3 Brand Purpose Questions

I caught a one-time business journalist speak off-the-cuff about brands. From where their core focus should hail when they – as is so often inevitable – wander away from their previous and once successful thrust.

A big lover of any story with the word “fiasco” in the headline, feeling that it is “always fascinating to look into a total disaster”, he opined upon a report from inside Britain’s political party which lost the last election. In a manner so heavily, it was their worst performance since 1935. Referring to the internal findings of ‘toxicity, dysfunctionality and a drift inside its campaigning machine’, he suggested;

“it’s got to work out, like any brand;

who do they represent,

why do they represent them, and

what are they going to do to further their cause.”

Away from the murky backrooms of political planning, this trio could well be a useful sanity check for your own selling endeavour driving force.

It may also provide a useful mini-introduction template.

One of the questions so devilish for the unwary salesperson, is the ice-breaking and deceptively tricky, “so, what do you do…?”

Several formats flood online search result screens for such type of ‘elevator pitch’.

Useful ideas, surrounding The Golden Circle, problem resolution and structures like the 8-word mission, hugely outnumbered by the unworthy.

Adapt the word ‘represent’ – to say, ‘service’, ‘support’ or ‘supply’ – from the triplet above. Then snappily and smartly craft your reply. Then you’ll have definitely prepared for a key situation far beyond that of most of your competition.