Who can resist a promise or a headliner like that? I couldn’t, and therefore in the beginning of April I was sent on a mission to Miami and Fuse 2016. Fuse unites designers, brand strategists, marketers, innovators and insights leaders across industries to discuss the power and impact of design.

At Mission, we aim to celebrate and demonstrate the power of infusing design across the entire organization. We use design, trends and culture to build great brands, tell meaningful stories and create iconic design that inspires unprecedented consumer love. The pressure to connect consumers and brands is more meaningful than ever before. Those who can make the connection are thriving and those who cannot are fading away.

Fuse is the only event focused on design as a strategic force and in Mission’s quest to build brands and businesses that connect the reason to travel all the way to Miami seemed obvious. Here is a little takeaway from this year event in Miami, I hope you’ll get inspired!

"A well-defined Purpose Statement gives strength and power to work holistically and think ahead."

The main theme for this year's conference was brand building with a purpose

In Norway, most B2B companies are based on values, they are value-based. "We want to be inclusive, inspiring and sustainable", they say, but we've heard it before, it's not very engaging and almost everyone can say the same thing. What the company's purpose is, is not known. 90% of Norwegian companies do not have a Purpose Statement, and surveys show that this is a relatively new term in the Norwegian context, even though this has been a diligently and deliberately used term internationally for the past 20 years.

At the FUSE conference in Miami, the guest speakers were very concerned about the opportunities and strengths that lie in a well-defined Purpose Statement: It gives strength and power to work holistically and think ahead. It tells the brand history of the product or service. It helps to develop and create a culture internally, a Purpose Statement defines in other words the corporate culture of the company. It acts as the lighthouse of the company.

Brands with a clearly defined purpose are often able to speak to you as a consumer in a way that touches you.

This is because these brands have something they seek to change. As a customer and consumer, we want to be part of that change.

Good examples of brands with a clearly defined purpose are Virgin, PepsiCo and Apple, brands that speak to you on a personal level. And this, of course, is deliberate.

The people behind the brands tell us how the world could have been. They expose their souls to us. These brands have a reason to exist beyond just selling products: they have a Purpose, or a purpose that is often referred to as in Norwegian.

In Mission, we admire the products they make, but the thing we love most about them is the change they are making, because they are purpose-driven brands. In Norway a better part of B2B companies are value driven, and Purpose thinking is looked upon as something new, when in fact in most parts of the world Purpose has been a buzz word for over 20 years.

Let me give you a great example: Origins

Launched in 1990 as the first department store wellness brand, Origins is sold in over 20 countries. Origins's mission is to create high-performance natural skin care products using potent plants, organic ingredients and 100% natural essential oils. Its products are manufactured using renewable resources, wind energy, and earth friendly practices.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Stephane de La Faverie, Global President of Estée Lauder at Fuse. We talked about Origins emphasise on authenticity and Purpose, and their communication strategy, but let’s start with the beginning:

“Origins brings a sense of wonder, wisdom and well-being to the way beauty is experienced.”
- Origins have a very strong Purpose

From sketch pad to launch

Origins is a good example of a brand that lives up to its Purpose and that carries its Purpose in everything they do: from logo to slogan “Powered by nature. Proven by Science ”for the use of images. (They never use models, here it is the products and nature that are the heroes). I asked La Faverie about Origins' emphasis on appearing genuine and sincere, especially in the light of young people who are often very concerned about this in their encounter with brands. Authenticity is actually 1 of 4 design trends we see these days. So it was natural that I wanted to find out if this had always been a central theme at Origins.

La Faverie said that when Origins made this choice 20 years ago, no one was talking about authenticity and sincerity. Our Purpose and our success is about why Origins never stops exploring. When we stop with that, well then we cease to exist.

The uniqueness lies in the difference

It is by standing out that brands like Origins, Uber and Apple have become so big. Origins never runs print ads. I find this a bit surprising all the time we know how the beauty industry traditionally communicates with its target audience in this way. But La Faverie said this was a strategic choice for Origins:

«Origins marketing is about how you make a difference for your customers, how you stand out from the competition. This is what contributes to success. "
–Stephane de La Faverie, Global President and Estée Lauder

Estée Lauder, the parent company of Origins, has chosen an overall communication strategy that is not about striving for or being one step ahead of the competition, but rather focusing on developing and expanding its markets through being different, better and more visible. In Origins, they have defined that digital and social channels are the most important communication channels together with their own stores. «Marketing for Origins is about how you make a difference for your customers, how you stand out from the competition. This is what contributes to success ", says La Faverie.

I believe that the more genuine a brand appears, and the clearer the company's Purpose Statement is, the further one can stretch in brand communication. Origins will continue to stand out from the competition by delivering a thoughtful and clear customer experience across channels.

- And this leads straight to another hot topic in Miami:

How to create an engaging customer experience across digital, social and physical channels

Below you will gain insight into a 5-step model that is central to creating personality for a consumer brand or service:

Tell us about what you are passionate about. We all want to hear a good story. Stories connect people and are suitable for all market channels. Find the good story behind the brand, the company and the people who work there.
Give employees the opportunity to tell the story . We humans best remember stories told by other people. Let the human encounter be at the center.
Make sure you engage customers and make them a part of your story. Get them to share the story with others and thus become part of the brand.
Be personal. Use marketing tools to communicate relevant to your target audience.
Give of yourself. Bring out the personality the brand really should be, be aware of the brand's tone of voice . Too many companies speak like a public bureaucrat and make the message difficult to understand. People do not talk to each other like that, so why should brands do that? Ensure comprehensive communication across channels.

- and as the Americans would say: «have fun doing it».