The Core of Your Brand: Essence, Purpose, Vision, Mission

In three words or less, what’s your company all about? Ready, set, go.

For some, this is easy. It’s well-defined and lives–consciously or subconsciously–in the minds of your team and your customers. For others, summing it up in three words seems impossible. 

In today’s insight, we’ll discuss brand essence and its importance in keeping your brand consistent while driving business decision-making. We’ll also contrast the essence with the core purpose and talk about the importance of both in your brand strategy.

Brand Essence

First things first, what is the definition of brand essence? What’s the significance? 

Depending on who you ask, you may get different definitions. For us, brand essence is at the core of everything you do. It’s your big idea and the unifying thought that everything else stems from.

As we alluded to earlier, it’s typically short and aspirational, and while it’s not typically outwardly facing, it sets the tone for your brand strategy. 

For an innovative data center company, it may be something like “Sustainable, Intelligent Infrastructure.” For an InsurTech company, it may be something like “Actionable, Real-time Property Intelligence.”

In many ways, it’s summing up your company’s positioning in as few words as possible. 

Though often confused or sometimes used interchangeably, the brand essence is not your tagline. A tagline may be the outward expression of your essence and positioning, but it is focused on providing your customers with more of your mantra. 

For example:

Nike’s brand essence: Authentic Athletic Performance

Nike’s tagline: Just Do It

Core Purpose

While this is also at the center of your brand and inwardly facing, the purpose is more of the heart and soul of your company. It communicates why, besides profit, you do what you do. 

Typically, this is the least favorite exploration when working with technical brands. We frequently hear things like, “We’re a business, not a non-profit. Everything is for profit.” Or “Why is this necessary? Don’t we just need a mission and vision statement?”

Regardless of your business or industry, the core purpose is important. 

Like the brand essence, the purpose is typically shared internally. It unites your employees around a bigger idea and closely aligns with the culture and guiding principles you create. It’s your north star–often tied to a larger societal or humanistic benefit. 

Even for a more commodity business like an engineering firm, the core purpose may be something like “elevating the engineer’s contribution in the minds of the business community.” The call to action is bigger than just doing the job at hand–it’s to communicate, be different, and make a difference. 

People are people. Intrinsic motivation can drive more than just standard business aspirations. 

Continuing with the Nike example: 

Nike’s brand essence: Authentic Athletic Performance

Nike’s tagline: Just Do It.

Nike’s purpose: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.

Vision & Mission

A vision statement is focused on the future. It’s ambitious, inspirational, and never fully obtainable. The vision’s main purpose is to communicate the change you want to make in the world. It’s what you want to accomplish.

The mission, on the other hand, is how you plan to get there. It puts action behind what you’re doing and how you’re going to do it. 

Let’s look at a few examples:

LinkedIn 

Vision: Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.

Mission: Connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.

Google 

Vision: To provide access to the world's information in one click. 

Mission: To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

In both of these examples, you can see the interconnection, but the clear difference as well. The vision is the ultimate dream, while the mission sets the roadmap to get there.

Bringing Them All Together

All of these components make up the core of your brand strategy. They are the foundational building blocks that are core to how your business will compete.

When your brand core is constructed well, these brand elements are more than just words in a brand book. They keep the keep the business focused, and ensure decisions are consistent with the overall business strategy and direction.

Need help developing your brand strategy? Get in touch.