Products with a Purpose represent the social and environmental change they support. They represent their brand's Collective or Social Purpose and become meaningful to customers because the products connect them to a bigger reality.
To truly understand how Purpose works, though, we need to dig even deeper to the thing that motivates our Purpose: the Belief System. Your belief system is your answer to the question: What is life about for you?
If life is about competition and growth, your purpose will be to win the competition and achieve maximum growth. If life is about self expression, you will be doing just that, or help others do that.
Meaningful products are based on a belief system we can identify with
and serve a purpose we can empathise with.
The belief system is at the root of everything a company does, it affects every stakeholder, in the widest sense of the word: owners, employees, partners (and their employees), customers and its social and environmental environment. So whether a company believes in maximum shareholder value, or maximum community value, makes a big difference. And belief systems can evolve.
Designing for Purpose means understanding the fundamental nature of a company's belief system as the driver behind everything the company does. It means taking an integral look at a brand and its stakeholders to analyse where the change can be made, what timelines are realistic and how that can be translated into a product portfolio that is an extension of the belief system, commercially viable and supportive of the Social Purpose. But the very first thing it means, is asking yourself the question: What is life about for me?
Want to know more? Watch the video below, or ask me!