Does Your Marketing Strategy Inspire or Has it Expired?

When was the last time you read an inspiring mission statement?  For that matter, can you even find yours?  When was the last time someone referenced it?

Most mission statements are either so full of jargon or regurgitated lingo, you fall asleep half-way through. That’s because they lack “purpose.” They focus on the WHAT or HOW but rarely on the WHY.

Why does the brand exist? What is driving people to do what they do?

Having a strong “purpose” – that is the crux of highly successful brands.

This is what Suzanne Martin, head of Networks Field Marketing at Motorola, spoke about to a group of B2B professionals at a Business Marketing Association of St. Louis meeting last week. Her passion about Motorola – and their push to create a “purpose-driven brand” – inspired me enough to write a whole blog post about it. (Note: I have no affiliation with Motorola whatsoever.)

A few key points:

• How much does purpose really matter? Purpose-driven brands outperform the general market 15:1, according to research by Jim Collins, author of “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.”
• Brands don’t move people; it’s the idea, philosophy or motive behind it. What does a brand stand for? That’s where you find passion.
• If you want passionate/engaged customers: inspire employees first. Do employees really understand and embrace the higher purpose of the organization they are working for? Passionate employees breed passionate customers.

In the B2B world where personal relationships are everything, this is especially crucial. Nearly every company is talking about developing strategies to better engage customers online, but I wonder how many are starting with a serious look inside their organization first? There is plenty of chatter about training and educating employees about social media guidelines, policies and tools. Less so about “inspiring” employees to be good brand ambassadors, and then harnessing that energy to fuel social media, public relations and marketing strategies. For most corporations, that’s a scary proposition.

It gave me food for thought. What do you think?

What B2B companies that you know inspire passionate customers? Why?

Photo by Lucas Berrini

To reach Kellie:

Email: kellie@blisspr.com
Twitter: @kshe
LinkedIn: Kellie Sheehan