Have you seen Toy Story 4? I think it’s perhaps the best one of the series. What I loved in the movie was the inner turmoil the main protagonist, Woody the cowboy sheriff, faces in the absence of his purpose. With his first owner gone to college and a current owner who doesn’t find him interesting enough, Woody fumbles until he finds his purpose in reuniting a lost toy with his current owner.

Before you think this is just another movie review you didn’t want to read, let me assure you that it’s not. We often undermine the power of purpose…thinking it may be a ‘good to have’. But what is life without purpose? What is anything without purpose? And branding is not free from the need to be purposeful as well.

Brand purpose, the reason for the brand to exist, drives an idealistic view of how you want your audience, your customers, to view you. Without purpose, you cannot engage with your audience at a meaningful level. And in the age of entropy, this can be the death knell of a brand.

However, brand purpose does not matter only to your external customers. It matters, and matters perhaps a great deal more, to your internal customers – your employees.

Purpose drives satisfaction

According to a study by the Harvard Business Review, 89% of executives believed purpose drives employee satisfaction. 84% of those surveyed believed that it aids an organization’s ability to transform. 80% stated that it helps in increasing customer loyalty.

Think about some of the greatest brands – Apple encourages you to ‘think different’, Nike that says, ‘just do it’, GE that urges you to ‘put imagination to work’. The essence of their purpose not only reflects in the products that they build but it also resonates across the entire organization.

While the customers keep the lights on, without purpose you won’t be able to keep your employees anchored to what you do.

Purpose drives ownership

IBM is a great example of a brand that has worked to strengthen its purpose continuously. They have continued to strengthen their brand purpose to not only drive growth but to give greater meaning and inspiration to their employees’ lives. By doing so, they have given their employees something to aspire to and have given them a reason to care.

Purpose drives employees to care. Employees who care will have a higher sense of ownership. A higher sense of ownership automatically translates to greater productivity. Greater productivity impacts the bottom line positively. Ownership also drives motivation. And a motivated workforce is more engaged and enabled. Driven by purpose, people work towards creating products and services that drive value in the life of the customer. And the customer drives the profits. The math is fairly simple.

The age of the woke employee

It is not just the age of the woke customer. It is the age of the woke employee too. Your employee is someone else’s customer after all, isn’t she? So logically, the rules of engagement have to be the same for the customer and for the employee.

PwC says that 30% of employees who work with a sense of purpose feel a profound connection to their company. Then there is the fact that by 2025, millennials will constitute 75% of the workforce. And millennials love purpose. They will work for companies whose values and purpose match their own. The old work contract that read “I will work to buy stuff I love” has been replaced with “I will work because it makes me happy”.

Purpose trumps profitability (for your employees, at least)

In the age of this woke employee, purpose also trumps profitability. The Deloitte 2017 Global Human Capital Trends report showed that the millennial workforce looks beyond a company’s financial performance when deciding on a prospective employer.

Your employees are your brand ambassadors. Unless you can inspire them with your brand purpose, how can you inspire your customers? Your employees are your main consumers. And they are watching you. They are watching your words and assessing if these words are translating into action. Words only turn into action when the purpose is linked to the brand in a credible and authentic manner.

The true measure of your brand’s impact shouldn’t begin with analyzing how it impacts the customers. Instead, it has to first analyze if it impacts your employees. It is only when purpose resonates across the organization that your employees will develop a sense of ‘shared purpose’. And when you and your employees have this sense of shared purpose, your customers see authenticity and genuine effort.

So, while you get your swanky cafeterias and pool tables to engage your employees and keep them happy, do take the time to focus on your brands’ purpose. For it is the brand’s purpose that will keep your employees rooted to your company.

 

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