Credit: Mark Stivers Cartoons

I’ve written often about the need for a brand to define who it is and what its core values are. I wanted to take that further by saying that it is equally critical to define the goals of a brand in terms of purpose for the year. Without doing so a brand is likely to slip backwards within a marketplace that is moving so fast. You only need to look at the leadership positions Nike, Pepsi, Starbucks and Coke are taking in the social space to see major brands that are tracking with the marketplace.

To be fair brands are often so overwhelmed by the need to survive, meet their next quarterly projections or turn themselves inside out in the face of social media, that they don’t get time to sit down and articulate how the next year can contribute to what the brand wants to be. Yet there is time if a brand puts it first at the beginning of the year.

When I speak of goals in this way, I don’t mean the number of visitors to its website, its profit or market share. I mean how will it change what consumers think about it so that their perception is more closely aligned with the brand’s core values.

The compass in this area is the brand’s purpose, and on the flip side, its that purpose that generates meaningful exchanges with consumers in the social space. For example, Timberland demonstrated its committed to the environment by jumping into the fray over climate control in Copenhagen. They saw that as an important contribution their brand could make to achieving their purpose even though brands don’t usually protest or dialogue with heads of state.

If a brand does this work, it reaps unexpected benefits. Their clearly stated purpose and yearly goals become a filter for all the incredibly confusing decisions they have to make in the face of technology and consumer behavior shifts. And this translates to time, money and anxiety saved.

If a brand doesn’t do this work, the consequences are dramatic and often unseen. Not only will a company waste time and energy on marketing efforts that are schizophrenic and inefficient. But without a clear goal as to brand purpose, they further compound their lack of definition and uncertainty.

A brand must be its own compass in an shifting marketplace.

Consumers are not looking for a something to buy. They are looking for extensions of what is meaningful to them.

By simply articulating your purpose, a brand can set itself apart from the majority of brands that are second guessing what consumers want them to be or what the marketplace will do next.

As 2009 fades from memory and 2010 lurches forward, a brand must steady itself with a clear sense of purpose as it enters the social flow. Without it, a brand will stumble and consumers may not reach out to lend a hand.

How important do you think a brand’s purpose is as a goal? Should that goal be built into its yearly planning?

-by Simon Mainwaring

Nike released a new iPhone app last week that demonstrates why they continue to be a marketing leader. Called True City, it provides unique insight into six European cities by detailing information that only people who live in that city would know. Basically, an insider’s guidebook.

What’s unique about the app is that it combines premium, geo-tagged content, the latest iPhone technologies, and social media integration that is constantly updated by real people in real time.

What interests me about this app is not what it does but rather how it shows what a brand must do to respond to the impact of social media on marketing. Here’s what Nike has done right.

1. Nike has clearly demonstrated a willingness to adopt new technologies. I wrote last week about the most recent social media efforts of Coke and Pepsi that echoed earlier and equally brave efforts by brands like Skittles. And here, once again, we see Nike not only adopting technology but taking it one step further.

2. The True City app demonstrates how the brand not only embraced social media, but assimilated it into its brand culture. By this I mean Nike looked at the existing tools, took the time to understand them, reconstituted them and took them to market in a form that is consistent with its brand voice. As such, it takes ownership of the technology and the community it generates.

3. True City demonstrates that creativity can always be brought to bear on the new technology space. By combining insider knowledge with geo-tagged content and the latest iPhone technology, Nike has created a unique tool that is peculiar to its brand just as it did with Nike +. As you can see from the True City film, the information is provided with Nike’s typical irreverence and unmistakable attitude.  What this means is that as consumers enjoy the app, they literally take the brand on the road building community in real time.

4. Finally, this application is a clear demonstration of a leading brand’s ability to move with the marketplace,whether they be changes in technology, how consumers are communicating or where those conversations are taking place.

No doubt other brands will take confidence from Nike’s example but that’s the point. No amount of copying or technology can replace the ability of a brand to take a risk, to leap into the unknown and define the future for others. There will be mistakes, but in a real-time world, the rewards to early adopters and innovators are greater than ever.

In True City Nike has demonstrated the three most powerful drivers of social transformation todays – connection between consumers, connection between consumers and a brand, and the willingness of a brand to lead rather than follow.

Let me know what you think of the application and whether you’d use it?

-by Simon Mainwaring