Introduction
Presently, economic studies indicate that there is no more strategic issue for an organization than its ultimate purpose. These studies confirm that even though most firms have mastered defining their vision and mission statements, they still require articulating the higher purpose. Schmitt (2012), in his article “the consumer psychology of brands,” Describes higher purpose as the primary reason the world would miss in case the company ceases to exist. Economic scholarly works further accept that a higher purpose can create astounding success for the organization and society. Therefore, firms need to integrate the purpose meaning to the mission and values statement. Such positive initiatives have a higher meaning in improving the institutional image, performance, and delivery. This paper discusses the factors that need to be considered while choosing, designing, and implementing higher purpose meaning, contributing to successful/unsuccessful purpose in every institution. The above analysis will be considered a great eye-opener to the understanding of the subject as well as a benchmark to help businesses implement the idea.
Factors that need to be Considered While Choosing, Designing, and Implementing Higher Purpose Meaning
The Most Successful Ideas
Ideally, many factors should be considered while choosing, designing, and implementing a higher-purpose meaning. These issues include authenticity, relevance, and organizational culture, among many more. These items aim to inspire and motivate the institution to achieve the right results. In the article “The consumer psychology of brands,” Schmitt (2012) accepts that the operation within parameters has the business to keep strong despite the challenges that they continue to face in their operations. The renowned scholar confirms that a higher purpose in the institution can bind the people together and transform the organization to achieve better profits. Subsequently, the institution must operate within the suitable parameters and work to achieve the right results in its operations.
Authenticity
Authenticity plays a critical role in promoting purpose and meaning in every firm. The idea is a powerful yardstick for promoting genuineness or reality in the institution. The article ” Woke brand activism authenticity or the lack of it” (Mirzaei et al., 2022) asserts that most institutions are moving beyond the functional benefits toward woke activism branding in this era of public movement. Woke branding means the brand is alert to possible criticism, injustices, and discrimination (Mirzaei et al., 2022). Ideally, operating within such parameters indicate that the institution has a higher purpose of living and may not be affected by a few challenges. Economic scholars accept that moving towards the direction means that the institution has managed to integrate the higher meaning of human values such as commitment, integrity, and credibility. The provision of authentic dimensions can further make consumers support the values and beliefs of the institution, thus making them achieve better results.
Organization Culture
Organizational culture is one of the psychological constructs that must be oriented towards a higher purpose to help achieve the right results. Studies indicate that such institutional orientations have developed brands moving towards interpersonal and sociocultural engagement (Allan et al., 2019). While developing these community brands is always geared towards taking care of the wider community and improving results. Another research by Bailey et al. (2019) believes that firms such as Nike and Coca-cola have worked to develop the proper mechanisms for promoting communal inclusivity. As a result, these institutions have continued providing exemplary brand ambassadors to promote the right brand attitudes. Through the above approach, these firms have thrived along the degree of liking among consumers. Such positive results indicate that institutional management must build a self-identity culture to deliver exemplary service to clients.
Internal Meaning Clarity
Providing appropriate internal clarity is a strong pillar in realizing the highly converted purpose meaning. The clarity should be in terms of the institution’s mission, vision, and overall functionality. The provision of these standards is the number one cause of movement towards a unilateral direction by all stakeholders. In his article, “Woke brand activism authenticity or the lack of it,” Mirzaei believes that brands such as Gillette, Amazon, and Pepsi have managed to operate exceptionally well due to their provision of exemplary internal clarity (Mirzaei et al., 2022). Their cultural and corporate social advocacy is directly linked to the organization’s core business. Therefore, they have managed to orientate the critical players toward delivering the right results.
The Organizations Already Established Values
The organization has already established values that may significantly promote better purpose and meaning in an institution. A better-nuanced understanding of meaningful work suggests that these values have limited relations with specific results in the institution (Allan et al., 2019). Well-grounded values such as work engagement, commitment, and job satisfaction show a higher relationship with the organization’s performance. Research studies indicate that such belief is consistent with various research studies from organizations such as Apple Inc. (Watt et al., 2018). Starbucks and Nike have shown tremendous growth over the past years. To further explain this idea, Allan et al. (2019) accept that it is psychologically fit to engage workers and commit them to meaningful work. The trend is consistent with other scholarly works that belief consistently effectively motivates the state of mind towards goal-oriented service delivery. Therefore, institutions with well-established values are more likely to achieve the best results.
The Least Successful Factors
Relevance
Even though relevance is an essential factor, it is not regarded as a critical pillar that may help promote an institution’s ultimate meaning. In particular, younger consumers are usually interested in institutional brands committed to supporting issues that continuously affect their daily lives. For instance, one of the critical issues that continue to affect Americans’ lives is racial discrimination against blacks. Therefore, brands such as “black lives matter” will create an in-depth meaning for most clients. The growing population is working towards embracing brands to drive the changes they require in society, such as creating a better world and educating the public on racial discrimination. Therefore, building a relevant brand is not only one of the powerful ways of expressing concern about the relevant issues that continue to affect society but also an amicable way of expressing purpose and meaning. The trend, therefore, calls for the organization to operate in the proper stance and promote the product’s relevance to the intended consumers.
In one of the most interesting articles, (Mirzaei et al., 2022) accept that institutions may need to use brand personalities to achieve relevancy in their operations. Economic researchers continue to confirm that consumers are socially engaged when they are actively participating and interacting with a brand. The interactive atmosphere of retail helps to stimulate the overall relevancy of the firm in operation. One example of an organization that has perfectly mastered the art is Starbucks. The institution has developed a robust online crowdsourcing platform allowing consumers to contribute to their services, products, and experiences actively. Ideally, the provision of such a brand concept has helped the institution to remain relevant while selling the product to the growing market.
Execution and Communication of the Meaning
Entrepreneurs understand the role of execution and communication of the higher purpose meaning in an institution. They accept that the right approach to start the issue is the first mechanism for achieving better results in business operations. While narrating the possible reasons for his initial failure, Steve Jobs accepts that he did not take a keen interest in how he communicated his ideas to the larger community. He noted that Apple Inc. could have performed well at the onset had he used the right formula (Watts et al., 2018). Together with other scholars, Jobs accepted the role of precise execution and delivery of meaningful purpose to the intended audience (Watts et al., 2018). Nevertheless, the item may not be taken as a significant issue that may create a backlash if not perfectly implemented.
The New Brand Purpose
The brand purpose may be used to signify an institution as well as the culture and society. For instance, MacDonald has continued to assume one of the exemplary symbols worthy of admiring. Brand purpose, in most cases, allows the groups and the society to behave and become oriented towards a particular direction. They help the firm to be universally understood among the key players, such as customers, suppliers, and the community at large. It is also believed that brand purpose can provide the organization with symbolic security even after the demise of the founders (Schmitt, 2012). Therefore, the idea acts as a strong realm in consumer psychology that should be used to promote the purpose and meaning of the institution. Nevertheless, it is essential to note that it may act as something other than a significant pillar to drive the issue.
Challenges with communicating a Higher Purpose, Meaning
Unfortunately, despite the constant communication to promote a higher purpose meaning, sometimes the efforts have failed to achieve the right results. Business owners and managers experience high rates of failure. This trend is usually disheartening and a significant threat to the firm’s progress. In most cases, the brand ambassadors often feel negative and may give up on their efforts to achieve the right results. Subsequently, disappointment with the move sometimes results in losing loyal vital players such as customers, suppliers, and employees. In extreme cases, it has led to the termination of the firm. In extreme cases, the process may end with the termination of the business.
However, entrepreneurs should understand that failure is an essential part of growth. The organization CEOs and the VCs should learn how to use the failure of the case to propel them to greater heights (Watts et al., 2018). They must learn to understand what they did wrong and make the necessary mechanisms that will help to avoid a repeat of the same. While giving one of his remarkable speeches, former US president Donald Trump accepted that failure is not fun and may hit an organization beyond repairable measures. Trump believed that people who have perfectly applied the higher purpose meaning have the power to bounce back and achieve better results in their business operations.
Kentucky Fried Chicken is one perfect example of a firm that has managed to use failure to achieve success. According to the founder Sander, the institution failed many times before bouncing back into the market using the secret formula (Watts et al., 2018). The realization of such success only happened when he was 62 years after failing over 100 times. It was only in his 1010 time, when he realized his purpose to the company, that he made an excellent recipe that earned the organization millions of dollars. Another perfect example of an entrepreneur that has managed to bounce back after failure is Steve Jobs. As the CEO of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs failed several times before achieving the massive success that is experienced in the institution. In 1985, the renowned founder was forced out of the company he founded (Watts et al., 2018). However, as a committed scholar of achieving meaningful purposes, he reverted to delivering incredible results in the history of global companies.
Conclusion
Based on the report, it is evident that having a higher purpose meaning in an institution is a powerful way of achieving success. The idea is the strong force that can drive the institution to achieve its purpose beyond bankruptcy failure or death of the owner. Therefore, entrepreneurs should employ high-affinity factors such as authenticity, established organizational values, and culture. Working with these elements will help to provide the right yardstick for the organization to operate and realize tremendous results. They must work with all the factors irrespective of their strength to achieve the expected high results. In other words, the integration of these d items will help to create the right atmosphere for the expected results. Nevertheless, in a failure, they must learn to accept and rebound into the market. Later, they must formulate the right approaches to help them bounce back into the market and strive to deliver results. In brief, the business players must learn to commit to achieving a higher meaning and build a significant business that will operate today and in the future.
References
Allan, B. A., Batz-Barbarich, C., Sterling, H. M., & Tay, L. (2019). Outcomes of meaningful work: A meta‐analysis. Journal of Management Studies, 56(3), 500-528. Web.
Bailey, C., Yeoman, R., Madden, A., Thompson, M., & Kerridge, G. (2019). A review of the empirical literature on meaningful work: Progress and research agenda. Human Resource Development Review, 18(1), 83–113. Web.
Mirzaei, A., Wilkie, D. C., & Siuki, H. (2022). Woke brand activism authenticity or the lack of it. Journal of Business Research, 139, 1-12. Web.
Schmitt,. B. (2012).The consumer psychology of brands. Journal of Consumer Psychology,22(1) 7–17. Web.
Watts, L. L., Ness, A. M., Steele, L. M., & Mumford, M. D. (2018). Learning from stories of leadership: How reading about personalized and socialized politicians impacts performance on an ethical decision-making simulation. The Leadership Quarterly, 29(2), 276-294. Web.