You know you don’t HAVE to have a brand strategy, Right? But it may stand in the way your business growth if you don’t. Developing a stronger BRAND is only one of the many ways a business can improve its performance.
If you’re a small business, or even a sole trader, the whole Brand Strategy thing might seem like overkill to you? If that’s resonating, think of it this way:
What will give you the ’OOMF’ you need to get out of bed on even the coldest, darkest rainiest of winter mornings? Couldn’t you use a little help on those days?
If the answer is ‘YES!’ Then you could benefit from creating a ‘WHY’ statement. If the answer is ‘NO AILSA, I BOUNCE OUT OF BED EVEN ON THE WORST MORNINGS!’ then the chances are that you already know what your WHY is (even if you haven’t written it down – by the way, you should totally do that)!
START WITH ‘WHY’
Creating a Brand Strategy for your business creates clarity, direction and alignment. The WHY statement is the first heading in your Brand Strategy.
In fact, WHY…otherwise known as “Core Purpose” has been identified by the most influential business gurus of our time, as one of THE key ingredients for high-performance.
One of those bright people is Simon Sinek. He has a famous Ted Talk ‘The Origin of Why.’ He gets a whole lot of mentions in the branding world, but it’s still entirely possible you’ve never heard of him. So, just for clarification, he’s generally considered to be the ‘Guru of WHY.’
A founder and visionary, Simon’s OWN personal WHY is:
‘To inspire people to do what inspires them so that, together, each of us can change our world for the better.’
I’m going to unpack Simon’s statement to help you understand how to put YOUR statement together.
There’s a transformation in his statement. Taking ‘people’ from once state or place to another, to bring about a change.
There’s emotion in his statement. It’s tapping into our deep rooted knowledge that we MUST change the world for better and that we COULD play our part in that, if only we were inspired to or knew how to make our contribution. Yours doesn’t have to be about changing the world of course.
There’s a worthiness in his statement. It’s about doing something good – for others and for the planet. Worthiness doesn’t have to be on a grand scale, it can be found in the most simple things.
His statement is motivational. I don’t know about you, but I immediately want to go and listen to Simon’s podcast! I want to get ME some of that inspired feeling…so that I can carry on doing what inspires me, with even more energy and enthusiasm than before.
By the way, if you want to listen to Simon Sinek’s podcast, it’s called: ‘A Bit of Optimism’ and can be found on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF WRITING DOWN MY ‘WHY’?
Defining your Core Purpose is all about achieving clarity and creating alignment. Your Core Purpose doesn’t have to sound impressive on a billboard, or as a tagline. It does, however, have to be meaningful to your business – it should give you goosebumps. Your Core Purpose should motivate you and your employees, if you have any.
But your Core Purpose can do MORE than that.
Business owners who have taken the time to WRITE DOWN their brand’s Core Purpose find it easier to make the right decisions – as every action and step forward should align with the brand’s purpose.
Businesses that operate with purpose have a strong foundation from which to grow.
Your Core Purpose creates a clear sense of direction within your business (together with your Big Goal. More on that in another blog post).
Your Core Purpose helps you to know when to say ‘Heck Yes!’ and when to say ‘Hell No…’ to all the many opportunities that present themselves. So it provides focus.
It also helps other people make the right decisions when you’re not there to ask, or to guide them (if you don’t have staff, this could be people you outsource to or collaborate with).
Oh and just one more time, back to what I said at the start. A great Core Purpose statement will give you the ‘OOMF’ you need to get out of bed on even the coldest, darkest, rainiest of winter mornings.
So, what do you think? Does YOUR business need a WHY?