Brands naturally emanate their own culture, but the purpose of a brand is the best way to decide what that culture is going to be. Purpose and relevancy are intrinsically linked, but relevancy is the cornerstone for delivering on a purpose. The purpose becomes the narrative; the ‘what you do’, ‘why you do it’ and even ‘how you do it’.
Purpose on its own is not enough, but if it’s well articulated and baked into the brand story, then much of the work is done. Coupled with this, is the need for a differentiated brand personality, because that in turn feeds a distinctive tone of voice. This process is about finding YOUR own brand voice. Without it, expressing your opinions is much harder as you need a voice to share your values; what, where and when to say it and how it can be adapted to suit different audiences.
On the face of it, the idea of storytelling jars with the weightiness of big issues because it sounds trivial; what have stories got to do with real life problems? But, in reality, storytelling is the backbone of ensuring a message is relevant. Relevancy strays into high emotions so good storytelling is important to not only make people listen, but to show that you have listened, too.