3 Ways to Add Purpose to Your Products & Protect Your Brand

October 11, 2019

I’ve been saying this for years, and it’s truer now than it’s ever been:

The faceless brands are dying… The purposeless brands are dying… The purposeless brands are only on Amazon.

If you’re an Amazon retailer who doesn’t have a purpose…

Then you’re at risk of selling generic products that depend on ranking for keywords. And if you don’t add mission and purpose to your brand, then:

At best, you can’t sell your business for top dollar.

At worst, you lose everything after the next algorithm change.

In this video, I’ll show you 3 simple ways to add purpose to your products by creating your brand mission, brand story and one-sentence tagline.

This exercise is the first and most important step in creating a profitable content strategy for your business that generates brand loyalty and protects against competitors and platform changes.

The first step is figuring out… WHY?

You’ve probably heard this question in terms of your entrepreneurial journey, but now you should ask it in terms of your brand.

What’s your mission? What’s your story? What’s your purpose?

Your brand should be doing something in the world beyond selling another product — so what is it?!

1. What’s Your Mission?

This is the key that’s going to unlock a new layer of value for your product.

Let’s talk about one of my favorite ecommerce brands, Everlane.

There are thousands of online clothing stores out there, but Everlane uses their mission to stand out from the competition and thrive in an extremely crowded market.

Their mission is simple: Everlane wants to bring transparency to clothing manufacturing, and they tell their customers that right on their website:

At Smart Marketer my goal is to serve the world unselfishly and profit. That’s my mission and it’s the first thing you see when you come to my website.

At my ecommerce brand, BOOM! by Cindy Joseph, our mission is to champion the idea that cosmetics can be used out of fun rather than fear.

That’s what we’re doing in the world; we’re not just selling a product, we’re creating the first pro-age cosmetic line.

2. What Do You Believe?

Once you have a mission and a reason for existing, you need to build a story around that mission.

The question you can use to help create that story is to ask yourself, “What do I believe?” Then, write it down.

Here’s ours from BOOM!:

And this isn’t just for small brands. Everlane includes their own version of this on their website’s About Page:

This is Everlane’s story summed up in a paragraph.

That’s what they’re doing in the world beyond selling a product.

They have a reason for existing beyond what’s in their store, and you need that to win in today’s market.

3. What’s Your Tagline?

The next step is to think of a tagline that communicates your mission in one sentence.

Here are a few examples:

“It’s about women. It’s about beauty. It’s about time.” – BOOM!

“Serve the world unselfishly and profit.” – Smart Marketer

“Know your factories. Know your costs. Always ask why.” – Everlane

You might think this is trivial, but it informs everything about the greater content strategy you need to generate sales on and off of Amazon…

So you must do this part!

You must have a reason for existing beyond making some money by selling a black light flashlight (or whatever).

Think of the Long-Term Payday

I’m not just trying to push my values on you here. There is a real payoff for doing this exercise.

Brands that operate with a mission — that have a story and a tagline that informs their messaging — can achieve a 300% larger multiple when they sell.

Why?

Because faceless Amazon brands have no community to protect them. They are constantly at risk and their growth is severely limited by the Amazon platform.

But this is how you change that.

Your mission will help you generate loyal customers who engage with your brand — yes, because they love your products…

But also because they love your content and what you’re doing in the world.