Most marketers right now will be looking at the weapons in their brand arsenal to direct their marketing strategies. Two of the critical points you need to have in your brand Bible are a mission and vision statement. They can be just as useful as your strapline, logo, brand colours, fonts, and all the other wonderful elements that make one brand distinct from another. But why?

Mission and vision statements serve as guiding lights that provide direction and clarity to both internal stakeholders and external audiences. They help your target audiences have an emotional response to your brand, products and services.

But what’s the difference between a mission and vision statement?

A mission statement is…

At first glance, it does look like mission and vision statements could be interchangeable, but they serve distinct purposes.

A mission statement sets out the fundamental purpose of a brand, answering Simon Sinek’s seminal question for all brands, “Why do you exist and do what you do?” It will be easy to answer the what you do, it will even be fairly simple to outline how you do it. But stating why you do it all with a mission statement will make your core values, goals, and objectives that drive operations day in, day out clear to your target audiences.

A vision statement is…

In contrast, a vision statement is forward-looking, outlining the long-term impact on the world you hope to have. It paints a vivid picture of what success looks like in the future, inspiring and motivating your teams, customers, investors, and other stakeholders to invest in the company through hard work, investment and sales.

How important are mission and vision statements?

Well…

Mission and vision statements play a pivotal role in shaping your organisational culture as they can be the hook that reels in your new hires.

They also foster a shared sense of purpose among current employees and guide strategic decision-making. They act as a compass, aligning everyone’s efforts towards common objectives and providing a benchmark to measure progress against.

They can also have an effect on your company externally as effective mission and vision statements contribute to employee engagement, customer loyalty, and stakeholder or investor and partner trust. Which means more revenue!

So how do you create a mission statement? Where do you start?

When I craft mission statements, I have to distil the essence of an organisation into a concise and impactful message. It’s not easy! But there are a few steps I take to structure the process:

1. Define the company’s purpose: You have to start at the beginning, looking at the company’s purpose, what’s driving their business goals for this year, what was the reason the company was started? Once I’ve roughly outlined the fundamental reason for the organisation’s existence, I like to sketch out a few of the values and principles that guide operations to add emotional weight to the idea.
2. Identify who we need to appeal to: It’s important to think about who will be reading the mission statement. I have to have my personas in front of me and refresh my memory of their pain points and emotional drivers to tailor my language to resonate with them. You also have to think about your internal audience though! List the terms that come up in company-wide feedback surveys to capture how your teams speak about what drives them within the company too.
3. Keep it short: A mission statement should be concise and easy to understand. Once you’ve got your first draft, save it, and see if you can edit it down to the bare bones of its meaning. Definitely remove any jargon or buzzwords if you can!
4. Emphasise your impact: I like to keep in mind the positive impact an organisation seeks to make on the world. Bearing in mind how products, services, or operations contribute to the well-being of your people, the world, and the global community generally.

Following these guiding pointers will help you create an impactful mission statement that resonates with your teams internally and your customers externally!

A couple of examples of mission statements:

Google: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Starbucks: “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”

These are both great because:

1. There are no surprises, they definitely correspond with what you know they do
2. They add an aspirational and positive twist that resonates emotionally when you read them
3. They have clear goals that benefit everyone

Ok, and how do you create a vision statement to match your mission?

You’ve created your mission statement and you’re happy with it, now you have to think about creating a vision statement to go with it. You need to look to the future and paint a vivid picture of what success looks like.

Here are my key steps to position the vision:

1. Think about the future: I gaze into the stars and look forward to what your organisation could achieve. What impact do you aspire to make on the world? Where do you want to be? What career could your people have with you?
2. Be inspirational: A vision statement should inspire and motivate. I use language that captures the imagination and instils a sense of purpose, motivation and positivity.
3. Big thinking: You have to go big for this one or it won’t be impactful. I like to lay out the ambitious goals of the company – it’s nice to capture your teams’ thoughts and language here too!
4. Align your ideas with the company’s values: Once I’ve got an idea for your vision, I like to review the company values to ensure I’m aligned.

Every company’s vision statement will be unique, and I adapt the process to that company and what resources I have. The above process can serve as a backbone to creating a tailored vision statement that is ambitious yet a realistic reflection of company culture.

You can’t just say “this is the vision” and leave it there, everyone has to be behind it – they probably already are, you just may not have articulated what “it” is yet! That’s why you should get your teams involved and listen carefully to what they’re saying.

Some examples of powerful vision statements:

Microsoft: “Our vision is to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.”

Amazon: “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

See? There’s a lot to unpack from these statements but the possibilities they offer are limitless to their customers and employees. Exciting stuff! Yet also totally inline with external perception of the brand and what they can achieve.

You’ve got them ready, where should your vision and mission statements feature?

To maximise their impact, mission and vision statements should be prominently featured in a couple of the touchpoints you have with your audiences, including:

• The website: I would position your mission and vision statements on your organisation’s website, where they can be easily accessible to anyone seeking information about your company. That could mean your careers page, a dedicated page, or as a part of your ESG, CSR or even EDI pages if you have them.
• Employee onboarding: When you’re introducing your new employees to your company and their role, give them your vision and mission statements so they can align their efforts and motivations from day one.
• Marketing materials: Incorporate your mission and vision statements into your marketing materials, like your brand guidelines, so that every piece of communication or content you put in front of your intended customers is aligned with your aspirational goals – it will help create that emotional reaction and cement a pseudo-relationship with your brand before they know they need your products and services!
• Internal communications channels: Regularly reinforce your mission and vision in internal communications, emphasising their importance in day-to-day operations so that everyone is pulling in the same direction every day.

Ready to set out your vision and mission?

We’re talking about a couple of phrases that can unite teams, attract talent, and create a lasting impact on the world. That’s a lot of bang for your buck in just two statements!

Get in touch if you’re interested in working together on your vision and mission statement, or you can shoot me an email: gracewrites892@gmail.com