In 2021, amid the height of the woke revolution in the United States and other nations, we emphasized the fact that Purpose Will Make or Break Your Halal Brand.
The 2020 Zeno Strength of Purpose Study showed us that consumers are up to six times more likely to buy from a purpose-driven brand. According to the study, having a purpose does not only mean more revenue and loyal customers, but also innovation gains and better employee retention.
Your creative teams are under pressure to ensure that your internal values are consistently, authentically, and clearly communicated to the outside world. The stakes are extremely high when establishing (or reestablishing) a purpose-driven brand.
Today, we want to look at actionable steps to enable your creative team to communicate the purpose of your halal brand and get it right. The only thing worse than your halal brand not standing up for what is right is standing up for what is right and getting it wrong.
“And from among you, there must be a party that invites people to all that is good and enjoin the doing of all that is right and forbid the doing of all that is wrong.” – Quran 3:104 (translation)
Achieving a Holistic Purpose-driven Mindset
Before we venture into how your creative team can represent you as a purposeful brand, we need to have a quick look at how to create authenticity in your brand’s purpose endeavors.
To help you achieve this, we have summarized Deloitte Insights’ advice for purpose-driven companies below:
General Advice
Tell your story and make it noteworthy: Authenticity stems from your brand’s commitment to making an impact and telling its story.
Then walk the walk: To become a genuine purpose-driven business “walk the walk” by being open and accountable in everything you do.
Put all people at the center of your decisions: Lead with a purpose to hold a special place in the hearts and minds of everyone you touch, not only Muslim consumers.
Allow purpose to evolve alongside the organization and unite its people: Your business may have been founded with a core purpose, but that purpose may need to be nurtured and revisited periodically.
Advice to Your Marketing Team Lead
Align Your Purpose With Your Customers: Your purpose, as well as your overall marketing strategy, must be aligned with the values of your Muslim customers.
Champion Leading With Purpose: Be the catalyst that persuades the management team of the value of purpose in brand positioning.
Articulate How Purpose Influences Customers: Explain to the Management Team how purpose or the lack thereof influences your Muslim customers; who, by the way, should be considered active stakeholders investing their money and time in your brand.
Be a Purpose Advocate to Other Departments: Give everyone in your company a sense of purpose in their work and demonstrate how it relates to your brand’s purpose.
Communicating Your Halal Brand’s Purpose With Creatives
Let Your Brand Purpose Drive Your Creativity
The creative team should not be tasked with defining your company’s branding from scratch. You have to understand that jumping straight into color palettes and logo design is like creating the outer case of a car without having an engine yet. In the same way, you cannot have branding without purpose first.
Once the purpose is properly defined (see the above sections), you can base your creativity on that purpose. In its simplest form it is a two-step process:
Step 1- Positioning
Determine your brand’s core identity. Establish your reason for existing, what makes you stand out from the competitors, and how customers should view you.
Align on Terminologies
To ensure that your positioning is effective, you must ensure that your entire organization is aligned with your purpose, vision, mission, and values.
No matter how noble your company’s goals are, they won’t matter if leaders at all levels aren’t completely aligned with these important components that make up the core of your brand.
A 2020 study discovered widespread misalignment in corporate vision. The research, The State Of Leadership Development In 2020, polled 21,008 employees to assess leaders’ performance.
When there is a lack of organizational alignment on these four critical factors, obtaining buy-in and support for creative direction becomes significantly more difficult.
Start by having a clear and concrete definition of these four components as we elaborate below for Muslim Ad Network (MAN):
| Component | Purpose | Vision | Mission | Values |
| Definition | The non-monetary reason why MAN Exists. | The impact MAN aspires to make in the future to achieve its purpose. | What we do daily in service of our vision. | How we conduct ourselves when fulfilling our mission. |
| MAN Implementation | To positively contribute to the Muslim community by promoting permissible commerce and trade. | Be at the forefront of Muslim advertising and creating long-term partnerships. | Help organizations connect with Muslim consumers online. | -Excellence -Giving back -Exceeding customer expectations -Professionalism -Fun -Ownership -Teamwork -Detail-oriented -Sense of urgency -Embrace challenges |
Set aside some time to discuss the purpose of these components with the team leaders and to pose questions that will reveal any creative gaps that need to be filled.
Incorporate Your Strengths
Andy Cummingham, who helped Steve Jobs launch the original Macintosh, defines three types of companies. She calls them DNA types.
Mothers: Customer-centric businesses. Client needs are prioritized, as evidenced by their organizational structure, meeting topics, and success indicators.
Mechanics: Product and feature-driven businesses. They measure success in terms of market share and sales.
Missionaries: These companies want to fundamentally change how people behave as well as how the world works.
Being true to your company’s DNA type will create authenticity when you advocate your brand’s purpose. For example, if your company has the DNA of Mechanics, do not articulate your brand’s purpose by acting like Missionaries and suddenly start trying to change your industry. It will not feel authentic to your audience.
Tip: Document and share the purpose, vision, mission, and values of your brand at all levels of your organization. If your brand’s position is not acknowledged and understood internally, it will never be accepted externally.
Step 2- Branding
After you’ve helped secure alignment on the brand’s purpose, vision, mission, and values work with your creative team to bring them to life. Let us look at what you need to do to achieve this.
Authenticity Checks and Balances
Establish creative checks and balances to guarantee the legitimacy of all branded assets and in turn showcase the authenticity of your purpose to your audience.
You can achieve this by following three simple steps:
- In the form for your creative brief, include your purpose, vision mission, and values.
- Create detailed brand standards and implement them at all times.
- Appoint a brand steward to oversee the brand during creative evaluations.
Easy Accessibility for Brand Consistency
It is really annoying when the creative team has put in all the hard work to create collateral that is true to the purpose of the brand and someone in the company posts a tweet with the old branding. Unfortunately, this happens more often than you would think; to be specific, 39% of the time.
To avoid this and other similar calamities:
- Create a centralized source of truth that is easily searchable and accessible. Everyone in your company should know where to look for updated, on-brand assets.
- Create templates to allow non-creatives to make minor changes to approved assets while maintaining brand consistency.
You have now internalized your purpose and ensured that it is understood by everyone in your company, as well as that it is properly communicated externally. You’re on your way to becoming a well-known and respected purpose-driven brand.
Lastly, we would advise you to keep all eyes open to what is going on around you and how your audience’s sentiment towards the purpose you want to achieve with your brand is evolving.
If you have any questions regarding what we talked about or just want to say “hello” contact Muslim Ad Network. We would love to hear from you.
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