Is ‘brand vision’ a waste of time?
Brand visions seem to be a divisive topic. On the one hand, there are those who promote it as the one thing you simply cannot do without; on the other hand, there are people who believe visions are synonymous with purpose and that the era of purpose is over.
In reality, brand vision probably falls somewhere in between. Not that the era of purpose is over (that’s a whole different topic) but not all businesses need a vision, and not all businesses need one right now.
What is a vision?
A good starting point might be to define what a vision is. As with all aspects of branding, definitions can be elusive. People often hesitate to pin down exactly what they mean by these concepts, and without a clear definition, the idea becomes slippery.
Visions are not a product of the commercial world. People have pursued their visions since the beginning of time. We can think of a vision as the future you’re aiming for — or, as I sometimes say, “what the world would be like if you were ultimately successful.” It sounds lofty, grand, and prone to navel gazing. And it is. However, if you maintain a sense of pragmatism and keep your client and their business in mind, you’ll be fine.
Consider a company that sells bolts. A vision of “a world that is more reliable by people who believe in doing things well” might feel like the kind of vague statement that arises when people try to out-philosophize one another. In contrast, a simple statement like “a world where a job done can really be considered done” feels more grounded. It’s not great, I just made that up — but it speaks to good bolts that do what they say on the tin and there is some indication of how you are better off beyond just the bolt. At its core it is, a simple articulation of the change we’d expect to see if people buy into our product.
When do you need one?
Like I said, not everyone needs one all the time. Take our bolt company for instance. A vision is a nice thing to have and I’m sure if you got it just right, your client would look at your presentation and say ‘yes, that’s true’. But does it really move their business forward? Will they see a return on investment for the time and money it took for you to come up with that? For a company that sells only bolts you can argue not. That money might be better spent on understanding their primary and secondary audiences. Maybe some point of sale, packaging innovation or a simple and targeted sales campaign.
But what if that company expanded into other hardware, maybe tools and even a service where they help you design furniture? It becomes harder to point the whole thing in one direction. From their own point of view they are probably growing either through acquisition or the process of applying a versatile set of skills to various problems. But from an employee and consumer point of view you can see how people might struggle to look at the whole offering and know what they are on about — other than commercial success.
Now commercial success is great. It really is. But people don’t buy into a business for the business’ success. And when employees dedicate their time and effort to a business, commercial success make the whole thing a bit transactional. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with transactional, but in an ideal world, you want people to feel that they’re not simply selling their time in a zero sum game.
Visions are then useful on two fronts. For employees it creates a sense of working on something bigger. An employee might not see the project through to it’s ultimate end (and I think most people know this) but it feels good to lay a few bricks in a project that is reaching towards something greater. It’s that same class of feeling that you have when you think of legacy, only toned down.
For consumers it brings context to the thing that they are buying. It’s important however to note that they are not buying into your vision. Instead you have to articulate and demonstrate some alignment to a vision that they already hold. People already believed in the power of the individual, Apple just stated it in clear copy and sold them a product that could arguably get them closer to that goal. People already believe that there is more to their individual potential than the bit they have realised, so Nike says that everyone is an athlete and sells athletic shoes and apparel to liberate that athlete. People already feel that there is more to beauty than what we see in the media, so Dove articulates a world where our real beauty is celebrated. It works.
Why does it work?
It’s tempting to think this is snake oil. A sort of ‘selling people things they don’t want’. This is impossible by the way. Or at least very difficult to do without force — to make someone give you money and then send them off with something they don’t want. We could argue that we’re making people want things they don’t need, but this is a surprisingly difficult argument and you’re always two statements away from sounding like a dictator telling people what they need and what they ought to want.
The truth is that brands have very little to do with what people aspire to and what visions they hold of their future. For example, the belief in the power of the individual is not an Apple idea, it’s a deeply held American idea. True for other parts of the world as well, but nowhere is freedom and the belief in the individual so deeply held as in the US. Yes, you can argue that it’s going a bit off the rails right now, but culture are always correcting, over correcting and correcting again and this is beyond the scope of what I’m writing here. The point is that it’s not Apple or Nike or another consumer brand that created this belief. This is more likely due to separating from British rule, the Declaration of Independence, Puritan Christian values that promotes a personal covenant with God and so on. A brand like Apple is rather the consequence of this belief rather than the creator.
The successful brand (or political movement or social club for that matter) that exists under the halo of this vision is firstly a consequence of it and secondly a clear articulation of it.
A good vision is not a statement that makes people think you’re amazing, it’s a statement that says ‘I also believe in the vision you have and I’ll do everything I can within the confines of my product and category to make it real’. That last bit about product and category sounds like a compromise but don’t stray to far from it. If you completely forget product and category you end up with statements like ‘this isn’t a bolt, it’s an expression of your agency and freedom as a human being’. And while a bolt can be many wonderful things, an existential validation is not one of them.
So is a brand vision rubbish or not?
Yes and no. If you see this as an opportunity to dabble in philosophy then it’s probably not worth the effort. But if you acknowledge that people have always imagined a better future, if you make an honest effort to understand what and why that is and then use your vision to align your product and category with that, then you have a functional brand component. It’s not the be all and end all of a brand, but it is a useful tool unify, to create long term buy in from various stakeholders and to give you some elbow room for innovation.
