How to Create a Brand Vision Statement
As a brand, it’s important to develop your own strong sense of identity. Without defining who your company is, what it stands for and where it’s going in the future, you can’t realistically expect others to relay that message.
Perhaps your company already has a mission statement — that’s great, but it’s not enough. Mission statements are present-focused and process-oriented, defining what your brand does today and how it achieves those results. For example, “We serve X type of customer by doing XYZ.” While mission statements are important to your brand identity, they’re not the full picture – you also need a rock-solid brand vision that inspires and motivates your partners.
A brand vision statement is future-focused and high-level, and it speaks to the overarching difference your company hopes to make in the world.
When crafting a strong brand vision statement, picture the status of your company in 10-15 years — what has it accomplished, and what’s the driving force behind every decision that helped it get there? While your mission statement focuses on what you do, your brand vision centers on why you do it — in other words, it speaks to your motivation for existing. A general example might be, “We aim to revolutionize X by promoting X value.”
As a more specific example, Squarespace Enterprise’s vision statement is, “We inspire and enable the brands leading global innovation to be nimble and launch their ideas with confidence.”
It varies based on industry and offerings, but every company has a greater, progress-driven purpose to what they do. Some companies have a social justice component to their vision while others simply aim to spread fun or joy. If you don’t currently have a brand vision statement — or if you don’t have one that reflects the change you want to make in the world — now is the time to draft or revise one.
It should be concise (no more than one or two sentences) and something that anyone can understand and repeat instantly. If your statement takes longer than 30 seconds to recite, it’s too long and should be reworked.
Be specific with your language and avoid buzzwords like “exceptional,” “leading” and “trustworthy” — these are overused and have very subjective meanings. One person’s definition of “exceptional” may be different from another’s, and you don’t want to leave your brand vision open to interpretation.
Because it’s meant to motivate your partners to help you achieve goals, you want them to fully understand your purpose and how it impacts the world. You want them to share in your company’s enthusiasm.
By understanding the “why” of your goals instead of just what you’re doing, your partners will rally around your purpose and keep long-term progress in mind. And that kind of valuable support may show through in customer interactions.
