The Corporate Core Purpose Message
A brand core story at the corporate level revolves around values connects with an audience with similar values and beliefs, which invites them to become brand loyal tribes. A purpose message surrounding a brand helps shape a company’s identity if it uses storytelling narrative techniques that enable an emotional response from the audience and make meaningful connections. The message should not be confused with a slogan or logo. A tagline is a short, catchy expression that incorporates the story message used in company advertising.
Brand storytelling is a tool for telling stories, not for its sake. Instead, marketers used stories to deliver messages positively surrounding the company's core brand. But what is a well-defined message? Without a strategic purpose, there is no reason to tell stories. For example, “Just Do It” is Nike’s slogan; however, their message is that every game is about winning. With effort and determination, everyone can be a winner. Nike is fighting to help the customers be more confident about themselves, overcome restraints, and “Just Do It” to win. Nike is fighting a lack of self-confidence and hesitation. According to Nike, if anyone wants to win, quitting is not an option, and reaching a goal might require sacrifice.
Nike Brand Core Story "Believe In Something, Even If It Means Sacrificing Everything"
In a Nike
controversial commercial IN 2018, Colin Kaepernick focused on sacrificing moto
initiated a vast debate in social media between the audience who split between
disagreed and agreed on that message.
Although Nike lost a slice of its angry customers, Nike successfully received a
large scale of brand recognition created all over the news and in harsh debates
between potential consumers. The controversial Ad won the award for outstanding
commercial at the Creative Arts Emmys. According to Business Insider, the ad
was successful, despite its high risk. It was trending on Twitter for millions;
Nike received more than $43 million worth of media exposure, nearly $19 million
worth of which was positive. Nike fully invested in the cause and the heroism
that Kaepernick portrayed. That heroism role was the essential part of Robin
Hood storytelling ad confronting the adversary forces of disagreed Trump
supporters during the escalation of conflict events. Nike saw an opportunity of
polarization throughout divided America then used it as a marketing tool.
Despite the backfire from some Americans, the campaign was a successful hit. Nike Stocks rose by 5% in the weeks
following the ad’s release.
The Body Shop Brand core Story "Forever Against Animal Testing: Join the Fight!"
The possibility for animal testing is still a massive risk worldwide—no laws against testing in cosmetics in over 80% of countries. Cruelty-Free International estimates that approximately 500,000 animals are still used in cosmetics testing every year. Anita Roddick established the Body Shop beauty brand in 1976. The founder wanted her company to stand for important values associated with brand identity. An important message accompanied the brand, launched by an alliance with internal employees and customers in 1989. The Body Shop, which has over 3,000 stores in more than 60 countries, was the first international cosmetic brand to campaign against animal testing in cosmetics in 1989, opening the way to a U.K. ban in 1998 and a European Union-wide ban on animal testing in 2013. The Body Shop continues its efforts to fight passionately against animal testing on products and ingredients, which is cruel and unnecessary. The Body Shop implemented a Robin hood storytelling plot fighting for animals against the adversary forces of greedy unworried competitors. The brand usefully delivered its message and won in some ethical battles.
Volvo Brand Core Story “Sustainability Is Now As Important As Safety To Us”
Since the beginning, Volvo started as a car brand associated with safety as a purpose-based company. Volvo is always proud of its invention, the 3-point safety belt, and the millions of lives it saved over the years. Volvo waived its patent rights to allow other car manufacturers to use this technology. In 2021 Volvo changed its direction towards electric cars and green energy as a sustainable strategy towards the future. Volvo’s ambition is to become a fully electric car company by 2030 and climate neutral by 2040.” Sustainability is now as vital as safety to us, and climate change is the ultimate safety test.” The CEO of Volvo cars announced this direction of the company in a YouTube video, “Volvo Cars Moment: Recharge“ with the hashtag #ForEveryonesSafety. The company posted a catchy ad, “The Ultimate Safety Test,” to emphasize to its customers and the world that the biggest threat to safety now comes from climate change. In the new ad, a spokesperson called ‘Bjorn’ takes viewers on a tour of Volvo’s safety tests over the years and then moves up north to the arctic pole, where he asked whether a 100-foot drop is suitable as the ultimate safety test. A collapsing glacier delivered the shocking answer, interrupting the ad with a bold reminder that the biggest threat to safety is not on the road. According to Volvo, today, climate change is the ultimate safety test. Volvo currently cares about climate change as a brand purpose alongside safety.
Bosch Brand Core Story Revolves Around The “Invented For Life”
The
contagious shift towards sustainability also affected the giant German
engineering company. Bosch ranked 77 in the Fortune Global (100) in 2020. The
company is well known for its quality, precision, innovative strength, and
connection between technology with people, its brand core purpose message is “Invented
For Life.” The evolution of IoT-Internet of Things- The reality of “connected
devices” led Bosch to pursue a new brand identity to take their place in the
evolving world. As a result, the brand had to redefine the meaning of its “Invented
For Life” claim and change its core value messaging and identity to make a
direct emotional connection with its variety of consumers throughout both b2b
and b2c channels and platforms. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the company
shift towards digitalization, creativity, technology, and climate change
sustainability, “Shifting paradigms: Creativity. Technology. Trust”.
The
company’s CEO Dr. Volkmar Dennner appeared in a YouTube video to talk about
Bosch’s core values and its messaging to the world. “Despite all the changes,
one success factor remains the same: people. For Bosch, people have the final
say. They stay in control. Technology remains explainable because we must be
able to trust it. It is the only way to build openness and acceptance for
tomorrow’s technologies created by people for people and a better world. Or, as
we put it at Bosch: Invented for life”. From washing machines, dishwashers, and
e-drives to drilling tools—Bosch is improving products that enhance the quality
of life, which help preserve natural resources. Also, the company started
reducing its carbon footprint a long time ago. It achieved CO₂
neutrality at its over 400 locations worldwide in 2020—making it the first
global industrial company to do so. Bosch took sustainability seriously and presented
live sustainable #LikeABosch.
A Brand Core Story "Doing It Right At First Time With Constant Care"
At Danish
shipping company A.P. Moller - Maersk Group, the central message has always
been that trust, connection, people, discipline, punctuality, disciplined
execution, and constant care. Every time the company is paying attention to
detail, doing it right for the first time is the foundation of a reliable
business. In
return, their customers can be safe knowing that things are always on track.
The passed away founder of the company MC Kinney Moller used to express his
message in two words “constant care,” a term that, to this day, is firmly
rooted at the heart of the company and its core story.
“Imagine if a restaurant was like shipping” is an ad by Maersk featuring a story
clip inside a restaurant. The customers are the heroes and the victims,
simultaneously facing a conflict of overbooking, price rise, and uncertainty of
their orders. A couple was rolled out of the restaurant on a rainy night due to
complex overbooking. The company emphasized its solution to the problem by
introducing Maersk spot, loading guarantee, easy online booking, and fixed
price.
The company continues to deliver more core messages around its brand core
values.
Here are
some more inspirational examples of other brand’s core stories:
- Harley-Davidson is about independence and power, freedom to travel, living a life without rules.
- Apple is about innovation and shaping technology to benefit human needs and recently added privacy.
- Greenpeace is battling for the global environment.
- Virgin is about being playful, modern, and energetic.
- LEGO is about kids’ imagination, creativity, fun, learning, caring, quality, people promise, play.
- Adidas builds on a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle.
- Pepsi is about “Excitement of Now.”
- Coca-Cola is about to “refresh the world in mind, body, and spirit, and inspire moments of optimism; to create value and make a difference.”
- BMW’s is about sophistication.
- Ford’s is about “to make people’s lives better by making mobility accessible and affordable.”
- Uber is beyond simple.
- Redbull is about energy, boldness, adrenaline, actions, and adventures.
- Ikea is about ‘to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will afford them.’
A Brand Core Story That was Damaged By A Song "United Breaks Guitars"
United
airlines write on its website: “We are committed to providing a level of
service to our customers that makes us a leader in the airline industry. We
understand that we need to have a proud product and employees who like coming
to work every day. Our goal is to make every flight a positive experience for
our customers”.
When a
company contradicts its values and commitment towards its customers, it is a
severe problem. United airlines faced two major public relations disasters. The
first one,” united breaks the guitar,” in 2009. The second one was more brutal
in 2017 when a passenger violently dragged off the plane to free up seats for dead-heading
employees. The core message of these two stories is that a brand did not learn
from its past mistakes and continued to mistreat its customers taking benefits
from a non-availability of enough competition in the U.S. airline industry.
When a brand feels some monopoly over its market, it does not care anymore.
Musician
Dave Carroll filed a complaint about his guitar, mishandled and broken while in
United Airline’s custody in 2008. The company refused to compensate or take any
responsibility, which eventually led Carrol to publish a song "united breaks guitars" on YouTube in
2009 about his horrible experience traveling with united airlines. The video went
viral and passed 150,000 views within one day, prompting United to contact
Carroll to say it hoped to correct the matter. The video had 5 million views by
August 2009, 10 million by February 2011, and 15 million by August 2015. It has
roughly 20.7 million views and 212,000 likes as of July 2021. Within four weeks
of the video being posted online, united airlines’ stock price fell 10%,
costing stockholders about $180 million in value.
2017 was the year of the second-largest public relations disaster in united airlines history. Dr. David Dao Duy Anh, a Vietnamese American passenger, was wounded when he has forcibly removed off a fully booked, sold-out aircraft to Louisville International airport. The incident video went viral, and United Airlines stock plummeted. The company mishandled the incident, and the CEO issued two apology letters as the first one was bad. As a result, United’s consumer perception dropped to a 10-year low. A consistent lousy reputation is difficult to recover despite aggressive marketing, brand building, and corporate storytelling messages.
A company without respecting and fulfilling its purpose core values and
actions will not positively affect the business environment. A corporate brand core
story must be strengthened and anchored throughout the company and integrated
across all departments and sections to enhance brand identity internally and
externally. A brand's identity, reputation, and trustworthiness are eroded
without a consistently excellent customer service experience especially when it
violates and contradicts its core corporate and brand promise.
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