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Check your purpose up against the competition

Now look at the 4 traits for a true purpose;; Tension, Relevant, Unresolved and Emotions.

Hold the purpose you may be going with right now up against them. Give it a point form 1-4 on on of the four points – you can use ‘moons (these little pie charts divided in four scores).

Four or ‘full moon’ means you hit hme on that point, anything less means you may think on what to do better – reflect on what.

Once you’re comfortable with your purpose on the four criteria give it another ‘sanity check’ up against the competition in what ever category you’re playing.

Because even though you may thing you have hit on to an unresolved tension – and you may be right – you still want to make sure no one is saying or setting out to do something very similar to you.

Forget about finding a total ‘blue ocean’. As the o’l saying from advertising goes: “If there is no competition, there is probably no market.”.

So don’t mind if someone else is already providing something or some solution in the market – as long as it hasn’t resolved the tension you’ve spotted – that means that there is still a job to be done.

You’re looking for something unresolved in the marketspace that will make you leap ahead of the competition who hasn’t seen it that way yet.

So plot the main theme you have identified for driving your purpose – that theme that will prescribe what will be the anti-dotes for the tension once the theme has been translated into products, services or content that can help peope align their actions with their aspirations.

You can map the market in many ways, but one way can be to find the two contradictions that people struggle with fx the tension between being there for others or the planet and the – may be less explicit - desire to also do something for yourself.

An example of this is in the case of Blue Cars from VW where people both wanted a responsible car, but also a fun car.

So what VW set out to do was to  vouch for that responsible behavior should be fun, not boring – and so was the ambition for their cars as communicated with ‘The Fun Theory’:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SByymar3bds

Now once you see where your purpose or belief as phrased in line solves a dilemma, look if others are competing on resolving the same in the same intersection. And if so, are they successful? Or is the tension still unresolved?

Of course if you find a tension in a relevant but unrealized spot, then it is your lucky day :-)

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Four traits of a true purpose

A strong purpose:

1) Aim resolve what is – even if unconsiously - felt as a strong tension by the people you want to matter to. So aim it for what really matters to them.

2) Has relevance by creating value in the lives of many – or for a few where it will matter really, really much in creating value in their lives.

Also it is relevant internally by being based in a business model that allows for creating value for many or even a few with a high willingness to pay for the value created.

Fx  Kodak had a great purpose in providing ‘Kodak moments’ and but didn't develop its business model to carry it into the future ...

3) Focuses on an unresolved tension, that is something where there is still a gap, disconnect or dissatisfactions between what people in the market aspire to and what they are limited to today.  

This may hit right where it hurts, like the mission inherent in the legendary line: “Nobodys ever been fired for buying IBM”. 

Yet you can still do it in a positive way like T-Mobiles ‘Life  is for Sharing’. If it is unresolved it will also be sure to be more unique and original. 

In any case a true purpose is like an honest signal in nature: Easy to recognize, but hard to replicate.

 4) Focuses more on emotional aspirations, than functional ‘jobs’. True purposes tend to be contain words that relate to basic human drivers like acquisition, saving, sharing, connecting, openness, curiosity etc.  

A purpose doesn’t need to be a tag line, but the ladder can tell a lot about what aspirations the brand taps into for it’s why. Think of Momondo ‘Stay Curious’, AirBNB ‘Live like a local’ etc.

The attentive reader will see that the true and emotionally evocative purpose springs from a TRUE insight.

This means that whether you need a checklist for an existing purpose or some benchmarks to play up against when developing a new line then you can also use the T.R.U.E. criteria here:  Tension, Relevance, Unresolved, Emotions.

If it hits home on these four factors, then you have a TRUE purpose.

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Create a purpose that can cut straight through the tension

The ideal is to both create a purpose with relevance, differentiation and emotions. That can only be done by adressing a tension in the first place.

As we rhave seen a true tension in this context consists of a feeling of aspiration and a felt limitation in achieving it.

So when we look for the themes that the purpose could contain at it’s core then we have to – again again -look for what matters and thus will create for. Again? Yes again. 

Because powerful positive purposes create value by resolving tension.  

Either by inspiring people on how they can attain the aspiration – and thus motivate the innovatiom creation and choice of new products, services and content.

Think of Nike and Bill Bowers insight that “If you have a body, you’re an athlete”. A great insightful truism giving context for the purpose:

A context where people would get inspired to try to surpass the limitations struggle they would feel from getting out their ‘athlete getting out: Class, race, gender, self doubt etc.

“Just do it” as a phrase became much larger tan a tag line, when seen upon this back drop. It became an operating system, an inspiration to go for the aspiration and cut off the felt limitations.

This way the heart part – the insight, the feel – must come  first for us all to feel the relevance. Then your phrasing of your purpose or conviction - the think and talk part that has to do with your head will come more naturally - and give you the feel for what one word will represent what will matter and drive the most value for people. In the case of Nike that one word assumingly is “Surpassment”.

 Then comes the ‘Do’ part; all the tangible you can touch with your hands:

The running shoes, shirts, shorts – all made to deliver to the driver ‘Surpassment’ by being better in fit, lightness and other performance factors.

This way a purpose can inspire to help people towards their aspirations and on how to lower limitations, the conflicts and disconnects they feel.

As we see this is not about ‘fine mechanics’ on the features and benefits of the specific product to begin with – it’s much more about philosophy than thinking about lowering limitation by delivering bigger, better, faster, brighter or simply cheap price.

Those aspects for creating gains or relieving pains like can of course be of importance in a specific value proposition. But not in a purpose.

Nike has always been better off with the overall theme build into ‘Just do it’ than say a slogan that went: “Makes you run faster”.

Now the ladder is not as laughable as it sounds when we talk product level.  Actually Nike now has just launched a shoe, the VaporFly, that promises to help you run faster[1].

 Yet that's at a product level. The same line as a purpose would simply be pigeon holing the brand into a very tight corner and miss out on the chance to address a much larger overall tension:

The gap of the athlete I am and the one I could let loose if I overcome my limitations  imagined or real.

You may know the story of King Solomon making resolutions by splitting the problem in two or the story cutting through the gordic knot. That's what great leaders and brands do:

Uber solves the aspiration of getting a cab easy without paying overpricse by providing an app that lets you access a network with a availability of more cars and easiness of ordering than compared to conventional cabs in a town AND they limit the pain by making it cheaper.

They both moves you toward the aspiration and cuts off limitations that usually can be felt in the category. It’s both and.

Therefore Uber also has a mission that is both broader and higher than just either ‘more cars’ or ‘cheaper’: “We ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion.”[2]

Uber found a way where they resolve the tension between the ‘yin’ and the ‘yan’ in their category. The same could be said about AIR BnB.

In the hotel category nobody had done much to develop the category since Mary and Josef was looking for a place to stay in December a little more than 2000 years ago.

The hotel industry didn’t seem to take much notice of feel for what could be done better to relieve the pains and limitations a lot of people experienced in the category.

Then AIR BnB came along from a feeling that the founders had, formulated and set into action. And from then on it was impossible NOT to see the possibility to ‘Live like a local’ as an alternative to traditional hotels.

 So it’s not only customers who don’t see their own limitations and need to be presented with an insightful and inspiring purpose and an appropriate product offer. Companies can also be blind and need to ‘feel more’ for others – and then the purpose may present itself.

It was Confucius who 2500 years ago said:

“Real knowledge is to know the extend of ones knowledge”.

That is of essence for the insight job whether you do it for others or try to improve towards your own aspirations.

Meaning here that beware what you don’t know is holding you back. because what we as humans feel as a tension we often repress and lets limits us in what we could know and realize.

If you don’t see or know your own false self beliefs and the imagined limitations that are holding you back then how can you set out to cut loose from them and liberate your self or others to purpose their happiness?

Tensions tend to result in taboos or suppression if there is no one offering a resolution. But this is where the insightful and purpose driven brand – or even better a real friend – can come in handy with the inspiration and solutions.

Here maybe letting you have the shoes you just needed, but didn’t know you wished for to cut the ties and leap toward your aspiration.

And that's what powerful purpose driven brands, leaders or simply good friends do:

They see what others don’t and cut the through the tension.

[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/90204774/yes-nikes-250-vaporfly-shoes-really-do-make-you-faster

[2] https://www.uber.com/en-DK/about/

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Formulate a Purpose with broad enough shoulders

Sometimes you may have more than one audience and all with different needs, so you may think you more value propositions. Well, you may. But you still just need one purpose.

The case could be that you have a platform like AirBNB with both people needing and place to stay and people providing a place to stay.

Or you sell soda like Fanta, where there are both the kids consuming it and the parents who are to buy it for them.

Or you sell commercial cars to, where there are both the users, say craftsmen in the daily business and the choosers purchasing the cars for the companys fleet. These groups may each have different needs from the other.

We want to be able to span across the needs because we need to understand and address the needs of the people for whom we want to create value – or else they will not be creating value for in return for the world or you.

So when phrasing a purpose we should think in Feel, Think Do termes and give the purpose broad enough shoulder to carry the criteria it has to for it to live in a context where it can:

1. Explain and excite people by springing from a true insight; a tension and an emotion

2. Communicate highest order of gains in resolving the tension

3. Capture needs of all the audiences as an overall theme

4. Work in interpretations as specific VPs across audiences and product line

5. Be future-proof, product and media format independent 6. Deliver differentiation, relevance and inspiration

7. Convey a liberating conviction that people can connect with and engage in.  

 When these factors are present a purpose tend to a rallying cry for all audiences.

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Start with your Heart - then use your Head and Hands.

Why have a purpose, a WHY? Well that's what you need to grow your self, your movement, organization businesses. One thing is doing the insight job to get a clear understanding of people.

That’s where you use your heart as in feeling all over for the emotions and tensions to tap into. That’s strictly speaking about using the emotional, limbic brain, that is good at reading feelings, but not very good with words. So lets stick to the heart metaphor for this part.

But  since the ‘heart’ is good at feeling but less good with words, that's why we have to take the insight one step further out the key to where we use the ‘brain’, more specifically the limbic brain. That’s the part of our brain that has a language and can express a purpose in words.

 Moving on from here there will be a clear idea in your head that springs from your heart felt insight – and with the idea – maybe even just expressed as one word, you want to vouch for (like Volvo has ‘safety’) – then you can move on to put it into using your Hands i.e. put your purpose into action.

 So first insight, then idea, then action.

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Insight, Meaning, Action – or where there is meaning there is margin

A great purpose springs from a deep insight. How? By starting with an understanding of a people problem and then working your way to your why.  Use the Insight Key. How?

By starting at the left hand side with the aspirations, limitations and tension you can actually both observe and interview people. Look for what they are doing what they are doing, why they are doing it and how. Then interpret and feel with your intuition for Why that may be so.

From this you can aim to make the invisible visible by formulating a TRUE insight about a tension, a dilemma or disconnect in their lives, that was suppressed and unspoken before.

When you have this insight in place you can seek to validate it by testing it with others and then move on to formulating your purpose and the experiences that should support it.

Test out how much people would be willing to pay to achieve the aspirations or pay to get rid of the limitations. That can give you an idea of and validate where the tension is greatest.

Then you look to how that fit with the insight that provides the context for the meaningfulness our your purpose, innovations and actions.

The ambition for a purpose is that  it springs from a true insight. This way you ensure there is a match between what matters to people and what you set out to champion, propose and produce to them.

This is about feeling a purpose, not just “creating a fit”. When you have a true insight often that itself will make the purpose come to you. Then you can innovate products, services and content that are aligned with your purpose and thus taps into the insight.

The better you there is a firm line between what matters to people the better will you be at mattering to them and create true value that they will welcome.

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Always act on Insight – or Don’t put lipstick on a pig

“Is purpose putting lipstick on a pig?” That was a question posed by WWF and aptly addressed why the use of purpose should not be seen as an back rationalization from something you’re already doing. In other words be working from a true tension and towards your purpose and products - not the other way.

As my friend Thomas Kolster, fo under and Creative Director at The Goodvertising Agency puts it: “Corporate purpose is most often self-congratulatory nonsense. You matter as a brand, when you make me matter. “

He goes on to say: “entreprenurs get it right because its not an after thought.”  The point is that young entreprenuers tend to start with the problem, something that they are fed up with or tried of with the conventio al way of busines.

When they challenge that and how they set out to change something – to resolve a tension – that you feel too then you sense the nerve and energy that is worth learning from. Because they start with a people problem then work their way towards formulating the purpose – getting to their ‘Why’ and then on to their ‘Hows’ and ‘Whats’ Simon Sinek calls it.

Getting to the why to start with is not a logical linear process. The best way is to forget all about the existing products and processes and simply immerse yourself into the tension.

Feel for both the hopes but also the discomforts of being in this state of tension. What values do you feel pulling you towards the positive end of the spectrum? What practices do you feel holding you back and stuck in the ‘now’ instead of moving toward the ‘next’ that you may aspire to.  

Say you like so many others want to leave less CO 2 foot print on the planet, but yet your actions go in a completely different direction – you may own a fuel gulping car, take the plane, love meat eating.

All things that I should say I could be guilty of. But never the less would like to change but can’t. And none of it something that a communication campaign with new values would really help counter my actions.

It’s like fighing fire with fire. It rarely work well in the long run to add more of the same. In this case talking about values instead of offering a new cause of action that will align with the values I aspire to.

That’s where actionable ideas come into play. Products, services and content that helps you act according to what you want to instead of just talking in a way that confirms what you believe but cant attain.

The best way here to resolve the tension between values and practices that don't align is to get to a purpose that lends it self to innovation and creating new experiences that allow the user to replace the actions that counter what we want with actions that align.  

That’s where we have moved further from the days when advertising was about convincing people that they’re ok and would be happy if they just bought into a set of branded signals.

So start with the insight to get to your why. Because just as insight is nothing without action then a purpose is meaningless and action is aimless without insight.

With greater access to insight comes great opportunity for meaningful action. So in short:

Always act on insight

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Traps to fall in when mapping resolutions

The map is not the territory’, remember?

So like it can be a trap to throw up and connect ALL dots and post-its when listing aspirations and limitations when looking for an insight, then the same goes when mapping out possible resolutions and the experiences you could create. Just list those that will resolve the tension at hand.

Products and services are the ‘whats’ while the pain resolution is about the experiences you want to design and actually explaining HOW you are resolving the tension and thereby creating valuable and meaningful interactions with the purpose. 

 Because we are trying to bridge a gap here so listing anything that on second thought is obviously completely  disconnected from the insight and the tension inherent in it.

Keeping this in mind here is a way to practice:

- Look to your true insight as the starting point at the left hand side og the insight key.

- Phrase the purpose or proposition that you feel will give the ‘why’ of resolving the tension.

- Start choosing existing and innovating new products, services and content to support it

- Create an ecosystem or user journey where you describe how each experience plays a role in resolving the tension functionally and emotionally

- Write an experience story for every support point i.e. translate the feature into a resolution

This concept of the insight key can be useful to have a consistent way of capturing and conveying the insight, phrasing the purpose and finding or innovating the support points to concretely resolve the tension and create meaning and value for people 

 The great thing about this key is that once you have a true key insight then teams tend to be highly inspired and both the purpose and the appropriate ideas for products and content for delivering on it tend to present them selves without the need for a lot of logic analysis. 

 Once you have the awareness of the nature of ‘the lock’ – the tension – it inspires ideas for a purpose and products that will fit for resolving the tension. 

Yet as in the film the Matrix the saying goes: 

 “I can show you the door, but you will have to walk through it.”

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Resolving tension equals value creation

 As we have seen you can use the insight key both ways: 

 You can look at existing products and back track to an idea and insight. 

 Or – as when it is used as intended for innovation – you can start with the insight, find your purpose and produce fresh ideas for solutions and what you want to say and do to liberate people. 

 To do this begin with the true insight into what tension you want to resolve; then pharese your purpose or value proposition and pick existing solutions or innovate new solutions in the shape of products, services or content that answers to the need for resolution. 

These resolutions when written down or illustrated in relation to the tension and pupose really makes it visible what you and others may not have seen before: How you can create new value.  

So actually the human insight is not  the only way you make the invisible visible. You do that by bringing forth new products that becomes the proof of how you deliver on the purpose that serves as the bridge between the insight and your products and solutions. 

 To ensure fit between your new innovations and the purpose - just like when we did the aspirations and limitations -  now rank then in accordance to the products or solutuions relevance to the people you want to matter to. 

 Again you can do it one way or another as long as you do it in a way where you feel something, not just rank according to what numbers seem to tell the existing market would want.

Don’t get sucked into internal problems, issues or ways of thinking of the company – you’ll want to keep focus on what really matters to people befor you think of product or profit.

So keep an eye on the side of the new products, services or content that really will resolve tension and create true value and will matter for the people who matters to you.

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Resolving the tension with more than words

Don’t settle for anything less than a TRUE purpose that resolves the dissonance and discomfort that arises when theris is a conflict between what people want to do but can’t for one reason or the other. What we want is to unlock that with a truth that sets them free.

So find the reason and resolve the conflict. The first is about: What are peoples aspirations, what’s holdning them back and how can we phrase the tension. That's really the essense of the Insight Job: Aspiration, Limitation, Tension.

Secondly we’ll be after the Liberation: What perspective or purpose can we put forth to set people free? What can we all leap from in innovation and usage? What can we say and do?

“Saying” things haven’t become obsolete All creation starts with words. The formulation of what we want help people to achieve and what frictions that holds them back from leaping.

This helps us look for the essential solutions that can help them overcome the limitations and pains  some of these pains and  sort out what s just nice to hear from a prupose nice to have in a solution.

As shown we can use the insight key both directions: Sometimes we start with having to find an insight to phrase a purpose, proposition or find ideas. Other times we have an idea we you need back track to an insight with its aspirations and limitations and tension.

In any case the ideal way is to start with the human insight and let that inspire us to look for ‘resolvers’ – that are the concrete, functional features, the ‘What’s’ that relate back to your purpose and the insight itself with the tension we aim to resolve. 

 Look at your insight and feel within your self, what a liberating feeling would feel like here. Like in the case of youghurt for kids where the insight was “Kids don’t like to feel small” what would a liberating feeling be here?   

 For the kid (an concerned parent) certainly a playful story that with this yoghurt “the world can just come on!” could help giving som e purpose. For the product innovation part then say added vitamin B that heps muscle growth woul d be a fine support. 

For packaging maybe a bite size yoghourt where the kid would feel the victory of  ‘Hey I just ate three of these”. Brain storm  the results and – functionally and emotionally – that the solution should create and that are both relevant and unresolved – as in unexpected – compared to existing solutions available. 

So feel the insight and look to the aspirations and limitations to see how they hint on relevant resolutions on the “teeth” of the key where the real grind is going to be. 

 Now on the left hand side of the insight key we have your insight on how people feel and the tension to resolve produced from the top ranked aspiration and limitation. Then we have your in the middle that shall provide the meaning ful and directed leap towards innovating and identifying the right products and solutions on the right side of the key.   

 Lets take an example on aspirations for another food situations: the parent we talk to shows that the parent wants to give the child a healthy wholesome lunch. 

 On the other hand the eparent wants to be a fun and entertaining mum too – that limits her from just serving plain healthy looking food. How can the solution materialize on the aspiration and limitation? 

 This felt split between the healthy and the fun? We don’t want to compromise the health part so the product it self must be top quality – so innovate on state of the art nutrional solutions here. 

 But we can address the packaging part and resolve that with more fun oriented purpose built on a premise that it is not enough to eat well, you also need to move – And when are we likely to go out after lunch and move the most? When we feel playful! 

 That gives a leap for saying and do something in the communication, the packaging and the product activations. For it to be meaningful yet it should have a link to the healthy, wholesome and natural. And what’s more natural than to play. 

 Now that can lead you to a new and bigger tension that you can champion: 

That kids play less today. 

 So you can reframe your purpose to be a bigger big, emotional purpose around championing more natural play in the world. AND not to forget find the product support for you to credibly say and do this. 

 Now check for the RELEVANCE to see which solutions at the keys right end (the teeth part) are, well key, to resolving the tension and which not essential but nice to have. 

 When done using the insight key to unclock a tension you will experience how that will help you sort out what the tension is, what is the right purpose and help inspire and select which solutions to put in play and what to propose to people.       

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Keep a foot on the ground

Conventional business school wisdom would that that what people hire to get a job done is the bundled stack of products and services  that you provide.

Technically that could be right. After all nothings get s done if you don’t provide a technical solution of some sort that answers to the persons pain and desired gain in the situation.  

Say if you’re selling a GPS service then it’s not enough you think that your insight is that what people want is ‘peace of mind’ which philosophically is also right at some level.

But that has less relevance here: People want to find their way and get to their destination, right?

That means that your purpose should not be too lofty in this case, at least translate it into a value proposition at the product level so you come across clear and relevant.

So while I’m a big fan of great insights and big ideas turned into purposes at a company level then make sure to find the right level when talking about your products.

That you do by finding the insight at the right level instead of laddering it up to a level where the relevance is lost. Remember your products and services gain meaning in the context of the aspirations, limitations and tensions people feel.

If you work with a too lofty asapiration, say again ‘people want peace of mind’, then it will be very wobbly to innovate products from – at least unless you are disproportionally concrete in the limitation or pain your insight point to.

Aspirations, like visions, can be of little use if too vague and high flying – at least if not linked to what keeps you fro the ground and holding people back.

Like in any good story getting the royal spouse and half the kingdom can be all well and good, but it’s the dragons and witches blocking the way that make for the story and fires up the readers imagination and innovativeness on what to do.

So in innovation we want insight into the aspiration the cutomers have, but even as much we want to know what limitation and pain we are to relieve or resolve.

 Think of a company producing roller bearings. An important product to get things roll smoothly. Like in the story of Visa you could say that things flow better with these solutions.

That's technical not untrue either, but not what will get employees out of bed or get the innovation juices flowing if they are to develop the business areas to enter. So what could the roller bearing company in this case look to focus upon?

In this case “We reduce friction” was a much more inspiring focus than “we create flow”. Can you feel the difference  between the two?

At a very daily practical level then the concrete value proposition may have to relate to longivety, price, selection, support service or what matters to for example truck owners or targets depending on the life span of well functioning roller bearings fight friction in their business and lifes.

The point here is that when we know what kind of limitation we are to liberate or allivieate people from, then we often get much more inspired know and innovative.

And by the token we can see how the product or solutions fits and has meaning and impact in the larger context.

When you know what then you don’t bear so much the risk of getting so focused on a high flying aspiration  that you loose touch with what is to be solved of human problems on the ground and the connection to the competences at hand.

From there you can leap into phrasing a TRUE purpose.

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The secret to innovation is knowing what people are trying to achieve

Innovation doesn’t come from understanding “who the target is”, but from “what matters to the people you want to matter to”.

What are their aspirations and limitations. Because it’s what they are trying to achieve but somehow struggle with getting to because of some gap that makes them feel a need for the new.

Understanding this is a basic premise for success in the insight job. No body said it was easy. Freud – and all men along – have been struggling with the question “What do women want?”

But you need to have at least an idea of the aspirations that the people you want to understand holds and what holds them back .

Because this is where you find the sions that will fuel your innovation and when resolved will provide energy for your innovational leap.

Getting to a true insight is key. Getting people wrong on what they – knowingly or unknowingly – need or want, will set the innovation task wrong and sent it in the wrong direction.

If it sets of anything at all … because without a true tension the innovation process tend to fizzle out ... So look for tension.

Moreover look for relevance: if too few have the aspiration and few struggle with reaching for it, then that may be a hint for you to look for another tension.

Same goes if the tension isn’t unresolved: If already many others are addressing the unmet needs and struggles or your target audience then go for some other more relevant, unique and more evocative and emotional role to play in the market.

The insight job is here a method to uncover and prioritize unmet needs and aspirations. Unlike the job-to-be-done theory that focus on steps toward fulfilling a functional job then the insight job is very much about unearthing the emotional aspirations people have and what holds them back from achieving it.

This is about what the perspective of the customer in the context.

Look instance to the famous example of milkshake buyin. What the customer is trying to achieve in the morning may be to get a fast dairy based breakfast that wont mess up the car with crumbles like a croissant or other bake off would, while he or she is commuting to work.

In the afternoon on the way back from work and having picked up the kids, then what is trying to be achieved mat  simply be to entertain the kids in the back seat without having them mess up the car. Innovation that can spring from these to different tasks and tensions:

In the morning sell chunky fulfilling milkshake with a wide straw fro a quick eat. In the afternoon sell chunky milkshakes with a narrow straw that thus will be longer lasting and more entertaining and gratifying

So ask: What are people trying to achieve or aspire to - and how can we help?

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Forget your products, but remember your competences

The tasks of the insight job can be two fold.

On one hand it can be with the focus of optimizing – that is come up with ideas for better ways to use existing systems, existing processes, existing products and services

That can be all good and calls for looking at what we have of products that can be made better use os in a more meaningful way to meet the needs and development in demands market.

On the other hand the insight job can take the aim of creating – that is innovating for leaps into new systems, new businesses, new products and services.

Whether you want to improve or change the game you’ll need insights to see what is and what could be instead that is better or new, disruptive and more meaningful ways of doing things.

However the difference between the two aims is worth noticing because it will direct your focus:

If you want to improve things then you’ll typicall have to have a present time focus and zoom in on things as is and take a closer look at how they can be put to better use.

If you want to change or create things then you’ll have to attain a future focus: what are the aspirations, dreams, desires among people, what holds them back and what should we provide that would liberate them and allow them to leap forward.

The ladder future focus doesn’t need to relate to existing products in your portfolio. As we are out for innovations we don’t need to asses the existing products as is. But you shouldn’t forget about your competences.

As Richard Rumelt writes I his brilliant book, ‘Good Strategy, Bad Strategy’ [i]

“Bad strategy is long on goals and short on policy or action. It assumes that goals are all you need. It puts forward strategic objectives that are incoherent and, sometimes, totally impracticable.”

So you shouldn’t just throw your self into addressing any tension unless your insight hints on some solution. Not that you should know yet but you don’t want to phrase some lofty purpose within a field where you any not have anything to do. This comes back to: Relevance.

So in phrasing your purpose keep in mind all the factors for a TRUE insight that goes also for a TRUE purpose in mind: 

Tension, Relevance, Unresolved, Emotions. formula:

Tension being the given context, the struggle you can address to gain meaning; Relevance that there actually are enough, if not all people feeling this tension AND that you have something to do in resolving that; Unresolved as in that no one else yet have met this need yet or resolved it- menaning that your purpose will be unique; Emotions as in this is evocative, inspiring and expanding.

The inspiration and evocative elements of a purpose is not to be underestimated. Whether your working with innovation or communication – or as it often is both, then the trouble with a concept that is meant to give direction arising if the line comes across as rigid and confining as this runs counter innovation – as in the case of the slogan ‘Nothing sucks like an Electrolux’

Yes, look it up on the internet. A line like that keeps the mind stuck in a certain area and can’t really let thoughts travel into new areas than, well never mind.

On the contrary a line like ‘Life is for Sharing” lets you look into many aspects of life. So by focusing more a purpose or conviction with a narrative that opens to new ideas it becimes  expansive rather than restrictive.

Just beware that you don’t venture into areas where you have no relevance. Like when I once worked with a marketing manager for a jewelry brand who wanted their sole purpose to be to create peace in the world, but had no means to back it up other than with words, beads and charms. And as we know you can come a long way with charm, but it wont make you relevant.

 [i] Richard P. Rumelt (2011) Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters’ . Currency, New York.

https://worldwideinterweb.com/worst-advertising-slogans-of-all-time-gallery/

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The road to purpose - find your purpose and purchase will follow

Why do you need a purpose? Why not just a proposition or promise to put out there in whatever market, you’re in? The thing is that in a world full of promises people have gotten used to the overbidding on unique selling propositions (USPs).

The thing with USPs is that even though you believe that you have an ‘ownable mix’ of features and benefits then your secret sauce can be copied the day after you’ ve put it out there. What will be much harder is to credibly copy a true insight and the conviction and powerful feeling purpose that comes it.   The truth is hard to find but once you have a TRUE insight it will almost certainly convert it self into a strong sense of purpose for you. Armed with that it will be much easier for you to get ideas that fly and sustain your purpose and create emotional connections.

With a true insight motivating, inspiring and informing you on what drives you is much better position to operate from in any context as opposed to those in a world where many in the lack of  truth have to constantly have to artificially incentivize and manipulate them selves and others to keeping a presence and possibly progress in the market.

So having a true insight is incredibly valuable but to put it to full use and provide direction for use it should be converted into a purpose and bit linked to some of the innovations, products and services that you’d actually having or would be able to come up with and put out there.

It’s this handshake between the purpose and the aspirations and limitations that people may feel as you found in your true insight, that will create value. So once you have your insight your purpose – or ‘Why’ as Simon Sinek calls it’ - may come by it self and then you have to look for how that can come into life with the ‘Hows’ and ‘Whats’ to stay in Sinek’s terminology. Here we have to look for innovations and capabilities that you already have and can make meaning of in this context or will have to create that can support a purpose to create true value for your customers.

First things first. Start by gettibg an overview of the promises, products and services you already are offering the people you want to matter to. These are the supporting building blocks that your purpose should build on so it is not just an empty promise.

With the true insight at hand you can now see all these products with their features and benefits  in a new and unique light. Lets look at this with T-Mobile as a case. It’s fair to a assume like any other brand - that a main goal for a telco would be to differentiate and become meaningful in a very generic market.

In the case of T-Mobile lots of others are offering minutes, data and content – often with low price as a main part of their proposition. (you see that's where a mix meant to create a unique value proposition can already start to go wrong: It can be copied …).  

The problem her would be that people may easily think that this mobile telco is just like the others: A utility whom you can negotiate with and pressure further on  price.

That of course provides a problem for a company –especially if nothing but product features and prices mix drives loyalty then it’s hard to get and keep customers and retain employees.

The ladder simplu because who wants to go to work to just having to fulfil a product based promise pr proposition derived form a product mix. What insoires and motivates people is a sense of purpose springing from a true human insight.

So creating a consistent and definitive brand is about much more than exploring the functional value that your products will have to provide to support a promise. It's about how they can inform and support a powerful positive intent in the first place and how the ladder – the purpose – can be supported by prodcuts that it can infuse with meaning in return.

The pupose must spring from a human insight – not a product insight - that can give context and meaning. For a telco like T-Mobile it gave meaning to gain meaning from the insight that sharing and generosity is the aspiration and the new spirit of the age.

The way the brand did it was by to tapping into the tension that after an era of selfishness & individualism people where yearning for collective experiences that they can share & make them happy. That true insight showed the path to the purpose, or conviction you may call it: ‘Life is for Sharing’

This statement is a beautiful philosophy, a truism that is so powerful because it builds on, well: The truth. It’s not just some empty invented statement. It’s an inspiration because it speaks to a true insight about us all and reminds us to resolve something that we tend to forget: Sharing life. That life is better together.

And last but not least it is not just a universal truth – T-Mobile has it’s ‘make it happen’ credibility in place with its products and all the new services, events and content it comes up with to support and sustain this purpose as way of bringing it to life.

The true insight ensures that the ideas and innovations – existing and new – becomes more meaningful, inspiring, emotional, exciting and evocative, than if they where just about cheaper minutes and data.   So the insight and the purpose that interpret it into a liberating philosophy gives a new perspective on what to  look for in existing and new products to support in resolving the tension.

Some may be givens here, if you are a telco: Voice, SMS, Emai, Internet, MMS, Content etc.

But to pick which Hows and Whats that will cater to resolve the tension as defined by your true insight you may just phrase your purpose first and then select and invent.

Other times you look to the things you credibly can claim and have in your portfolito that could help resolve the tension between the aspiration and limitation.

For a telco it could be functional products and the way they are delivered that are uncomplicated, easy to use, and effeortless to share. Then you may list the emotional benefits, what they do and how they make you feel, fx how they help  you connect better and easier with other people; makes you me feel like part of a ‘We’ and of something bigger. How they may help you stay connected to the people and  things that matters to you etc.

This can lead you on the path to a purpose or core story like we saw with the ‘Life is for Sharing’.

Why is that line so easy to love? Because it is true.

Which is also why it inspires so much creative content that connects emotionally with people: https://www.youtube.com/user/lifesforsharing

And then it is supported with concrete products and services that make it even more relevant and credible that the company who says it is the one to say it first – and it suddenly seems evident that this they can say better than anybody else.  As in this case T-Mobile with the help of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi who turned the brand into a Lovemark.

The results?

They speak for themselves: 6.4m views online in 4 weeks; £1m additional media value from offline PR; 5% increase instore footfall YOY vs market decline 15% So find your purpose and the purchase will follow.

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Why not just outsource the insight job?

It can be tempting to oursource ‘the insight job’ because truth be told: It’s a lot of work getting out there, retrieving materials, getting it up there on the wall, analyzing, synthesizing, pondering, phrasing options for purposes or propositions.

But it’s worth that you do it. Yes you.

It doesn't matter whether you are a designer or CEO.

If you want to champion the truth in everything you do then you’ll have to get some human insights based in how real people live their life and feel about things in the real world.

That’s the soundest foundation for what ever you want to put out there from purpose to products.

Couldn’t you just ask your ad agency to do this for you? Sure they would probably do a good job because as we know if there is one thing running in the blood of ad people (apart from occassionally alcohol) it’s  understanding the consumers and finding ways to phrase a purpose that will encapsule how to help them.

Or you could ask somebody else like a market analysis firm (however they may not really be good at phrasing the purpose …)

Ok, so you may go for the ladder who study the market and you actually identify a tension 

Then they will try to take this hypothesis  by talking to people. Then they will return with a report and some suggestions for what to say and do in that market.

Yet there is the trouble that you will not FEEL as much as had you gone through the process yourself. You feeling something. That’s what matters, remember?

And as the truth is hard to find it is something you will have to use your feelings to do if you want to champion it and triumph from the benefits that will give you compared to lying , manipulating and cajoling.

That’s why you have to be able to do the insight job and actually do it if you wan the truth.

You need to be in the world to feel the world and the humans in it. Even to feel yourself and what you feel – at least as a truthful starting point. Then you can test it and learn if it has any resonance with others.

Do this until you feel you have some truthand a true insight that you can use as basis for a powerful positive intent, purpose, promise, product or what you want to put out there 

So get in there. Involve and engage yourself in the insight job even if you need to work with others to get some scale or do fast iterations if you want to save time and get to the truth faster. But have your stake in finding the insight.

Get some feel for yourself for what matters to the people you want to matter to.  

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Spotting paradoxes

Lets look at an easy way to spot spot paradoxes and thereby tensions in the field material you’ve collected. 

 You will want to get it all up on a wall for a better overview – either using post it notes, tapijg up your normal notes and clippings or using a program like Atlas.com. Cluster it in planets and moons. 

The planets being the main themes and the moons smaller supporting evidence for the main theme indicating either an aspiration or limitation that people feel and display through their behavior or statements. Now look for paradoxes. Some paradoxes or dilemmas may be associated with certain segments. 

This can be a way for you to group a market into motives and what they struggle with – a great source for inspiration for phrasing a purpose and designing innovations and communications. 

 So once you have clusters of paradoxes create profiles from the planets. Is there an overall theme or insight that appies to them all? or will you have to design propositions for each. The ideal situation is to find an overarching theme. 

 Like in the case of T-Mobile where all wanted to share more experiences but often felt that tech could come in between them . Here there was a need for a brand that vouched for that: ‘Life is for sharing’ and backed it up with deeply human sharing experiences around spontaneous music, dance and game events.   

 So when you have synhesised a profile with a paradox or tension – a truth about what people would like to but can’t - that can serve as a springboard for you to leap into start phrasing the purpose. 

 But remember it’s an iterative process and you may want to keep stuff up there on the wall to keep the big picture. 

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Don’t. listen to what people think. Look for what they do – or have done.

As you already know people lie to researchers. They underestimate  their alcohol consumption and exaggerate how much sex they have. And if you want them to give their say whether they would use some application you present to them, well they may have an optinion, but acrially they have no idea at all.

The better way is for you to go for evidence instead of opinions.  Ask people what they did or are doing and how they feel about that – what aspirations, limitations, pains and gains do they experience.

So when you do interview questionaires it can make good sense start by asking for some facts.

like “When did you last …” or “Tell a bit about the last time you ..?”

Do this instead of the more hypothetical opinion based questions like  “what do you think of this …” or “Would you buy/use this?”

From facts you can lean in to a conversation about “What are you trying to acghieve when you” or “What do you struggle with when you …”

So say you’re looking to brand a mall or department store and you want to gain some facts from the users. Now you can look to concrete behavioural data from, say loyalty programs.

But you can also start by asking them about their behvaioure in the first place. Again they may not remember all and may make guestimates but it's a place to start and at least its not just some opinions. You can do this as a quantitative online survey with questions like:

“When was the last time you visited a mall? How often do you visit malls?””

In what situations do you typically visit malls? (Tick off options: Bigger shopping trips; Just buying a few things; Buying groceries; Buying presents; Sale; Family trips; To pass time; Other situations?”)

“Do you normally visit the same or different malls?” (Optioms: I stick to one mall; I shift between 2-4 malls” “I visit no of any choice in particular”).

From here you can dive into more qualitative questions relating to aspirations and limitations and aim to find  the tensions that people struggle with in this context – and that you can help resolve.

Instead of carrying out your own research you can also look into existing data to get some initial into what people do. Often there is a lot of research that has been done that can save you time and stil get you some ideas of what people do and have of aspirations and limitations in achieving them.

This can be data already residing with the client from their loyality programmes, what kind of things peope buy or redeem from their vouchers; what they like in social media listening, website behvaiour and what they do or don’t do here. What paradoxes do you see?

From that you can form an idea of what kind of purpose or proposition that will be fit to resolve the unmet needs in the market.

This can all give you a quick and relatively cheap starting point from facts that you can dive further into qualitative questions from.