Companies on a Mission, Discover How These Powerhouse Brands Bring Their Brand Mission to Life

Everlane’s Brand Mission

Everlane, an online clothing brand, outlines its brand mission as follows: “At Everlane, we want the right choice to be as easy as putting on a great T-shirt. That’s why we partner with the best, ethical factories around the world. Source only the finest materials. And share those stories with you—down to the true cost of every product we make. It’s a new way of doing things. We call it Radical Transparency.”

Image via ©Everlane

By living its Brand Mission, Everlane has turned fashion’s traditional business model on its head. The company puts a mission-driven twist on industry standards. For example, instead of slashing prices on Black Friday, as most competitors do, Everlane donates profits to its factory workers.[1] The money funds projects like solar panels and on-site wellness programs. Everlane does not just pay lip service to ethical factories; they build business practices that support their mission.

Related: Social Responsibility, How to Build a Socially Conscious Brand

Everlane’s radical transparency is also apparent in their products. In 2018, the company launched its ReNew collection.[2] The outerwear collection is made of recycled plastics. Everlane’s clarity around its mission is helping it to do well as a company and to do good — all of which is making it highly attractive to its ideal customers and more profitable.

Related: How Leaders Drive Profitability With a Strong Brand Vision Statement

Salesforce’s Brand Mission

Salesforce offers a suite of marketing, sales, and customer success software. They rally around their mission and the belief that “Everyone who wants to change the world should have the technology to do so.”

As a company, they lead with impact, believing that impact starts with an empowered employee base. They call their employees Ohana, which means family in Hawaiian. It’s clear that Salesforce employees feel like family because the company was ranked as one of the best places to work in 2018.

Image via Spencer Lowell for Fortune © Salesforce

Salesforce is serious about changing the world through technology. The company actively lives its mission through grants, volunteerism and in-kind donations. Salesforce is even opening up the top floor of its headquarters for non-profit and education groups to use free of charge as a meeting space. It’s clear that their mission to provide access is more than words on a page.

Salesforce also applies its brand mission to its product development because it wants to provide access and a positive impact — for a brand mission to be real and truly effective it needs to be integral to every key part of the business from new product development to customer facing staff. The organization announced a new position, Chief Ethical and Humane Use Officer.[3] The sole purpose of this role is to ensure that Salesforce lives its mission, vision, and values as it creates cutting edge technology for the greater good.

Related: How to Build a Brand Like Amazon, Technology Branding and Marketing

L.L. Bean’s Brand Mission

Outdoor clothing brand L.L. Bean is singularly focused on designing products that make it easier for families of all kinds to spend time outside together. This emphasis on quality and ease of use comes straight from their founder, Leon Leonwood Bean, who instituted the L.L. Bean Golden Rule in 1912. It states, “Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings, and they will always come back for more.”

Image via © L.L. Bean

Related: 4 Ways You Can Be More Customer-Centric to Grow Your Business

The company believed so strongly in enabling families to enjoy the outdoors together that they instituted a 100% satisfaction guarantee. For over a century, customers could return any item without a receipt, regardless of when it was purchased. This policy brought their mission to life and kept the ethos of their founder at the forefront. In 2018, the company updated its policy.[4] Even with tighter requirements, L.L. Bean’s policy remains among the most generous in retail and consequently attracts and retains a very loyal customer base.

Related: Top 10 Brands for Customer Experience and What You Can Learn From Them

Atlassian’s Brand Mission

Atlassian, the maker of software for software development teams, has a very simple Brand Mission “To help unleash the potential of every team through open work.” This mission is made evident in the company’s brand story.

Atlassian believes in leading by example when it comes to their mission. If they want to unleash the potential of every team, they must start by building strong internal teams. The company has clearly stated brand values and intentional hiring practices. Atlassian has built a culture around their Brand Mission, a culture that has catapulted their organization to success.[5]

Image via © Atlassian

Related: How to Use Brand Values to Drive Unwavering Customer Trust and Commitment

Allstate’s Brand Mission

Allstate Insurance calls its Brand Mission Our Shared Purpose. It reads, “We are the Good Hands: We help customers realize their hopes and dreams by providing the best products and services to protect them from life’s uncertainties and prepare them for the future.”

The company established the Allstate Foundation so that it could be the Good Hands supporting the community through charitable giving. Allstate supports victims of domestic violence, has youth empowerment programming and offers aid to those affected by natural disasters.

Image via ©Allstate

Related: Brand CSR, The Business Case for Successful Branding and Social Good

Beyond its corporate social responsibility, Allstate empowers its employees to be the Good Hands.[6] It offers an employer donation match as well as grants to employees who regularly volunteer with an organization. Allstate’s biggest Good Hands effort is its Bring Out The Good Month. During the month of April, Allstate employees plan and attend over 800 volunteering events globally. It’s clear that Allstate’s Brand Mission is in action year round.

Related: The Age Of Internal Branding and Selling It From The Inside Out

Dot Cup’s Brand Mission

Dot’s mission is to empower by providing the best sustainable period products to all girls and women around the world. The Dot Cup is a patent-pending menstrual cup that is designed to offer the best period experience. But Dot wants to do more than offer a quality product, they want to ensure that their product is available to all.

Image via © Dot

Dot brings its brand mission to life through a buy one, give one structure. For each Dot Cup purchased, one is donated to a woman or girl through the company’s partnership with World Vision.[7] This model enables the company to not only empower its customers but also empower women in need, particularly in developing economies.

Related: 4 Ways You Can Be More Customer-Centric to Grow Your Business

Final Word

Are you getting the most mileage out of your mission? Your Brand Mission is not serving you if it only exists as words on a page. Consider the following questions:

1. What is your Brand Mission? Can you clearly articulate it at will?
2. Are your leadership team and general employees aware of and living your Brand Mission in everything they do?
3. Are your customers fully aware of, attracted to and engaged with you because your brand mission is such a strong driving force underpinning your organisation?
4. What is one area where of the business where you’ve successfully brought your Brand Mission to life?
5. What is one area of your business where you can bring your Brand Mission to life a lot more effectively for the benefit of all — so you can increase your profits?
6. Does your brand mission and brand strategy need re-evaluation or perhaps a brand refresh so you have greater clarity on where and how to increase performance and productivity so you can increase sales?