Positioning vs. Purpose, is there a difference?

Why many brands struggle in a tug of war between these two brand concepts.

There will be an moment in every business lifecycle where people get together in a room and ask themselves, what do we stand for? Why do we exist? They’ll say things like, “Simon Sinek said, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”, so we must start with our purpose!”. It makes everyone in the room feel warm and fuzzy, everyone starts feeling a little empathy for their customers, and yet, this is all about them, not their customers. 

Purpose is for you, not for them. Positioning is for them, not for you.

So to take a step back. There’s no strategy in writing out a one sentence brand purpose statement if there’s been no strategy to begin with. And you know what? Many branding people start with purpose first as well. Instead, positioning is the result of a strategy. It defines a ‘why’, but for the customer, not for the company.

Additionally, I’ll add that the terms purpose and mission are often used interchangeably, or mission might also be to say what the brand actually sets out to do, rather than why it exists.

So instead of saying “this is why we do this” which is the inward-facing brand purpose statement that defines a guardrail of sorts for the internal team culture and why we need to do better for our customers.

Positioning defines “why should a customer think of and choose us” that guides what we want them to remember us for and when/where we should come to mind.

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Are they the same?

You could say they’re kind of similar, but positioning is there to influence purpose, among many other things about your brand. And in practice when developing an internal brand identity for a client’s team, your brand purpose will basically be the internally focused version of the brand positioning.

For example, Figurs is a client of mine that is an accounting and training brand for small to medium businesses. The positioning we landed on was a simple statement that pinpoints when, why and what we wanted their target customers to remember and think of Figurs when needed, especially instead of a competitor, to position against the competition. Which was:

“When it figures they need more than an accountant”

This then influenced their internal brand purpose to say:

"It figures we need to be more than accountants for our customers, by providing training and business support that aids their business growth”. 

You can see in that example that one influences the other in a kind of harmonious way. If we go a few steps further, this positioning also influences the external messaging Figurs uses to communicate their offering, with a simple tagline that says “More than accountants”, or even a slogan that is just the positioning said out loud, “When it figures you need more than an accountant”.

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Do we need both?

Here’s the thing, you could just have positioning. Because if you bring everything back to your strategy to guide your decision making, it makes it far simpler than having several statements that say the same thing but in different ways if that’s all it’s going to be. It makes it easier for everyone to remember and implement in their day-to-day.

Keep branding simple, yeah? Have a target in mind, position your brand in a way that gets them to think about your brand instead of your competitors, and pick 3-4 ‘brand codes’ to easily identify your brand - which could be your logo, colour(s), a memorable tagline or slogan, and something like a sound, a mascot, packaging style, or a face.

That’s all that is really needed. But along the way, the development of a brand has become far more complicated in practice and output.

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How not to use purpose

Yes you can give your brand greater depth by defining a personality and a story. But many businesses will never effectively use things like a mission or vision statement, and any more than 3 brand values, as they become superfluous weight tucked away in a drawer. It’s not to say they’re not worthy of inclusion, because if actually used, they promote an effective team culture that you can hire and fire by. But for most businesses that have defined these extra things they just become an eye-roll often masquerading as altruism, if all you’re really there to do is generate profit.

This is especially true for businesses that have these higher purposes to help change the world, all the while not paying a fair share of taxes using tax minimisation strategies, or using cheap labour and now AI in an effort to maximise profits. None of this is illegal, but if you’re going to have a purpose, be realistic about it and make it useful for your team to understand why they roll out of bed in the morning.

Starbucks realised this recently, changing their overly altruistic purpose from:

“To inspire and nurture the human spirit — one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time”. Which is bonkers, as in, how does a barista make sense of that, let alone implement that when they turn up for work each day when pouring coffee after coffee for 8 hours?

And is now:

"To be the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world, inspiring and nurturing the human spirit—one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time." I mean, the latter part is still bonkers, but at least the new part at the start is actually useful.

So I’ll say this, if you have both positioning and a purpose, align them with one another. If they contradict each other, then why have both?

For example, if this was the Figurs accounting business positioning:

“CFO-level financial advisory for ambitious businesses”

And this was their brand purpose:

“To remove the stress of finances for everyday Australians.”

There’s no alignment there.

Same goes for a luxury real estate agency, with a positioning that states:

“The exclusive real estate agency for high-net-worth homeowners seeking prestige, discretion and premium sale outcomes.”

But their brand purpose was:

“To make premium property expertise accessible to every Australian.”

The two contradict one another, and don’t give clear guidance for what the brand stands for and who they want to attract.

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The issue I see most for businesses is that they (and branding people as well) start with purpose. Often because they started a business because they thought they could do something better in that industry and that inherent reason becomes the guiding principle of the brand.

But this doesn’t take into account who the brand is for. Who’s buying? When are they buying? Why are they buying? What are they buying instead? How do they find us? Where will they find us? All these questions that provide greater clarity and guidance to achieve better business success that compliments what you’re good at. It’s a strategy for success, rather than a purpose that just says why you exist.

So purpose and positioning shouldn’t compete. They’re not in a tug of war with one another. Do both if you value internal alignment within your team so that they can implement the positioning in their day-to-day efforts to help grow the brand. But don’t skip the strategy and define a clear position in your market that sets you apart from your competitors AND helps guide you to be easy to mind and easy to find for your customers. That’s better branding for better business success.