Let’s talk brand vision today.
In the previous articles in the glossary series, I covered brand purpose. Before reading this article, I recommend that you read the article on brand purpose, or watch the video about it on YouTube, as brand vision is directly tied to brand purpose.
Have you ever wondered what certain branding and marketing terms mean, and how it applies to business? This series called The Brand Glossary, will help you understand what certain terms mean, and how it is relevant to business.
We’ve all heard of vision, mission, and values. Every company from the 90’s first addition to websites was adding vision, mission, and value statements. Although adding those elements are great to inform stakeholders who they will be working with. Many found these statements lacking. They were either insincere, too corporate, lacked emotion, or they were ‘must-haves’ without really influencing the day-to-day operations of a business.
And that’s where I feel brand vision, when done with heart and sincerity, can honestly affect a business’ operations. So how is brand vision different to the empty statements from the corporate 90’s?
A quick reminder of brand purpose. Brand purpose is a brand’s reason for existing. It is what motivates a brand for doing what it does. Vision is slightly similar. Carla Enslin, a brand professional, and founder of Vega, explains brand vision as the element that “propels the brand’s reason for existing.” She further explains that it’s the purpose of a brand, but as the brand’s imagined future. Essentially what she means is that the vision is a future goal that isn’t necessarily accomplishable right now. It is something a brand can hope for. And it’s why the brand has a specific reason for existing right now and how it plans to influence the future it hopes for.
Other ways in which we can think about brand vision, is that it is where a business is moving to. It’s all about the aspirational goal and business ideas behind a brand that will make an impact for the world’s overall future.
Take Warby Parker as an example of this. Although their functional purpose is to provide eyeglasses, their brand purpose is about impacting the world in a better way by reimagining the eyeglass industry; they want to make eyeglass wear accessible, through affordability, fun, creativity, and innovation. Their vision is that every single person in the world deserves to see. And of course, this is not something they would be able to achieve instantly. Unfortunately, not everyone can even afford their glasses. Or some people will never be able to see.
Now it’s worth noting that this isn’t an empty vision statement. This vision is deeply ingrained in their business model. One of the ways it the business lives the brand vision, is that Warby Parker has a “buy a pair give a pair” model. When you buy a pair of glasses, they distribute a pair of glasses to someone in need.
As such, Warby Parker’s vision should illustrate how a normal vision statement can be considered in relation to brand and purpose. It needs to be honest. It needs to be sincere. And it needs to be actionable within the business.
I trust this article has inspired you to think differently about your vision statement. If you require assistance in your business to help formulate your vision or any other brand identity elements, book a discovery call here.