• by Haley Rushing , Roy Spence , March 10, 2009

Think of some brands that you really love. Think of the ones that you would dearly miss if they ceased to exist. Now ask yourself, why do you love them? What difference do they make in your life?

We're living in a time when many brands are hanging up 'going out of business' signs. Many of those brands will not be missed. They may have had perfectly good marketing programs in place, but at the end of the day, what they were marketing made no real difference to anyone - not employees, not customers, not partners, not the communities in which they operated.

As an industry, we're often too good for our own good. We can use the power of our creativity to take an ordinary, commodity product and make it seem extraordinary to a particular market - but not for long. As good as our creativity may be, it can't ultimately compensate for an unremarkable product or service. The customers will ultimately notice and move on; signaling a call to the agency to 'change the campaign - the old one is no longer working.'

The purpose of marketing has to evolve. As marketers, we have a keen understanding of what people need and want in their lives and we can either choose to exploit that insight or we can take it to heart and create brands that fulfill real needs and serve a real purpose in the marketplace.

The most beloved brands, the brands that have outperformed the competition in good times and bad, are the brands that identify a concrete need in the marketplace and set about doing everything they can to serve it in meaningful ways. They don't just talk about it -- they make it their fundamental purpose, their reason for being, and set about organizing their entire organization around it.

When you have a genuine purpose at the heart of an organization, it takes marketing to an entirely different level. Marketers are no longer in the business of just communicating and promoting whatever comes down the pipeline; you are actively collaborating with every facet of the organization to bring the purpose to life in the business model, product development, customer experiences, environmental practices, loyalty programs, employee training, social causes, any and every avenue for manifesting the purpose of the brand is "marketing."

The greatest brands have always been built this way. Take Ikea -- the revolutionary furniture company that offers well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that many can afford them. Their purpose is to democratize modern design for all.

Fulfilling that purpose requires everyone at the company to think about how they can help fulfill that promise in the marketplace - revenue, R&D, operations, environmental design, training, IT - everyone in the organization thinks like a "marketer" and the official marketers have an abundance of genuine stories to tell to the world. Every ounce of creativity can now be used to make sure that the customers you are trying to serve know that you're the best brand in the world for fulfilling a legitimate need that they have.

Purpose makes everything easier but it's not easy work. Having a purpose will give an organization a north star that will make decisions come easier and alignment happen faster. But in order for it to ultimately resonate in the marketplace and generate sustainable high-performance, an organization has to be firing on all cylinders:

• The business model: you have to build an organization that's truly capable of making a difference in the lives of the people you are trying to serve;

• The leadership: you have to have the leaders shepherding the purpose in order for it to take root throughout an organization in truly meaningful ways;

• The marketing: you have to use every ounce of creativity you've got to connect with your audience and let them know exactly what you stand for.

It's time to re-purpose the role of marketing. Let's move beyond creative promoters of whatever comes down the pipeline to a much more active role as co-creators and champions of brands that have a purpose.

Editor's note: If you'd like to contribute to this newsletter, contact Nina Lentini.