When we design websites at ATMA, we always ask a bunch of different questions to thoroughly understand our client’s business. We want to make sure we reflect their brand and convey the message of who they are as a company. One of the things we ask for is a mission statement.
Now, this is something that should be in your business plan (something every successful company should have), but some clients don’t have one. Not having mission and vision statements is as good as not having a plan at all. You know the saying, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Having a deep understanding of what your company is and where it’s going is will guide your success.
Having a mission statement is crucial for a business. Companies establish mission statements to unify all employees’ efforts in the direction of a long-term objective. Mission statements assist a business to build its brand and promote cooperation among all those who support or work for it.
Building a strong brand requires you to nail your purpose and promise down to the specific emotions you want your customers and employees to feel when they think of you. This is where a mission statement will make all the difference.
If you don’t have a mission statement, you need one. Let’s take a look at what it is, what makes it powerful, and how to write your own.
A mission statement is an action-oriented statement declaring the purpose an organization serves to its audience. It frequently includes an overview of the organization, its role, and its goals.
The objectives and goals of a company may be fulfilled and may alter as it evolves. Mission statements should be updated as necessary to reflect the company’s new culture.
The top brands create great customer (and employee) experiences that everyone can appreciate by fusing physical, emotional, and logical elements. A strong mission statement will help you connect with clients while also outlining the goals of your company. Mission statements also aid in differentiating your company from the competitors in the industry.
Your brand’s mission statement needs to be very clear about what it does, how it does it, and why it does it. This can be succinctly stated in your mission statement by including the following information:
Brand Purpose: What does your product or service do, or aim to provide and for whom?
Brand Values: What does your company stand for? For example, are you environmentally conscious and provide a more sustainable solution to solve a problem? Values are what make your company unique.
Brand Goals: What does your company accomplish for customers? Why should they purchase from you instead of other competitors?
You want potential customers to have a clear understanding of what your business does by explaining your offering in basic, clear terms. Consider these questions:
Example: Advent Trinity’s Mission is “to provide business owners with the tips, tools, and strategies needed to be successful in growing their company.”
Core values are ingrained concepts that direct an organization’s behavior. These are values that customers and employees value as well. You may add a compelling set of core values to your mission statement by finding those that have significance for you personally and for your organization.
Example: Advent Trinity’s core values are: transparency, persistence, mutual trust, and integrity.
Draw a connection between the your offering and values in a way that makes sense to the public.
Example: Advent Trinity states, “We must be adaptable, responsive, collective, and reliable to and with our clients for the success of their growth. We must provide top results for Web Design, SEO, and Social Media Marketing.”
A mission statement is a concise overview of your company’s goal that can be as brief as one sentence or as lengthy as a paragraph. The what, who, and why of your business must be stated:
What: The company offering
Who: Who you’re selling to
Why: The core values you do it for
Make sure it’s clear, concise, and free of fluff
Above all, your mission statement should be simple, to the point, and devoid of extraneous information. It should express the obvious intent behind your business’s product and list the common objectives it is striving to meet.
Example: “It’s our mission to provide business owners with the tips, tools, and strategies needed to be successful in growing their company. We must be adaptable, responsive, collective, and reliable to and with our clients for the success of their growth. We must provide top results for Web Design, SEO, and Social Media Marketing.”
Our partners at HubSpot have compiled a few examples from top brands to inspire your own.
Life is Good: To spread the power of optimism.
Sweetgreen: To inspire healthier communities by connecting people to real food.
Patagonia: We’re in business to save our home planet.
American Express: Become essential to our customers by providing differentiated products and services to help them achieve their aspirations.
Warby Parker: To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.
InvisionApp: Question Assumptions. Think Deeply. Iterate as a Lifestyle. Details, Details. Design is Everywhere. Integrity.
Honest Tea: To create and promote great-tasting, healthy, organic beverages.
IKEA: To create a better everyday life for many people.
Nordstrom: To give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible.
Cradles to Crayons: Provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school, and at play.
Universal Health Services, Inc.: To provide superior quality healthcare services that: PATIENTS recommend to family and friends, PHYSICIANS prefer for their patients, PURCHASERS select for their clients, EMPLOYEES are proud of, and INVESTORS seek for long-term returns.
JetBlue: To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground.
Workday: To put people at the center of enterprise software.
Prezi: To reinvent how people share knowledge, tell stories, and inspire their audiences to act. Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
Invisible Children: To end violence and exploitation facing our world’s most isolated and vulnerable communities.
TED: Spread Ideas
Let’s take a closer look at a couple of these companies you may be most familiar with:
Mission Statement: Become essential to our customers by providing differentiated products and services to help them achieve their aspirations.
In its list of values, American Express distinguishes itself from other credit card businesses with a tribute to its well-known reputation for superior customer service. Take note of the emphasis placed on teamwork and helping employees so that those within the firm can effectively support their consumers.
Mission Statement: To offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them
Instead of solely focusing on providing its consumers with attractive, reasonably priced furniture, the mission statement distinguishes that the company’s goal is to improve people’s quality of life on a daily basis. Using words like “as many people as possible” makes a worldwide company like IKEA much more accessible and appealing to customers.
Mission Statement: To give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible.
Not many businesses are as intensely focused on their customers as Nordstrom. Although the company’s mission statement mentions apparel selection, quality, and pricing, it is abundantly evident that it is all about the customer: “Nordstrom works relentlessly to give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible.”
If you’ve ever visited a Nordstrom store, you know that the company will uphold the high standard of customer service outlined in its mission statement. Employees are constantly wandering the sales floors, checking in with patrons to see if they’ve received the assistance they needed, and doing everything in their power to make a customer’s shopping experience memorable.
Showing that your business understands its audience by appealing to them on an emotional level could be the deciding factor for a customer’s next purchase with you. You may not have a detailed business plan, but your mission statement sums it up in just a few phrases. With a mission statement, you can plan to succeed.
