The Importance of Defining Your Company's Purpose

Many companies have mission statements, slogans and promises that tell their consumers what the company offers, whether it’s low prices, a reliable source or expert services. However, a promise isn’t worth much unless you let people know why your company offers that pledge.

The purpose behind a company essentially asks the age old question “why are we here?” and it’s important in business. You have to know why you’re in the marketplace, what about your company is vital to your customers’ lives and why they should trust in your promise.

It also helps employees and associates throughout the business to know why they work for you, what their work is going towards and how they should conduct themselves. It defines their very work ethic.

An example is Wal-Mart, which promises reduced prices on a range of goods. It recently went on to ask why it guarantees that, and it came up with the answer ‘to provide better lives for families’. This meant that customers trusted Wal-Mart motives more and it helped employees to know that the food and other products they were helping to sell would ultimately benefit a family by allowing them to the spend money they saved shopping on other goods or services.

Defining why your company exists can mean that you can easily find a way to carve a niche in your marketplace. It gives you a sense of purpose and a drive to move forward, an important thing in the current climate, and can be a rallying cry for your investors. Many companies offer the same service or product, but how and why they operate can vary and this can be how to make yourself get noticed and, ultimately, chosen.

Purpose gives companies something to strive for and fulfil a much greater psychological bond with customers than empty promises. Knowing who you are is vital to standing out in a crowded marketplace.

How will be people know your purpose? Through purpose-driven marketing. You have to let people know who you are, what you offer and why you offer it. Those three combined all add up to why they should choose you over a competitor and will increase brand connectivity with your consumer base. This works best by using online and social marketing, where people can interact and keep up-to-date with how your company fulfils its purpose.

So take a long, hard look inside your company and figure out just why you are here. It’s a much easier philosophical question than trying to figure out why we’re here as a whole.