12 Principles for Purpose-Driven Brands and Culture
What values guide your organization to inspire, empower, and motivate people?
Does your organization’s brand personality reflect its values and its unique voice and expression?
Do your leadership declarations define how you lead yourself and your team?
These 12 principles are as effective for personal leadership as they are for brand and organizational leadership.
Clarity Helps Your Brand Find its Voice
What principles guide your organization’s behavior and give your brand its voice?
Finding clarity is a cultural imperative for brands that stand for something. When you achieve clarity of purpose and vision—it empowers leadership and your team to simplify, clarify, and transform your culture—and inspires people to listen, care, and act.
If you know there’s a gap between what your organization says it values and stands for and how it practices business, how would you feel if your leadership team shared this thought with you:
What can you do about aligning values, brand, and messaging to create a culture of clarity?
Since 2013, hundreds of mission-driven companies and causes have strengthened their culture and brands with these 12 principles for communications. The resolutions of The Clarity Credo form a strong foundation to help organizations achieve clarity of purpose, communication, relationships, and leadership.
12 Principles for Brand Clarity for Every Business
Be Strategic
Every organization needs clarity of purpose, values, communications, and vision to create alignment between culture and brand, so people care and act.
Which do you think is essential to a strategic approach to aligning your brand and culture?
Be Focused
Lack of clarity for your brand quickly becomes evident if you can't articulate your purpose, cause, and vision. Find your focus to bring clarity to brands and culture.
Be Meaningful
Do you understand what values guide your organization's behavior and action, and what motivates and energizes your customers and supporters?
Be Strategic
We will create and follow a plan that aligns our character, culture, and voice with our mission, vision, and values.
Be Focused
We will eliminate distractions to pursue the opportunities that enable us to fulfill our mission and achieve our vision.
Be Meaningful
We will stay true to the values and actions that inspire people to support our vision and the difference we make.
Be Insightful
I used to think insight was about the data — it's really about clarity — a clear and focused path for the mission, actions, communications, and outcomes that empower you to fulfill your purpose.
Be Inspiring
When you make people the center of their story (not your organization's), you begin to understand how branding works: People tell themselves a story about how your brand fits into their worldview.
Speak to people’s minds and touch their hearts. When you invite people into a story they feel like they're part of your mission and understand and why they should care about your brand.
Be Engaging
Listening is tough, especially if we're eager to tell our story without listening to the community we serve. Start with empathy to understand what is important to the people you serve, and what they expect of your mission.
If you spend time asking questions and inquisitively listening (listening with curiosity), your empathy for solving design and other problems will increase.
Be Insightful
We will seek clarity and greater understanding into the results of our mission, vision, and impact.
Be Inspiring
We will speak to the mind and appeal to the heart with stories that inspire people to listen, care, and act.
Be Engaging
We will be curious, listening closely to discover, hear, and understand what people value and expect of us.
Be Social
If your organizational culture prioritizes programs over people, you miss the opportunity to engage people deeply.
Meaningful brands understand that relationships matter more than marketing.
Be Grateful
The last thing you want to do is take credit for what others help you accomplish. Share the love and be grateful for what you accomplish together.
Be Trustworthy
Accountability and transparency are at the core of building trust with customers and supporters of your organization. It's why we spend so much on branding and marketing. Break the trust you work to build, and you may not regain what you lose.
Be Social
We will be ambassadors, recognizing that every interaction is an opportunity to build and strengthen relationships.
Be Grateful
We will acknowledge the people who share our values, believe in our vision, and help us make a difference.
Be Trustworthy
We will be accountable and transparent, speaking and acting true to our purpose, character, culture, and voice.
Be Positive
Being positive is about more than design and communications.
Being positive greatly impacts customer engagement, directly impacts the experience people have, and ultimately impacts your audience’s perception of the brand.
Be Powerful
You can never stop believing and acting in the belief that your brand has the power to change the world. If you don’t believe, then who will?
To be powerful is to be a leader who influences followers and peers.
Be Courageous
Do you understand that your brand is not about your organization?
Your brand must be about the success of your tribe and how your brand makes their life better. Pursue their loyalty fearlessly and confidently!
Be Positive
We will act boldly and speak confidently because our purpose and vision has the power to change people’s lives.
Be Powerful
We will act boldly and speak confidently because our purpose and vision has the power to change people’s lives.
Be Courageous
We will be fearless and resilient, overcoming every challenge as we lead the movement to achieve our vision.
Do you have a hard time explaining what your company does or why your brand matters to people?
If you struggle to grow your business, you’re not alone. Aespire can help you create a clear message and brand that helps you grow your business. Contact us today for a consultation with a StoryBrand Certified Marketing Guide.
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