Why Every Brand Needs a Mission Statement

Why Every Brand Needs a Mission Statement

Developing a successful brand is not something that happens overnight. It takes countless hours of dedication and determination and does not have a shortcut to success. However, there are certain requirements for a successful startup that cannot be ignored. One of the things every brand is going to need if they want to achieve success is a mission statement.

As Entrepreneur explains, a mission statement is “a sentence describing a company's function, markets and competitive advantages; a short written statement of your business goals and philosophies.” And while having a mission statement will not guarantee commercial success, it will vastly improve your chances. Here are a few of the things that make a mission statement so essential to every brand.

Refocuses Attention on Accomplishing Future Goals

An essential part of building a successful brand is a vision statement. A vision statement is a description of what a company wants to achieve in a certain period of time and how. A vision is also a description of where your brand stands in the world, what your values are, where you draw the line between what you feel is acceptable and what not. In today’s world, a vision is often a political statement as well. But when you have a million different things going on, it can be hard to remain focused on directly contributing to reaching the goals laid out in your vision statement. This is where the mission statement comes in handy. This will help to remind you about what you need to be doing to help reach your future goals as it condenses everything in one short sentence.

For example, one of the mission statements of Forbes is “Forbes convenes and curates the most influential leaders and entrepreneurs who are driving change, transforming business and making a significant impact on the world.” So by having this mission statement to repeatedly look back and reflect on, it helps Forbes refocus their attention on curating the most influential leaders and entrepreneurs in the world, which will allow them to better accomplish their goals of growing their brand.

Another example is PBS (Public Broadcasting System): “To create content that educates, informs and inspires”. Just by referring to this short sentence, every employee in the company knows if a program is ready to be broadcasted or not. If it fits the values of the company, then you know it’s good to go.

Lets Customers Know The Purpose of a Company

It might seem strange for a brand to need to communicate the reason why they exist and do what they do but new studies are revealing that this is incredibly important. The reason for this is because the younger generation of consumers (but they are not the only ones) are starting to care more about what companies believe in, rather than the products or services that they sell.

It is estimated that 64 percent of consumers will find a brand much more attractive if they actively communicate their purpose. That’s why a mission statement is so crucial.

Serves as a Guide for Making Decisions

When you have a clear mission statement, it helps to establish the morals and guidelines of your company. This is incredibly important to have access to when it comes to making decisions. After all, the average business will likely need to make hundreds or even thousands of decisions every single week.

 Without any guidelines to follow, it makes it much more likely that you or someone else at the company will make a choice that flies directly in the face of what you are trying to accomplish with your company. And while it may not seem like a big deal to make a small decision that goes against the brand’s mission statement, they can easily add up after a while and customers will be quick to publicly point out these choices.

 The perfect example of how a mission statement helps in this situation is by taking a look at one of the most well-known mission statements in the world, which belongs to the eCommerce giant Amazon. Their mission statement is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.”

 This came in handy when, in the very beginning, they were pressured by book suppliers to remove any negative customer reviews from the products. If they hadn’t been guided by a mission statement, then it would have been very easy to give the suppliers what they wanted to keep them happy and avoid having them pull their product from their website.

 However, Jeff Bezos was able to take a look at the company’s mission statement and be reminded that the customers should always be who they are benefitting first and foremost. Refusing to remove negative reviews is something that would benefit the customers, which is what they did and it helped to promote their status as a very customer-centric company.

 All of these crucial reasons are only scratching the surface of why a mission statement is so important for every brand. So don’t waste another second and make sure to define what your brand’s values are, and incorporate a mission statement into your brand right away.

Sergio Mannino, 2020

This article first appeared on Forbes