How do you define your brand identity?
The vision and mission values are a triad in the form of a card that can be used at the stage of company development. It is a diagram that represents the essential elements of the success and development of the activity, and participates in creating your brand image. How to use it well?
The vision and mission values triad is used in marketing to represent the three main elements of the business strategy. It is a map, or diagram, on which the three elements are represented. Defining your vision, mission and values allows you to define what you want to do and how to do it, as well as what you want to convey and to whom you convey it.
How do you define your brand identity?
How to define a company mission?
The mission is the reason for the existence of your entrepreneurial project. Defining it is not an easy task, because the company’s mission must be as ambitious as it can be achieved. The company’s mission can be societal or organizational.
Describe your company’s mission
Describing your company’s mission is all about presenting the reason for its existence. The mission must be concrete. It is about defining what your business does. All the actions that the company takes constitute its mission. Clarifying your company’s mission is the best way to make it real and make it last throughout the life of your business.
For this, it is advisable to write a slogan. It is a text format that has the peculiarity of being short and striking to the soul. It will not only allow you to easily refer to your company’s mission when you need it, but it will also be useful to easily express your mission to your employees, partners or customers.
In the face of the external environment of the company, the mission has a motivating function. Your employees will stick to it more if it is well formulated. On the other hand, your customers may be seduced by a company mission that aligns with their values.
Finally, the company’s mission should be thought of in the long term. It has nothing to do with market conditions, which will be subject to change anyway. To define the mission of your company or future company, ask yourself some basic questions:
What problem have you identified with your potential customers?
How do you want to answer it?
Is this the solution you want for this problem or do you need the best way to solve it?
Examples of company mission
Here are some examples of business missions, from several sectors of activity. In the form of slogans, these missions are as concrete and meaningful as they are inspiring and ambitious.
The LinkedIn mission is quite descriptive: “Connecting the world of professionals to make them more productive and efficient.” »
Airbnb is known for inviting you to travel: “To be in your place everywhere.”
The famous National Geographic magazine formulated the following mission: “To increase and disseminate geographical knowledge around the world.”
How do you define a company's vision?
The company’s vision calls for a long-term outlook. Behind its mission, which describes what the company offers its customers, the vision sounds like a dream. However, it should not be completely unrealistic.
Define your business vision
Defining a business vision requires taking into account the changes in the world and in society. You have to be proactive to imagine yourself in 25 years:
What will the world look like?
Your sector of activity?
What role should your business play?
Although no business leader is an inspiration, the formulation of the vision should define the desired state of your business. Based on this strategic vision, it is advisable to define goals and an action plan that does not exceed the next five to ten years. If necessary, the vision will evolve according to the development context of the company and its environment, but it will serve as a compass for sustainable development. While waiting for your goals to be achieved, you will move in the direction of this global vision that you will be associated with.
To define your vision, follow the same approach as the mission. As much as possible, try to make your business vision in one sentence, in a way that everyone can understand. This sentence can also be applied to evoke emotions. It gives meaning to your goals and daily actions.
Examples of business insights
Here are examples of visions articulated by famous companies:
When they founded LinkedIn in 2003, Reid Hoffman and Allen Blue articulated the following vision: “To create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”
For Airbnb, Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk presented a vision that went beyond the mere fact of renting out travel properties: “To tap into the universal human aspiration to be where you are—the desire to feel welcomed, respected, and valued for who you are, wherever you are.”
At Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin modestly wanted to “allow access to information from all over the world with just one click.”
How do you define company values?
Values are the set of shared beliefs that are developed at the heart of the company. They are transmitted to employees, but also to customers. The values of a company influence the way it operates and communicates, establishing what is called the company culture.
Present your company values
To define your company values, you will have to appeal to the mission and vision you have developed, but also to the individual values that drive the stakeholders in creating the company. The entrepreneur alone naturally tends to define the values of his entrepreneurial project close to those he defends on a personal basis.
How to formulate your values? The easiest way to ensure consistency between your mission, vision and values is to formulate the three points one by one. Reviewing your mission and vision should lead you to formulate a list of values. These values should be present in your business approach, but also in your relationships with your employees.
Examples of values represented in business
A certain number of values are common to many sectors of activity and types of companies. For example, innovation, creativity or even excellence can guide a company’s business in general.
Other values are inherent to the sector of activity. For example, quality is a value promoted by companies operating in the food industry, just as trust is a value favored by insurance companies.
In HubSpot, for example, the values form the acronym HEART:
Humility (humble),
Compassion,
Adaptability (adapt),
Excellence (awesome),
Transparency (transparent).
To take your strategy a step further, download this free set and use it to define your business strategy and brand identity.