The Sharp sharia: to hell with your purpose anyway

Byron Sharp does not write about it, but I have heard him say something about it. And since I notice there is a lot of discussion about it, I take the liberty of writing something about it here.

A legitimate question: what about those successful brands with very strong purpose? Isn't that then proof that it is crucial? Undeniably, there are examples of brands that have a strong focus on their purpose and are successful. The questions to ask are:

• Is that the (only) reason for its success?
• Are there any examples of purpose brands that are not successful?
  

That's how you should look at it scientifically. In line with how Byron Sharp naturally responds. And it is, frankly, sometimes quite irritating or at least uninspiring-how Byron Sharp often dismisses these types of propositions and hypotheses: if it's not proven then it's not so. But strictly speaking, he always has a point with that. For this approach, also read Robert van Ossenbrugge's essay in Eat Your Greens.

Let's take one such example that captures everyone's imagination: Tony Chocolonely. Let's consider that a successful brand. Now what is the main driver behind that success? Is it indeed the purpose? Is it because it is an ideal gift (entry point) for different occasions? Is it the timing of the claim? Is it because of the good physical availability (they are at the cash register in many a store)? Is it the eye-catching and unique color code? Is it "a combination of"?

Purpose is a good basis for brand consistency

How I see it is that brand building and brand growth are two things. And that both are important. In any case, good purpose is not a necessary or sufficient condition for success. But it can be an essential basis for that. Sharp does mention consistency as a necessary condition of success. And a purpose is a good basis for brand consistency. If every employee lives through the purpose, if all communications are in line with it, then the outside world gets a consistent image of your brand. Byron Sharp said it (almost literally) "having a purpose is very important, but it doesn't matter which one. Huh? Again, 'having a purpose is very important, but it doesn't matter which one?

Wait a minute. That's weird, right? Surely one brand is very different from another? You can't just stick every random purpose on every brand, can you? That's not credible, is it?

Indeed. Of course it matters what purpose your brand has, how proprietary it is, how embedded it is in the culture, how credible it is to the market (read: how strong the brand and that specific purpose are already together in the consumer's brain). The point is that in the same market, multiple purpose brands can be successful at the same time, each with its own purpose. Often all those different purposes appeal to many people, and there are many people who find multiple purpos appealing. So in that sense, one purpose is not necessarily more successful than another. But what remains is, and what is in line with How Brands Grow: better that that purpose already fits well into the memory structures of the consumer. Otherwise, you sacrifice consistency and it takes much more time and money to achieve the same thing. So as far as Sharp is concerned, the success of a purpose lies mainly in the basis it lays for consistency of the brand to the outside world.

A purpose is also important for another reason: it makes a brand likeable and thus increases the group for whom the brand in question is an acceptable alternative. And I just quote a phrase from the previous blog: it is more important to be a good alternative for a large group than the best alternative for a limited group. Indeed, coupled with strong physical availability, this is important: that people feel no hesitation in buying your brand.

Ok, so also from How Brands Grow, having a purpose is important. But that does not equate to being a love-brand. In this sense: the question is to what extent people really "love" a brand, let alone are monogamous and therefore cannot "love" other brands.

In conclusion, I would say that brand building and brand growth are two different things that are an extension of each other. Rediscovering and describing your purpose is 1 and then growing your brand by consistently building your mental and physical availability is 2. So they are not in conflict, but complementary to each other.

Read more in our How Brands Grow Whitepaper.

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