Brand building 385
surfaced about the desired future. Through
subsequent workshops, the attractiveness of
different futures can be harnessed into a con-
sensus view (Ritchie, 1999). The challenge is to
recognize the barrier from managers having
entrenched mental models that they are reticent
to reassess (Huff, 1990). In this situation,
stimulus to change can be helped by drawing
on Hamel and Prahalad’s (1994) questions:
Are these managers’ ideas based
predominantly on information that has
circulated within the firm, rather than
externally generated information?
Has their thinking been based predominantly
on current and anticipated contracts?
The second component, the brand purpose,
considers how the world could be a better place
as a consequence of the brand – and will this
enthuse and guide staff? A particularly inspira-
tional brand purpose is that of Federal National
Mortgage Company, i.e. to strengthen the social
fabric of society by democratizing home owner-
ship. A brand purpose must go beyond state-
ments about profitability. Making a profit is
taken for granted, just as we must breathe air.
The Co-op Bank is a good example of a brand
that thinks beyond just making money and
seeks to contribute to the world. Nike’s purpose
is a good example of inspiring staff and
customers, i.e. to experience the emotion of
competing, winning and crushing competitors.
One way of identifying the brand’s purpose
is to open a debate within the organization. For
example, Oechsle and Henderson (2000) docu-
mented how in the early 1990s Shell’s CEO
encouraged the organization to question the
purpose of the Shell brand. This had been
around for 100 years, yet had no explicit brand
purpose. Thirty-two workshops were under-
taken in many countries amongst staff to elicit
their views about the brand’s purpose. Out of
this emerged the purpose of the Shell brand, i.e.
helping people build a better world. The intent
was to achieve this ‘by creating communities of
people who relentlessly pursue challenge with
an unwavering commitment to be the best’
(p. 76). The route forward became clearer as a
result of this exercise. First, the internal pro-
gramme, ‘Count on Shell’, was launched to get
employees to recognize the need to be able to
count on each other. Without a team approach
the future would be uncertain and the initiative
was strengthened by linking individual and
team performance to support behaviours con-
sistent with the brand’s purpose. A communica-
tion’s programme was then devised, which in
the first phase was directed at specific publics to
inform them of the new campaign. A national
campaign was then launched to provoke dia-
logue on key issues.
Another way of stimulating staff to make
explicit their views about the brand’s purpose
is the ‘five whys’ method proposed by Collins
and Porras (1996). Employees are brought
together in a workshop and the facilitator
encourages debate around the question: ‘We are
all involved in producing and delivering this
brand. Why is it important?’ As each reply is
received, and discussed, the facilitator con-
tinues to probe ‘Why is it important?’ After
around five rounds of probing, some indication
of the brand’s purpose should become clear.
For example, a market research agency, which
had devised a proprietary statistical analysis
technique, may argue initially that their brand
is important because it provides the best data
available. After several rounds of further prob-
ing, the purpose of the brand starts to emerge
as contributing to customers’ success by help-
ing them understand their markets better.
The third component of the brand vision is
the brand’s values. A particularly clear defini-
tion has been advanced by Rokeach (1973), i.e.
a value is an enduring belief that a specific
mode of conduct or end-state of existence is
personally or socially preferable to an opposite
or converse mode of conduct or end-state of
existence. Values drive staff behaviour as they
‘walk the talk’, delivering the brand promise.
For example, the Red Cross values of humanity,
unity and independence motivate staff to go
into disaster-stricken areas to help others. They