Importantly, mission-based based brands aren’t just in it for the good of the world, it’s still about making money and building their brands. They operationalize their mission and harness it as a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Their mission is often their most sustainable competitive advantage.
Back in 2002, when we worked with the Dove brand team to create the Real Beauty strategy, we were thrilled to have found a positioning strategy that was built on a very rich consumer insight, and facilitated Dove’s entry into more beauty-centric categories (e.g. face, hair) in a way that was differentiated and compelling to the target audience.
While the position was “sold in” as a big and powerful idea, we had very little inkling at the time that we had created the kernel of a “mission”.
Driven in large part by a very courageous brand team and a very ambitious content strategy (including use of traditional media), Dove has become what we would call a “mission-based brand,” keeping company with brands like Method and Ben & Jerry’s.  Mission-based brands are generally built from the inside out. They decide who they are and what they will be. This is also what makes the Dove case so amazing, as the “inside” of the brand is actually a huge CPG company, unlike most of our other mission-based brand examples.

A mission will inspire and attract consumers, or it won’t – but it doesn’t change to meet the whims of the marketplace.  The insight that underlies the Real Beauty strategy is based on a woman’s desire to be her most beautiful self – accepting of flaws and all – rather than the perfected ideal of marketplace beauty.  If you look around – other beauty brands, magazines, TV shows – you can see that the Dove insight isn’t necessarily indicative of the beauty zeitgeist overall.  Especially in 2002, before others hopped on the “I’m beautiful as I am” bandwagon.

As a mission based brand, Dove was selling a transformational idea to the marketplace. Mission-based brands often make a unique and important cultural contribution. Dove’s current “Sketches,” blowing up all over social (and traditional) media, is reigniting the conversation around self-acceptance and self-appreciation that Dove started with their original “Real Beauty” campaign.
Importantly, mission-based based brands aren’t just in it for the good of the world, it’s still about making money and building their brands. They operationalize their mission and harness it as a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Their mission is often their most sustainable competitive advantage.
This idea of sustainability is important. Missions aren’t “this year’s ad campaign.” The deeper your competitive differentiation sits within your business, the more real it is to your audience and the more difficult it is for your competitors to emulate. As a marketing idea that wasn’t really grounded in a product experience, “Real Beauty” could have been copied. But, once it became a mission within Unilever it became harder to emulate. Once it became accepted as a mission by the audience, attacking it became even more difficult.
Missions aren’t for the faint of heart, but we suggest you go through the exercise, even if it’s just academic. If you were to put your brand on a mission, what would that mission be?
Sara Schor, Sterling Strategy


No matter how old you are, you’re bound to have had a moment where age wasn’t in your favor. A reference you didn’t recognize, a word you didn’t know- it happens. And when it happens with family or friends, it’s pretty easy to move on. But when age-based disconnects get between your brand and your audience, it’s a trickier beast. There’s much more at stake than improperly used slang: your brand risks irrelevance.







So when it comes to imagery, communications, messaging, naming, etc. – brands may want to hinge on substance over flash. Personally, I think about how this plays out in the auto industry: a lot of mainstay luxury brands flash prestige. But Audi seems to take a slightly quieter path, focusing heavily on engineering and performance, positioning itself as the more demure luxury car. And it’s been working: 2011 and 2012 showed record sales growth for the auto brand.








