpose should represent a goal greater (and more inspiring than) profitability, something that may even elevate the business above its category. Importantly, it must be externally-focused, aimed at meeting the needs of audiences outside the organization.
Consider the brand purposes of two financial institutions. One, from a major bank, is “to be the best and most respected financial institution in the world.” The other, from an investment app, is “to level the investment playing field, giving everyone an equal chance at success.” The first is focused on how the company can become the best and most reputable—and therefore, it’s not really a brand purpose at all. The latter is externally focused, clearly expressing how it hopes to benefit others. This “why” is one that can attract customers and inspire employees to deliver enhanced service.
Building promise from purpose
A concise, authentic, externally-focused brand purpose lends itself to being translated into promise. It’s hard to imagine how to define experiences that could communicate that an institution is “the best and most respected.” But it’s easy to generate ideas for building a journey that “levels the playing field.” The investment app might translate its purpose into a brand promise along the lines of “Affordability, Ease, and Transparency—at every step of the investment journey.” App design could be intuiting and welcoming, and the experience could feature low fees, user education and thought leadership about accessible investment opportunities.
A recent DeSantis Breindel partnership further illustrates this point.
Our client, a large law firm, had previously articulated a purpose “to provide more positive legal experiences that contribute to better results for clients.” But recognizing the centrality of experience to the brand, they wanted to clarify their brand promise and optimize their customer journey. They were known for outstanding client service. But as their company grew, they wanted to codify their commitments, ensuring that the client experience would remain consistently strong across the firm. This required defining a brand promise, as well as establishing customer experience principles that would operationalize the promise across employees.
Before we could suggest a brand promise, we had to understand the firm’s current client experience. So we led employee workshops and client interviews and constructed a client journey map—a visualization of clients’ experience from firm evaluation to the conclusion of a legal matter. By doing so, we found the moments that matter, finding the points of the journey where the firm’s experience was exceeding expectations and where there were opportunities for enhancements.
This research also led us to the brand’s promise: “We work one way: your way.” This promise reflected the firm’s total immersion in a client’s issue and its ability to adapt to meet client needs. Importantly, it also reflected the brand’s purpose. The firm’s “Why” statement—”to provide better experiences that lead to better results”—came to life in its promise of bespoke partnership.
To educate and engage employees around the new brand promise and principles, we orchestrated a robust launch campaign including a town hall event, employee training and a retreat for top business developers. We also delivered documented experience principles and behaviors, which outlined how the promise would be expressed in day-to-day work. There were calls to action like “Be fluent in our clients’ universe” and “Don’t make assumptions.” There were also more specific actions to take, like identifying fee structures that worked with each client’s needs, expectations and objectives.
Using purpose as a compass
Think of brand purpose as your true north, a guiding force that reliably guides every customer interaction and brand experience. When purpose is authentic, externally-focused and actionable, it naturally leads to a brand promise that resonates with audiences and delivers meaningful value.
A well-crafted purpose inspires. A well-executed promise delivers. Together, they ensure every moment that matters in the customer journey aligns with the company’s “Why” to create enduring relationships and value.
Want to discuss how we can help you define a brand purpose and promise that drive value creation? Contact us.
Originally published December 5, 2020.
