Episode #22: The Best Brand Mission Statements – How to Define Your Brand Mission

Like many of the other aspects of your brand, your Mission should create an emotional connection with your audience.

It should clearly communicate your brand purpose, the impact your business would like to have on the world, the objective of the organization, and how it will attempt to deliver that promise to the customer.

More simply stated: the mission describes what your business aims to achieve and how you will achieve it.

Keep in mind that your Mission Statement may change over time as your company grows, accomplishes its goals, and has to redefine the brand vision.

WHY A MISSION STATEMENT IS IMPORTANT

To help you understand the importance of your mission statement, here are 6 reasons how your Brand Mission will help your business achieve its Vision.

1. Your mission statement will connect with a certain demographic who are searching for what you do. This will help define your target audience.
2. Your mission statement will become the hub of your business. Everything you say and do will tie into this central focal point.
   When you need to quickly and easily articulate what your business does to a new audience, your mission statement will serve as the perfect elevator pitch.
3. Similar to your Brand Vision, your Mission statement will act as a filter to determine if new projects are inline and a good fit with your business strategy.
4. Your Mission statement will be a call to action that your employees can follow when making decisions and representing the organization.
5. Your Mission Statement will help express the value of your brand to potential partners or investors.

HOW TO DEFINE YOUR MISSION STATEMENT

If you are just starting out, and haven’t been in business for very long, you may find it challenging to define your mission statement.

Perhaps this is the first time you are building a brand and you are still experimenting with exactly what it is your business provides and who your audience is.

A great way to craft your own mission statement is to research the mission statements of other brands in your industry.

Obviously your mission needs to be authentic to your business, however you can still draw inspiration from other more developed brands.

To help out, I have included a few mission statements of top brands in the description below.

Once you have researched the mission statements of your competitors and other influential brands, start by creating a list of your goals.

This list should include outwardly facing goals that have a positive impact on your audience and help make the world a better place.

Your brand goals will inevitably change over time, therefore your mission statement may need to be adjusted in the future as well.

But for now, focus on your business goals as they stand right now and be sure that your mission statement is relevant to the larger purpose today.

Here are 5 questions to ask while you are defining your Mission Statement:

1. How does your brand add value to the consumer?
2. How do you intend for the brand to positively impact the world?
3. Can everyone within the organization understand the mission?
4. Are the brand goals and vision attainable and realistic?
5. Can you quickly and easily articulate what your business does?

Your brand mission is not about how you will accomplish your financial goals.

Instead, it’s about expressing to the consumer how your products or services will solve their problems and help them achieve THEIR goals.

Remember, your mission statement is an actionable commitment and promise to your audience.

If crafted perfectly, it will generate an emotional connection and inspire people to take action based on how well you have articulated your vision for a better world.

So there you have it. You must define your brand mission as a guide to motivate your business and team to achieve its goals.

The Best Brand Mission Statements:

Spotify: “To unlock the potential of human creativity — by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it.”

Tesla: “To accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible.”

TED: “Spread ideas.”

Airbnb: “To create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, providing healthy travel that is local, authentic, diverse, inclusive and sustainable.”

Starbucks: “To inspire and nurture the human spirit — one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”

Microsoft: “To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”

Kickstarter: “To help bring creative projects to life.”

Squarespace: “Empowers people with creative ideas to succeed.”

The American Red Cross: “Prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.”

Twitter: “To give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.”

Patagonia: “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”

American Express: “We work hard every day to make American Express the world’s most respected service brand.”

Honest Tea: “To create and promote great-tasting, healthy, organic beverages.”

JetBlue: “To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground.”

Nordstrom: “To give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible.”