What Is Brand Vision & How To Create One
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In a world of uncertainty, brands that use ‘brand vision’ to guide their decisions and actions are better equipped to thrive. Brands that have a clear idea of what they want their future to look like can avoid wasting time and money on projects that don't align with this vision.
Brand vision is much more than just marketing - it's the way you see your company in the future. It's not about "selling" or "advertising" but rather about developing an understanding of who you are as a brand, where you want to be in five years' time, and how best to get there. And it's about understanding your customers too: what drives them, and how you can be the company they want to do business with.
So, if you want to predict or even safeguard your brand’s future, here’s everything you need to know about the importance of utilising brand vision.
What is brand vision?
Your brand vision is a short statement emboldened with intent that shows where your business, or brand, is heading, and what in particular it aspires to.
Brand vision statements above all else are designed to inspire both your audience and your company’s staff, an aim or change, or a brand value, as their main focus.
Take these examples of brand vision statements:
- Alzheimer’s Association: A world without Alzheimer’s disease.
- British Airways: One Destination: To be the world’s most responsible airline.
- Hopin: Better connections for a better planet
The other secret superpower of brand vision statements is that although they define your future, they don’t have to get left in the past if your brand or business evolves, they can change.
Brand vision statements can be adaptable and flexible. You don’t need to pick a brand vision statement and blindly stick to it: depending on the trends and needs of the market, you can change it if necessary.
Take two of the examples above. If the Alzheimer’s society continues to make strides in combating the disease and eventually eradicates it - its vision statement will become redundant. Instead, it could change its statement to “Maintaining a world without Alzheimer’s disease”.
On the other hand, virtual events and video conferencing startup Hopin has safeguarded its brands future. By holding events virtually - thus cutting carbon emissions - it upholds its promise to maintain a better planet, and it will always strive to achieve better connections to enable it to withstand its existing promise. If the planet improves, Hopin will always need to enable those better connections, and so the market changing will have little to no impact on the brands vision.
Brand vision vs brand mission
One common misconception of brand vision statements is that they’re brand mission statements.
They’re not.
Brand vision and brand mission statements are very easy to get muddled up. The first difference being that your brand vision is inherently linked to your brand's purpose, identity and mission.
Your brand's mission (which you can jog your memory on here) defines your brand’s goals, objectives, and approach but most importantly it outlines what your brand is trying to do in the present.
On the other hand, your vision statement outlines the long-term impact your mission seeks to make and outlines where your brand will be in the future, and what it aspires to.
Mission statements also tend to be longer because of the amount of information they need to encompass, whilst vision statements are short and snappy. So if you’ve written a paragraph that talks about the present: that’s your mission. If you’ve written a sentence that defines your future: that’s your vision. Simple!
What makes a good brand vision?
Value Proposition.
The best brand visions aren’t a call to action. They’re not a middle-of-the-road generic statement. Instead, the best brand visions are those that allude to the unique selling point (USP) of the business, that look to the future and that most importantly tell everyone how your brand is going to deliver value to the world.
When you start considering your brand vision, begin by looking inwardly and placing the value that your business wants to offer to the world at the centre of your vision statement. Every business is built to do something: at Huddle, we’re built to turn businesses into meaningful brands and we do that through collaboration, which makes us unique.
Defining your values can be tough, which is why we wrote a blog about it. But a quickfire way to get started is by evaluating your core ideology.
How to channel your Core Ideology
Your core ideology is the part of your brand vision that won’t change with time. Core ideologies tend to be built off brand values, and this ideology will remain consistent with your overall brand identity throughout the test of time.
For example, in the case of Hopin, their vision to consistently deliver better connections will not change with time because it is essential to what they do - which is part of their core ideology.
Core ideologies supplement brand visions because they enable brands to identify not just what it is they stand for and how they’re different, but also how they’re going to turn that difference into actionable results. And it’s that that inspires the change needed to fuel a brand vision.
The best values to mix into your brand vision
Generally, thinking about your responsibility to customers is a vital first step when crafting an effective brand and identifying brand values. Brand values should help you think more carefully about what the promises of your company are, and how they will be differentiated in the marketplace.
Your brand values might look like:
- Wanting to sell only the highest quality, sustainably sourced products.
- Offering exclusive high-quality materials.
- Wanting to provide healthy working environments which promote happiness and satisfaction for employees.
- Offering competitive prices, while still providing high quality materials and turning profit.
- Wanting to exclusively serve and support local communities.
Remember that brand vision statements serve to identify the single most important reason that your business exists and that reason is for life: whether you rebrand, refresh, or update, the vision of what your brand aims to achieve remains the same unless you achieve your goal or the vision becomes outdated and needs naturally updating.
The following questions can help to guide and focus your vision:
- What is it that drives you and your team to show up and complete the business’s work each day? What inspires you to feel passionate about the work?
- What change is your brand trying to invoke in the world? It exists for a reason, so what is that reason?
- What benefits do you and your services or products ultimately deliver?
The answers to these questions, plus an understanding of your unique values and brand promise can all help to compile a vision statement that outlines the future for your brand.
How do you write a brand vision statement?
So, at this stage you might now be wondering exactly how to create your brand vision.
Though the creation of a brand vision statement can be a process that requires a lot of drafting and editing before finally getting it right, there are three easy steps to follow that can help when it comes to writing your brand vision statement.
Make it easily identifiable
Because of the regular confusion between vision and mission statements, sometimes vision statements end up becoming lost or unfocused.
Vision statements can’t work to guide your brand into achieving success until it becomes a mantra that your team members can use to hone their success.
Vision statements therefore must be easily identifiable, clear, concise and easy for both your team members and your consumers to bring to mind when they think of your brand.
Make it easily understandable
Vision statements can be far-reaching dreams of the future, but they also must be something that is both achievable and easily understandable.
Vague terms that include industry jargon capable of going over the heads of most consumers will not resonate, nor will they motivate a majority of employees who may not yet share the industry knowledge or be able to envision the brand’s goal.
Remember that a brand vision is the ultimate goal of what a future could look like if your consumers advocate for your brand, and your employees keep working to drive your brand forward.
Make it easily digestible
Brand vision statements work best when they’re short, sweet and capable of inspiring or motivating people. To improve your chances of this, remember that less really is more.
A brand vision statement shouldn’t exceed more than two sentences, and it should be empowering, emboldened with lashings of ambition or inspiration. It’s a rallying cry for both employees and consumers that can move your business forward.
If you find yourself struggling however, there is help in the form of branding agencies who can assist with writing, researching and defining your brand vision.
Here’s how a branding agency can help
It’s no wonder that brand visions can be difficult to clarify. After all, they need to:
- Define your industry.
- Set out your future.
- Be powerful and passionate about your brand.
- Drive aspiration and inspiration.
- Align with your brand strategy, mission, and values.
It’s a lot to be specific and clear about, which is why many businesses turn to a branding agency for help.
Branding agencies like ours at Huddle can understand and unearth your brand values, pinpoint your uniqueness and place that front and centre to distinguish your brand from your competitors. We can turn information into inspiration at the drop of a hat, with concepts that speak in your brand tone of voice and that drive your brand identity.
To get started you can: