Purpose in Practice

Every brand is looking at how they should show up in the world right now. Marketing decisions the world over are in question.  The answers to these questions are varied and entirely unique to the DNA of each brand. But when it comes to one question, there should be a universal YES.

Should you be thinking about your brand’s purpose? Yes. 

While you might be questioning your external marketing efforts right now, communicating who you are as a brand internally is critical.  We’ve shared our views on the importance of purpose in moments of crisis challenge in a previous post but here is an example of it in action.

In a [socially safe] walk with our friend and client Josh Weinstein recently, we talked about the work we did together in articulating the brand purpose for the Louis S. Wolk JCC of Greater Rochester and how that purpose has been an essential tool for him and his entire team—over the last four months in particular.

Purpose to rally and inspire

Josh came in to the JCC as CEO in late 2018. While the JCC had spent the prior year developing a mission and vision statement to keep the agency aligned in where they were headed, there was a clear need for the team to rally around a purpose to help inform day to day decisions that would get them to that end state. They needed a “north star” to unify decision making and connect the team through shared set of values that reinforced the meaning in everything they did.

Working with internal and external stakeholders, the board of directors, community members and other Jewish community organizations, we shaped a purpose for the JCC that has since served as an on-going source of inspiration, direction, and meaningful connection to the work of every individual in service to the JCC and for the organization as a whole. 

The JCC’s purpose to “fill the tent with light and welcome all to shine” has now been a source of positive momentum in the best of days and as we’ve seen in most recent months—an invaluable support in the most troubling times.

Josh could speak to a number of ways the purpose we shaped together had immediate internal impact in and outside the agency in the months that followed. From aligning internal behaviors, boosting team morale, and directly impacting leadership and team architecture decisions. At the same time, the purpose and articulation of the brand narrative became the guiding voice of the agency to both internal and external audiences.

Then March 2020.

The organization took on the economic hit like the rest of the world. And like CEOs and leaders across the globe, the JCC faced the hardest decisions. Every attempt to keep agency doors openable in the future had to be scrutinized. And in every one of them, the brand purpose and strategy became the guiding voice. The clearly defined values of authenticity, compassion and kovad (honor and respect) provided the meaningful context for how to operate through hardships never-before-experienced.

Using purpose to help navigate tough decisions

In the first few weeks of the pandemic, the purpose and values were the anchor and connecting force in the terrible furlough conversations. And as the weeks went on, they were the rationale and context to inform teams of every decision that was being made as scenarios changed by the day.  It became the inspiration to keep community and team members connected without the physical center open. Now, as they reconsider the services that they offer in a variety of future scenarios, it is the lens through which they make decisions and take action. When to open services, how to do it, what to do—and what NOT to do.

As Josh said, “When the pandemic hit, we immediately adjusted our agency strategy from building community to protecting community.  But one thing remained consistent -- our agency purpose -- which has helped us weather the storm and focus our efforts on what success looks like on the other side.”

There is no one-size fits all answer in how to communicate who you are to the outside world. But now is absolutely the right time to know your brand’s purpose, to share the intention as a team and use it to rally and inspire consistently.