Aligning Marketing and Mission

The Path to Sustainable Growth

Aligning Marketing and Mission The Path to Sustainable Growth

Consumers are growing increasingly concerned about the values of the brands where they shop. This concern has quickly spun them into action, with people from around the world using the power of their wallets to effect meaningful change. According to a recent PwC survey of over 20,000 global consumers, more than 80% of people are now willing to spend nearly 10% more on sustainably produced and sourced goods, as well as other goods that better align with their ethics. 

This consumer mindset shift presents a huge opportunity for brands that care. The problem? Many brands don’t know how to show they care through effective marketing strategies. This guide will help you craft a missional marketing strategy and blueprint that works, steering you through the current wave of consumer interests into a long-term roadmap for sustainable business growth and development.

Develop a Concrete Mission, Vision, and Values Set for Your Business

Before you can tell the story of who you are to the right buyers, you need to determine what you stand for and how to communicate your business’s identity consistently. To truly align marketing with mission, it’s time to put pen to paper and solidify your business’s overall mission, your short-term and long-term vision, and the values that drive your business. 

You need to lay the foundation of your brand before you can do anything with your website and marketing. Your organization’s brand and mission should showcase who you are, what you care about, and how your business uniquely contributes to the world. These statements will shape your business’s story and the marketing strategies and tactics you pursue as well as provide a measurement for accountability to the public.

Mission

Your mission is a great place to start spelling out the actions you’re taking right now and what outcomes you are achieving or working to achieve. But your mission isn’t about you. It may start with you, but at the end of the day, your mission is about impact. Who (or what) are you seeking to help? What change are you working toward? Identifying the who, what, and how is essential to crafting your brand and marketing strategy.

As an example, a mission statement for a green clothing retailer might say something like this: “Our mission is to make sustainable and stylish clothing accessible to everyone, empowering individuals to make environmentally conscious choices while still keeping up with their favorite fashions.”

Vision

Next, you’ll want to craft your vision statement, which tends to be more future-looking and less specific than your mission statement. If the mission statement is the seed you’re planting and tending to now, your vision statement is the tree you expect to grow with these efforts.

An example vision statement for this same retailer might say: “Our vision is to be the leading provider of affordable and ethically produced green clothing in the United States, encouraging our country’s fashion industry to move in a more sustainable direction as a whole.”

Values

Values should be informed by your mission and vision, with three to five short words or phrases encapsulating them. These values provide a framework that creates company culture and guides business decisions.

For this green retailer, it may make sense to have a shorthand and longhand version. The shorthand could be something like: “Sustainable, stylish, and sensibly priced.” The longhand could look more like this: “Sustainable manufacturing and distribution models, stylish clothes based on current and timeless trends, and sensibly priced pieces for an accessible and long-lasting wardrobe.”

Identify and Connect With Your Ideal Buyer Persona

While you were documenting the mission, vision, and values of your business, you likely also thought of the type of customer you’re hoping to work with. This is your ideal buyer persona, or who you expect to be a loyal, committed customer.

If you’re an established business, you can likely figure out your typical buyer persona through past performance and customer data focused on demographics, purchase history, and relevant behaviors. If you’re less established or don’t have these data points available, you can start from scratch by thinking about who you want to attract over the long haul. (This is something Mane Impact helps with when crafting brands and marketing strategies for clients.) Think about demographics, such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, education level, physical location, and political affiliations, to narrow your scope. From there, think about the problems your buyer might have and how your product or service can solve those problems.

Let’s return to our green clothing retailer and create a buyer persona for them: Environmentally Conscious Elyse. Elyse is a millennial woman who lives in the United States and cares deeply about sustainability. She is trying to shop only with brands that align with these values, but her problem is that many of these brands are out of her price range as a lower-middle-class graduate student. Relying on these buyer persona characteristics, the clothing retailer can start targeting their messaging to people like Elyse who want green fashion but need to know upfront if they can afford it.

Tell Your Story Through Missional Marketing Language

Prospective customers who fit your brand are most likely to connect with you if you speak their language. That’s why one of the most important aspects of mission-driven marketing is formulating a content creation strategy focused on reaching customers through missional marketing language. This language will look different, depending on what you are trying to sell and who your customers are, but the goal stays the same: Tell a concise, compelling story about who you are, what matters to you and your brand, and what you’re doing to achieve your goals and solve customer problems. Mission-minded customers care about how the product you’re selling comes into existence as much as the product itself. 

A long-form version of this missional story should exist on your website in an “About Us” or similar section that is easy to find. It’s a good idea to include photos and other personal touches that make the story feel approachable and relatable. The story itself should share your “why” and mix in language that will matter to your ideal buyer persona. Another good practice, when you’re ready to move beyond the basics of branding and marketing, is to incorporate SEO keywords and strategies that target the same missional language of your consumers.  

If you’re trying to reach Environmentally Conscious Elyse with your story, you’ll want to talk about why you care about the environment, the sustainable business choices you’re making, the ethical partners you’re working with to accomplish these goals, and how you’re trying to keep costs under control. Short-form versions of this same narrative should show up throughout your website, social channels, and other branding materials.

Work With Ethical Third-Party Partners and Tools

Not all potential business partners will share the same mission and values as your business; too much misalignment can lead to poor outcomes and even distrust among your customer base. This is especially true for marketing and technology partners, as many of these businesses invest large amounts of money and use massive amounts of energy in ways that may feel unethical to your customer base.

But sometimes finding a third party that 100% aligns with your mission can be difficult, expensive, or even impossible. When that’s the case, go back to your core values to identify the areas where you are and aren’t willing to compromise. Evaluating prospective partners in this way doesn’t mean you contradict your mission; instead, it should mean identifying areas you want to grow into and being transparent with your audience about ways you’re hoping to grow in the next three, five, and 10 years.

When possible, vet third-party partners and tools through a missional lens before signing a contract. Whether it’s your CRM, your project management software, a third-party analytics provider, or another strategic business partner, learn as much as you can about their values by asking these questions:

  • Are their values clearly stated anywhere on their website? If so, do these values align with my business values and mission?
  • What other organizations do they align themselves with?
  • Do they currently work with any tools, materials, or other assets that raise concerns?
  • Do employees seem generally happy and taken care of by this organization?
  • Do customers/clients seem generally happy and taken care of by this organization?
  • Are they able to answer my questions satisfactorily and transparently?
  • Does this potential partner have policies in place to protect: Data privacy, security, sustainability, and other important initiatives?

Amplify Your Voice in the Community

Businesses should amplify their voice in their digital, local, and greater communities. This effort will demonstrate a commitment to their mission through active community engagement. Depending on your particular goals and focus areas, this could look like supporting local charities, sponsoring or attending community events, participating in grassroots initiatives or policy efforts, or even getting your core missional narrative onto the right social channels consistently. These efforts can multiply community impact while also reinforcing your brand reputation and mission in a way that reaches existing and potential customers.

For the same green clothing retailer we’ve been using as an example, these are some ways they can amplify their community presence:

  • Set up a clothing recycling program or organize clothing swaps in or near their storefronts.
  • Call congresspeople or attend organized protests and advocacy days for sustainable policies.
  • Post about sales, advocacy opportunities, recycling programs, and other initiatives on social accounts like Instagram and TikTok.

Missional Marketing Made Possible

Even if you firmly believe in your organization’s mission and how you’re pursuing it, aligning your marketing with this passion can be an overwhelming task. That’s where we come in: Mane Impact is proud to be a mission-driven marketing agency that can get your mission and marketing elements working symbiotically. Contact us today to learn more about how our services can help.