Purpose to a point

“Purpose is brilliant, but it's only brilliant if you do something with it, if you live it and breathe it,” says Boots CMO Pete Markey. 

Why it matters

Purpose needs to be embedded into every aspect of a business. And it can change over time. “Only do it [purpose] if you mean it, if you’ve got everyone behind it, and you can embed it and deliver it at every touchpoint of your business,” Markey told an audience at MAD//Fest in London. “If it’s just a marketing project, something’s gone quite dramatically wrong.”

The four-box model of purpose 

Markey subscribes to a model devised by Interbrand. “There are four boxes where they looked at the brands that have got a clear purpose, delivered it and achieved real growth.” 

• Communications – storytelling
• Environment/channels – how your brand shows up in a shop or on your website
• Products and services – every product you sell, every feature and benefit of that 
• People and culture – do employees personify that purpose 

“If you’re not doing all four of those, you might as well give up because that’s the reality of what purpose is,” Markey stated. 

What Boots is doing

Boots reviewed its “Let’s feel good” endline, understanding that people can’t feel good all the time; the new tagline of “Boots, with you for life” better reflects the role the brand sees itself playing by serving its customers’ wellbeing over a lifetime. And that’s reflected in its work with Macmillan Cancer Support and The Hygiene Bank.