The idea that people-centric, purpose-driven organizations are more successful isn’t new. Everyone from Simon Sinek to Melinda Gates has been driving this home for at least half a decade. During the last 12 years, brand valuation of purposeful organizations has been over 100% higher than of those that define success with bottom-line metrics alone.

Committed brands like Unilever (Dove, Ben & Jerry’s, Seventh Generation) continue to funnel more marketing funds into purpose-based storytelling, which has proven to pay off their bottom line.

Purpose-driven business is an imperative now. Deloitte even created a way to measure human-centered impact with customer, workforce, and partner satisfaction metrics.

The Zeitgeist has spoken. But what is your business going to do about it? What does it mean to “be human” as a brand?

One thing bears repeating: There is a growing list of secondary benefits that come from humanizing your brand. For example, an earnest (in line with your vision) and empathetic (it’s not about you) communications architecture delivered and more importantly embraced across the organization communicates your vision consistently at every customer engagement.

Remember, people don’t see your organizational divisions, only places where they engage. Consistency shows competence to clients and creates a trustworthiness that lives on well past individual interactions. Empathetic, connected stories have a synergistic effect on your hard metrics as well as your emotional resonance with clients, employees, and partners.

“The campaign created around purpose accounted for 65% of all marketing-generated pipelines…It was our highest-performing campaign in the past five years.”

– Alicia Tillman, Global CMO, SAP

SAP’s recent rebrand centered around employee-driven vision is a great example of the power of this concept. They fueled their content architecture with the voices of their employee networks. The grassroots approach worked. After their pivot, they saw spikes in purchase consideration (6%) and customer advocacy (8%) and made a splash in “most valuable brands” lists.

Aligning your organization around your vision is powerful and lasting. It allows the emotional triggers in your marketing to have “backup” across the entire customer journey, weaving your narrative in product messaging, UX/UI, and especially customer service. That narrative is revenue and technology agnostic, which means it is also more powerful and longer lasting than both. Purpose-driven brands with vision bring revenue and technology along for the ride instead of constantly reacting to them.

Is there any more of a compelling incentive to stick to your vision, align your strategy, and just be human?

Learn how your organization can “be human”

At Somnio, we believe that what a brand stands for is as important as what they sell. We’ve built our brand around understanding our B2B clients’ complex enterprise technology and making it resonate for their clients on an emotional level. For a full list of cultural, operational, and tactical actions to take to drive your people-focused approach, visit our Be Human section of Currents.