June 17, 2025
By Jordan Clarke
In recent years, the idea of “purpose” has risen to the top of many corporate agendas, embedded in brand campaigns, CEO speeches, recruitment messaging, and ESG strategies. Customers want to buy from brands that stand for something. Employees want to work for organisations whose values reflect their own. Investors, too, are increasingly looking beyond financials, using purpose and social value as alternative indicators of long-term viability and risk.
And yet, for all the attention purpose receives, there remains a critical gap between what organisations say and what they deliver. Purpose statements often feel polished but disconnected - a set of values on a website or a strapline in a campaign, rather than something embedded in decision-making, behaviour, and brand experience.
This is where marketing leaders play a vital role. More than any other function, marketing is responsible for translating purpose into something tangible; something seen, felt, and understood by employees, customers, and external stakeholders alike. It’s not just about storytelling, it’s about alignment, between what a business says it stands for and how that shows up in the world.
Translating Purpose Across Touchpoints
For a long time, purpose was seen as the territory of brand campaigns or CSR teams - important, but peripheral. It was something organisations might communicate during annual reports, tuck into the 'About Us' section of a website, or build into a values poster for the office wall. But in recent years, that’s changed.
What this means in practice is that purpose can’t be a slogan. It must be something organisations operationalise with discipline and rigour, infirming decisions around product, customer experience, recruitment, partnerships, and growth - not just how a business talks about itself. This shift has created a more complex, but also more meaningful, environment for marketers. We're not simply custodians of message and tone. We’re part of the engine that ensures consistency and credibility across the organisation.
I often find myself acting as a translator across multiple touchpoints - not of language, but of intent. It’s one thing for a business to articulate its purpose at a leadership or strategic level. It’s another to ensure that purpose is understood, felt, and lived by employees, customers, and the wider market. That’s where marketing has real power and responsibility. It’s in how we write and design content. It’s in the tone we strike on our website and social platforms. It’s in how we shape internal comms, thought leadership, EVP messaging, and even pitch materials - making sure we’re telling a consistent story, internally and externally.
Purpose doesn’t become real through a single brand campaign. It becomes real through the day-to-day experience people have with your organisation — from how your team communicates, to how your services are delivered, to how you respond when things go wrong. That’s the real test of alignment – and when done well - we create clarity, credibility, and connection.
The Fine Line Between Credibility and Contradiction
I’ve seen how quickly purpose can unravel when it isn’t fully embedded. It often starts with the right intention - a well-articulated mission, clear values, maybe even a bold campaign that makes headlines. But when there’s a gap between what an organisation says it stands for and how it behaves, trust erodes, and sometimes irreversibly. Whether it’s a tone-deaf campaign during a crisis, a missed opportunity to support employees on a key issue, or silence on something your audience expects you to stand up for, these moments can damage brand equity and internal morale in equal measure.
As marketers, we’re often the first to feel when something doesn’t ring true. And while we can help shape the message, we also need to feel empowered to challenge it - to ask whether the experience, delivery, and culture actually support what we’re saying. Otherwise, we risk putting something out into the world that falls flat, or worse, invites backlash.
That’s the challenge with purpose: it’s a fine balance. Even brands that have historically done this well aren’t immune to criticism or scrutiny. When I think about what it looks like to bring purpose to life in a meaningful way, I’m drawn to brands that have made it part of how they operate, not just how they communicate, but I’m also aware that reputation is fragile. The point is: no brand is beyond scrutiny.
- Patagonia is often cited as the gold standard for brand activism. Their environmental stance is embedded in their product, supply chain, and campaigns - like their famous “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ad. But even Patagonia has faced questions around its pricing, accessibility, and the perceived sustainability of growth itself.
- Microsoft has made purpose central to its identity - from its commitments to sustainability and accessibility, to its stance on ethical AI. Under Satya Nadella’s leadership, the company shifted its tone from corporate tech giant to a more human, values-led organisation placing greater emphasis on empowerment, inclusivity, and trust. But they too aren’t immune to scrutiny - from internal tensions over defence contracts to the complex ethics of AI deployment.
- Tony’s Chocolonely built its brand on tackling slavery in the cocoa industry, with radical transparency and bold messaging. And while I admire their mission, they have faced accusations of "greenwashing" due to its supply chain practices and questions from partnerships with major producers to whether their model is scalable without compromise.
What I take from these examples isn’t that purpose-led branding is flawed - it’s that it’s fragile. Visibility brings scrutiny, and purpose brings expectation. What matters most is a brand’s ability to stay open, transparent, and consistent over time. To acknowledge the imperfections and keep moving in the right direction — with marketing playing the role of both mirror and messenger, even when it’s commercially inconvenient.
As a senior marketer, I see our role as both a translator and a truth-checker, working across the business to connect brand ambition with real-world behaviour. We’re not just here to promote the message - we’re here to ensure it holds up under scrutiny.