purpose is for every person and every group of people.

Purpose does not require subscription to a particular belief system. It is not just for non-profits and B corporations. Purpose simply requires a clear and convicted answer to the question, “what am I here to do?” … or, in the case of organizations, “what are we here to do?” The answer to this question can come from without or it can come from within but it must be shared by the members of your organization if it is to be believed your customers.

The following stories summarize the journey of some of the organizations with which we have had the privilege of working. They understood they needed a competitive advantage and knew they needed to differentiate themselves. That is where we started. We had no idea how much more we would achieve when we started down the path.

connecting purpose to a higher education brand

Founded nearly 70 years ago, our client grew to become one of the fast-growing private universities in the United States. In 2005, the university had gained ground on its competitors but understood that it needed to differentiate itself in its crowded and noisy market where universities bombarded prospective students with generic messages about price, convenience and the availability of programs.

We engaged the university’s marketing executive and developed a plan whose purpose was the definition of a brand ideal that would distinguish it from its competition. After reviewing the plan with university executives, we conducted a series of focus groups comprised of employees, students and alumni. Concurrently, we deployed a perception survey that would provide benchmarks against which progress would later be measured. Our findings revealed numerous motivations and themes that could serve as compelling differentiators. We developed graphic presentations for each theme and then shared them in an electronic survey with the entire employee and student population.

After compiling the results of more than 1,000 responses, a clear winner was evident. We brought our findings to the university’s executive committee and proposed the concept that became the singular ideal around which the university’s culture and communications have revolved for more than a decade. We then helped our client weave the ideal into the fabric of their culture by introducing it first to employees through a series of contests and then to external audiences through their marketing communications.

Student population since that time has increased from slightly less than 3,000 to nearly 10,000. The ideal appears on banners that adorn the campus, shirts, sweaters and bedding sold in the bookstore and just about every single piece of promotional literature created and used by the university’s marketing and admissions teams.

connecting purpose to a healthcare brand

Established as the County of Riverside’s general hospital in 1893, Riverside University Health System (RUHS) has grown to encompass a 439-bed teaching hospital, twelve federally qualified community health centers and the County’s Departments of Behavioral and Public Health. The 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act introduced unprecedented competitive pressures that prompted RUHS to adopt a more market-oriented approach.

Alongside operational improvements, including the adoption of the Epic electronic health record system and dramatic Lean process improvements, RUHS executive leadership understood they needed to change the public’s impression of RUHS as a “county hospital”. They also understood that the surest and most sustainable way of achieving that change was to change how RUHS employees perceived the organization in which they worked. They would then, as a result, consistently deliver experiences to patients that would validate RUHS’s claims to health and healthcare excellence.

After a series of meetings with RUHS leaders, we hosted 40 focus groups at various times and locations that engaged nearly 500 employees from across the System’s 7,000-plus work force. Not only did the groups yield deep insights into shared motivations and aspirations but they also distributed ownership in the process … essential for broad ownership of the outcome. On a parallel track, we audited competitors communications to identify their value propositions. This assessment would ensure that the ideal we would recommend would be truly unique and would address unmet market expectations.

We compiled our findings and developed an initial set of themes that we presented first to RUHS’s executive leadership team and then to the entire workforce. Based on the more than 1,000 responses we received, we iterated a second, third and fourth set of themes. By the fourth set, we had a clear winner that avoided the concerns concepts from the first three sets inspired. The winning concept, “because you matter”, was introduced in video form twelve months from the start of the process at an event that gathered RUHS and County leaders as well as business partners and frontline employees.

The ideal was embraced enthusiastically across the organization. One veteran employee said, “I have been working here for 30 years and I just want to say thank you so much for allowing me to be part of this growth.” Another wrote: “‘Because YOU Matter’” is perfect! I’ve shared the video with my team and it was received with the same enthusiasm that I experienced when I viewed it. Thankful to be an RUHS employee and part of such an important effort!”

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Arnold Tabuenca has served at RUHS for more than 25 years. He said,  “Jeremy and his team provided the creativity and leadership we needed to not only change the way the market looks at us but how we look at ourselves. ‘Because you matter’ not only gives us something different and meaningful to communicate in our promotions but it has also given us an aspirational ideal for our culture and in our care for patients.”

We then helped RUHS infuse “because you matter” into their culture through environmental messaging at their high-traffic locations and consulted with their employee engagement group to find ways to recognize and reward behavior consistent with the ideal.

connecting purpose to a public agency brand

Tri-City Mental Health Authority (Tri-City) is an outpatient, public mental health services agency located at the far eastern edge of Los Angeles County. Founded by the citizens of Claremont, La Verne and Pomona in 1960, the agency was ready to refresh its identity and reposition for the future.

Brand Purpose commenced the 12-month project near the end of 2020 at the height of the United States’ COVID-19 crisis. As a result, the project's first phase (external discovery) featured a two-and-a-half day Zoom-based Future Search conference. In addition to helping Tri-City reconnect with community partners representing law enforcement, healthcare, education and nonprofits, the conference elicited insights and aspirations that would inform subsequent phases of the rebranding process.

The project’s second phase turned the focus inwards and consisted of dozens of interviews as well as thirteen workforce focus groups. Brand Purpose assessed the perception of the Tri-City brand and set measurable benchmarks during this phase as well.

Informed by the data gathered during the project’s first two phases, Brand Purpose developed a set of brand ideal concepts which it then tested and refined through three rounds of polling. The exercise not only served to improve the ideas but it also kept the project’s stakeholders engaged and enthused.

Brand Purpose reported its findings and recommendations to Tri-City’s executive team who then selected the winning concept. The decision initiated the project’s third phase in which Brand Purpose developed the graphic platform that would package the brand ideal in a distinctive and visually appealing form.

The  platform was extended to an environmental graphics plan that will bring the new ideas and energy into the spaces employees worked and served the agency’s patients.

“We engaged Brand Purpose as we neared our 60th-anniversary,” explained Tri-City Director of MHSA and Ethnic Services, Rimmi Hundal. "Brand Purpose led us through a process that helps us understand our “why” and then articulate it in a way that inspires our team and attracts the communities we serve.”