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Vision brings focus
Written by Giacomo Felace
2019.07
How do you motivate people to choose to be part of something? To believe in something bigger? To buy a product or join a brand?
When a business is small, a brand vision is usually loosely held by its leadership team. It often resides in the leader’s [passionate] minds. If the business grows though there eventually becomes a need for this vision to be more complex - both within the business and to team members.
When the leaders no longer hire people systems and frameworks need to be built and unless these come from a defined vision you may find that the business grows in a randomic way.
To scale, you need mental models to motivate people to action, within an organisation but also for clients. Businesses need a big idea. A purpose. A vision. Directions.
A vision becomes the soul of everything. From this other frameworks can be hung. A brand voice and personality. Decisions around how the brand looks and feels. Its reason to exist, who it serves and why they should care. The values it stands for. The behaviours that are expected of its people. How it’s products are sold. The experiences it offers to customers.
Purpose stems from the brand vision.
Without a core idea, people become detached. Things sometimes seem meaningless. Staff become unmotivated. Customers get a poor experience which does not meet their expectations.
Having a clear vision and then ensuring these other decisions and frameworks stem from it allow businesses to motivate at scale. Everything falls into place. They make sense to staff and customers. Everything becomes more meaningful!
There are three types of vision statement:
︎ Belief
An ideology for which the brand stands for;
︎ Passion
Something the brand and its community are passionate about;
︎ Cause
A obstacle which needs to be overcome;It is crucial to have a brand vision which is defined and understood by the team. These principles of vision and purpose are a crucial foundation elements to branding.
To manage the meaning people attach to a brand it must know why it exists. It must have a vision for the world it operates in and it must be able to articulate this if it wants customers and staff to become loyal to it and become passionate for it.
A brand vision brings a focus on meaning and purpose.