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Cool brands don’t just happen. Branding is a discipline and the process of creating a cool brand takes time. Starting with your company’s purpose, mission and vision is a natural first step.
So, how do you create that perfect mission statement that sticks?
Think abstract, before you narrow it down.
First of all, don’t put too much pressure on one single brand asset – be it a slogan or a tagline. Write out a big picture of who you are first before you are ready to articulate that perfect one sentence, to put on the wall in your reception area. Don’t put too much pressure on one single brand asset. #branding Share on X
Way too often we get fixated on the perfect, tagline or a catchphrase for our brand, forgetting that a brand story usually has many “chapters” and the tagline is just one them.
Don’t put yourself into a “branding box”.
As counterintuitive as it may sound, when you are writing your brand’s purpose, mission, and vision, don’t think of them as purpose, mission, and vision. Moreover, don’t even use these words just yet, so you don’t condition yourself into some preconceived notion of how it should be written.
Think of answering these questions instead.
What do you do?
This is essentially why your business exists. Don’t think of the actual service or product that you offer, but instead, think of the benefits that you provide to your customers. How do you solve their problems? Let this paragraph be about your customer first and about you second.
For example, at Cucumber we “Help cool brands grow.”
How do you do it?
Now think how you do what you do. I love the word “obsessed.” While it may have a negative connotation, I am pretty sure everyone would agree in the Greenhouse that we are obsessed with improving our processes – from how we execute branding strategies for our clients, to how we prepare our monthly reports. Every time we onboard a new client, we review the process once again. So it never gets stale around here. It’s true, we like things fresh.
And that answers this question for us – we “provide fresh marketing to our clients”.
Why do you do it?
Speaking of obsessed. We never take the responsibility of becoming someone’s brand ambassador (which essentially we are as a marketing agency) lightly. It’s a huge honour to not only speak for a brand but also “invite ourselves” into someone’s inbox or a Facebook feed. There’s so much noise already happening on the Internet, that we don’t need to create yet another blog post or a pretty photo on Instagram. As a marketing agency, we want to make sure that brands (we work with) have a strong purpose, that they contribute positive vibes (if you will) every time they post something on their website or social media channels. And from this obsession, our vision was born – to use creativity as a catalyst for positive change.
There you have it. Contemplate on these questions, write them out, read out loud, tweak and once you have a clear message on What, How, Why, then try putting that into 3 sentences into your own BrandBook.
And you know what? Asking yourself – what I am obsessed about, could also be a very useful question. Just saying!
Got questions about your own brand’s values? Contact our marketing agency in Vancouver, or stop by – we always have chocolate.