#1: Purpose versus Meaning In Business

Hello, and welcome to the first edition of The Meaning Expert™ Newsletter where I explore the big topics of today and what they mean for the future of business, brands, marketing, innovation, sustainability, leadership, and business management in general.

My ambition with this project is to bring in the missing piece of knowledge so we can create a better future with business – by changing how we think about business, how it generates value and for whom – to add more meaning to people's lives. We have the data, we have the information, we have the insights, we have the research. What we don't have is a holistic understanding: the real sense and meaning of what things truly mean in a larger context of our fast-evolving human existence today.

This is true especially now after COVID which has accelerated our transition to the new Humanistic Paradigm where we are collectively rethinking who we are, what we want out of our consumption, out of brands and business, out of our work, and our own lives. This sudden surge in the need for meaning is touching all facets of business, as any business is primarily a human and social discipline. Business is human, and so the value it creates must be too.

This newsletter – the same as my work – is devoted to rethinking and reimagining the fundamental building blocks of business from the perspective of meaning and human value. It is only when we zoom out of the details, boxes, verticals, silos, business functions and individual disciplines we have fragmented the whole industry into that we begin to see the tapestry of meaning behind it. Here, on a higher level, we can connect the dots and see the real meaning of things in their actual context. And with their real meaning, we can move forward and do things more effectively.

But this is not just about curious inquiry; this is existential. It is about creating a better shared future by using the immense creative and social power of business and brands constructively in our lives. We need to start understanding the world of business from this higher perspective of meaning, otherwise, the businesses we manage and the value they create won't be relevant to us anymore. And for some, in not so distant future. We've seen businesses collapse when they lost their meaning.

Thanks to the pandemic, we are now standing at a pivotal time. COVID has transformed the way we see business and our place in the world. The price of not acting now is too high. Not just in terms of annual losses but more importantly, in future profit losses of not acting on opportunities opening up in front of us today due to a radically changed market environment where people now desire different things. We can now create radically new businesses, brands, and product categories, revolutionize industries and how we approach business. But only if we understand what things mean, why they are happening and where future opportunities lie – to reimagine how we do things for a better outcome and our collective good.

Every month, I will be zooming into one selected area of business and exploring how the recent changes are affecting it and how its meaning is changing for a better application in the future. The topics will vary from the future of business and brands, reimagining consumerism, strategy, humanistic innovation, sustainability, diversity, the future of work, the great resignation, the new luxury, all the way to humanized technology, meaningful metrics and proposing a new economic model for the new form of Humanistic Capitalism.

As the topics are diverse so is the intended audience of readers. This is for you if you are a CEO, CMO, founder, agency executive, global brand leader, marketer, strategist, innovator, inventor, futurist, market researcher, creative director, designer, UX/CX manager, management expert, culture leader, sustainability and diversity leader, luxury insider, publisher, journalist or an academic.

The first topic for this month is Purpose versus Meaning – a tension that stands at the core of the existential and ideological divide in business today. We've heard a lot over the last couple of years on the need to move beyond purpose. Some have even contemplated the idea of post-purpose. This is amusing. We don't need post-purpose. What we need is to make our debate on purpose purposeful. We need to understand what is lacking from it which is human meaning. The only real purpose is the human purpose. And what people value is meaning, not purpose. This is why the only way to fulfilling corporate purpose leads through meaning.

To dive deeper into this topic, just scroll down. You'll find the materials below.

I wish you a meaningful month!

Dr. Martina Olbert

Founder and CEO, Meaning.Global

This Month's Podcast

Listen to my conversation with Peter Winick on Purpose vs. Meaning in Brands for his podcast Leveraging Thought Leadership.

How can brands shift advertising to meet the new needs of customers?

This and more is what Peter and I discuss in our interview for his podcast Leveraging Thought Leadership. We talk about how the pandemic has (semi-unexpectedly) ushered in a new humanistic paradigm and how this sudden shift in our essential human needs and values is changing the way we see brands, what we expect from them and what this means for the future of business. We also discuss the difference between Purpose and Meaning and how their role differs in business, branding, and advertising, even though they are sometimes used interchangeably. (Yes, they are different things.) I also explain how COVID created a shift in the marketplace that moved the emphasis from brands to the people they serve.

The feeling of being “stuck” was pervasive, and led many consumers into a period of self-reflection about themselves, their lives, and their goals. This realignment of values has impacted advertising, and to be successful, brands today need to do more to deliver appreciable, meaningful value. Brands and organizations often promote meaning and purpose, but what does that mean — and how much control do they really have over their audience’s perception? I share stories about how our values impact the perception of brands, and what audiences look for when choosing to buy. This is a fascinating conversation about the rise of the "humanistic paradigm” and how brands, organizations, and advertising are now having to change in its wake.

Three Key Takeaways:

• Organizations need to consider how to fundamentally improve customers’ lives with their advertising, and align with each person’s sense of greater meaning.

• COVID-19 has made the emerging humanistic paradigm more profound and cohesive.

• When starting out in thought leadership, find your niche! Hint: It’s the thing you are more passionate and knowledgeable about than anyone else!

This Month's Article

Read my newest article on Purpose versus Meaning written for WARC Knowledge here: Corporate Purpose or Human Meaning: Which Way Into The Future? 

Purpose Or Meaning: Why should we choose when we need both?

Perhaps a provocation more than a real choice, this title suggests that we should reflect more deeply on the issue of purpose and meaning in business. It's because we cannot actually achieve one without the other. There is no purpose in business without meaning. Purpose without meaning is just an illusion – a mimicry of change, virtue signalling and self-aggrandization without any real social and human impact. Thanks to our blind worshipping of purpose over the past decade, we are facing an existential and ideological divide in business today. Through the overemphasis on purpose (the external value) we have lost meaning (the intrinsic value). One thing is clear now: trying to "figure yourself out" isn't where the real value is.

The real value is in connecting your brand and business with what people value, and that is meaning – what things mean to them, the real meaningful value your brand and business add to people's lives. This is why we need to make a mindset shift in business from the psychological and existential drivers to the anthropological and cultural understanding of brands as social constructs that help us do things better in society: to self-actualize and create our own meaning. This way, we can unlock the immense social power of business as a creative force for common good – for people and the planet – which, in turn, can lead us into a more solid, meaningful and humanistic future.

This Month's Offer

Does your brand have a real meaning or just a stated purpose?

Book an advisory call with me and find out. For the end of the year, I am offering a strategic assessment of your brand, business and strategic direction set you up for success in 2023. Know what your current meaning is and how you can reimagine it to give yourself a confident start in the new year! For consulting, strategy, workshops, speaking, guest lectures and podcasts, please email me here.

This Month's Quotes

"Understanding what things mean is the new literacy for the 21st century." (Share this on Twitter)

"People don't care about your why; they care about their own why – which to brands isn't purpose but the meaning they add to people's lives." (Share this on Twitter)

“To make brands purposeful, they paradoxically cannot be led by purpose. Brands must be led by meaning because meaning is what people value." (Share this on Twitter)

“The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a portal from one business reality into another. We now have a new shared collective experience from which we can build anew: a better and more sustainable future.“ (Share this on Twitter)

“Brand purpose limits the real power of brands as a force for good because it focuses on image over impact. People will now start to care only about those brands who care about them and what they care about. So we need to switch our focus from purpose to meaning.“ (Share this on Twitter)

"Meaning is the most important currency of the 21st century. Meaning is the new money. If you have meaning, business growth is inevitable." (Share this on Twitter)

Enjoying This? Share it with a friend!

Do you know someone else who might benefit from following these ideas and insights? Share this newsletter with a friend, colleague or client and help them see and understand the business of meaning from a new, deeper and richer perspective.

About

Dr. Martina Olbert is recognized by Forbes as the global authority on meaning, known simply as The Meaning Expert™. She is a visionary business thinker, imagineer, humanist, futurist, strategist, social scientist and speaker represented by Chartwell Speakers in London. Martina is the Founder & CEO of Meaning.Global where she helps brands and organizations find, unearth, understand and reimagine their meaning in the fast-changing world today that is aligning more and more with our own humanity. Her research includes brands, culture and society, consumerism and consumer behaviour, luxury and brand equity, meaning and valuation, and the evolution of values towards a new form of humanistic capitalism. She is a member of The Good Future Project shaping a better future for people and the planet. She is also the author of Reimagining Consumerism As A Force For Good (2021) and the globally acclaimed The Luxury Report (2019). Thinkers360 named her the Global Thinker on Sustainability, Marketing, and Ecosystems To Follow In 2022 and 2023.

Meaning.Global is a trusted advisor to many of the world's most influential brands and organizations as the global expert on meaning. We advise leaders on strategy, marketing, innovation, societal shifts, cultural trends, value creation and growth to create more meaning and align business with humanity for a better shared future.

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