---
title: "In the Next Decade, Brand Mission Matters More Than Brand Positioning"
description: "Positioning can create big brands, but not great ones. Great brands like Apple, Tesla, and OpenAI are driven by mission, not positioning. This article argues that in the next decade, brand mission will outweigh brand positioning, and explains how to communicate mission through real people, real issues, and real actions."
author: "梁将军"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2023-04-14"
language: "en"
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# In the Next Decade, Brand Mission Matters More Than Brand Positioning

> Positioning can create big brands, but not great ones. Great brands like Apple, Tesla, and OpenAI are driven by mission, not positioning. This article argues that in the next decade, brand mission will outweigh brand positioning, and explains how to communicate mission through real people, real issues, and real actions.

Positioning can create big brands, but not great ones. Great brands cannot be explained by positioning theory. For example, Apple, Tesla, OpenAI...
These brands share a common trait: they are not driven by positioning but by mission. I call them 'mission-driven brands.' I want to make a seemingly absolute assertion: **In the next decade, brand mission will definitely outweigh brand positioning.**
**Positioning vs. Mission**
**Mission is finally more than just a slogan on the wall**
Why is mission greater than positioning?
We can use the theory of Peter Thiel, author of *Zero to One*, to explain this.
Peter Thiel divides competition into horizontal and vertical competition. Horizontal competition means all competitors compete on the same level for a market of fixed capacity, while vertical competition means jumping out of the original competitive dimension to create and lead a new market.
**Positioning teaches you how to win in horizontal competition.**
The concept of positioning was born in 1969, because society entered an era of product explosion and information explosion. Consumers' minds are crowded, and the competitive track is crowded. Positioning teaches companies to find a blank spot in consumers' minds to win competition.
But whether it's finding a blank spot or claiming the first position, it's about discovering opportunities within the existing market and consumers' established thinking. So, positioning theory is essentially a competition-oriented, zero-sum mindset.
What about mission? Simply put, mission is the reason a company exists. Drucker had a saying that helps understand corporate mission: 'The purpose of a business is to profitably solve social problems.'
Compared to positioning, mission focuses more on whether social problems are solved. Whether there is a market gap depends on whether there are still social problems. How big a market a company can win depends on the size of the problems it solves.
So, **mission is essentially about creating social value and leading new markets, a typical incremental mindset.**
Horizontal and vertical competition may not be a choice you can make. Because once a competitor launches a vertical competition, your industry can be wiped out in a very short time.
For example, the emergence of ChatGPT could disrupt many industries: search, knowledge payment, online education, smart speakers, mobile input methods, translation software, thesis websites, Q&A communities, software development...
Don't think this only happens in purely technical fields; many fields will see such trends.
Earlier this year, *The Wandering Earth 2* pushed Chinese sci-fi films to international heights again. But the 'steel mantis,' 'exoskeleton,' and 'mechanical dog' in the movie were not created by special effects but by a company called XCMG in reality. You see, what disrupted the sci-fi film landscape was not better special effects, but 'Made in China'!
Another example: in the office software field, Feishu has largely replaced Office, not because some of its features are smoother than Office, but because Office is just personal office software, while Feishu is essentially an 'online collaboration tool.'
**Some companies with 'vertical competition' capabilities will break the original horizontal competitive market; this is the real competitive battleground now.**
If positioning helps companies find a way out in the existing market, mission drives companies to choose the difficult but correct path and enter the 'vertical competition' track.
In 2014, Lei Jun visited Musk in Silicon Valley and asked: 'Why did you choose to make Tesla 10 years ago? At that time, electric cars weren't so popular and weren't pursued by so many people. How did you view this opportunity?'
Musk replied: 'I never thought it was a good opportunity. The failure rate was much higher than the success rate. I just thought it was something that should be done. I didn't want to wait for others to realize it.'
All mission-driven companies share this trait: they seem to be doing something not so smart.
For example, Purcotton only makes cotton products. Take cotton wipes: compared to tissue, cotton costs more. Many people don't understand why they make more expensive cotton wipes. In the first 4 years, they lost over 200 million yuan. But now, their annual sales exceed 4 billion yuan.
After replacing paper and chemical fiber products with natural, eco-friendly cotton products, the market demand for cotton increased. Some peers, inspired by them, also started using cotton. In 10 years, the cultivation area of Xinjiang cotton increased by 53%, and large areas of desert turned into oases.
Positioning-driven companies pursue dominating an industry. Mission-driven brands pursue leading an industry and driving the development of the entire industry.
You see, the social significance of positioning and mission is different.
**With positioning, you become better, but the world may not become better because of your improvement. But with mission, you become better, and the world also becomes better.**
**Moreover, with mission, the brand has a soul, making it easier to drive consumer choice.**
I believe current consumption has entered the fourth era. From the previous filling consumption, conspicuous consumption, and self-pleasing consumption, it has evolved into belonging consumption. Consumption is no longer just about 'pleasing oneself'; often, we seek life answers and spiritual belonging through consumption.
For example, a programmer riding a Harley to work every day may not be because of Harley's performance, but because Harley represents his 'unruly soul' and longing for 'poetry and distance.'
Some people choose Sanya for travel, others choose Aranya. The choice itself is not right or wrong, but the leisure concepts behind them are different. People going to Sanya may be looking for a place to relax and escape fast-paced life. People going to Aranya are arriving at an art community to experience life.
So, mission is no longer just a slogan on the wall; it has 'materialized' and become the engine of business operations.
**How to correctly communicate brand mission?**
**Real people, real stories: more than just**
**Celebrity endorsers, but also value endorsers**
The simplest way to communicate brand mission is to find your value endorsers. Many companies have celebrity endorsers, but few have value endorsers.
An endorser is essentially someone who speaks for the company. This person not only represents the company's temperament but should also represent the mission and values the company believes in.
Your value endorser can be a celebrity, an industry expert, a loyal user, a founder, or a star employee. But they should share a common trait: their actions, thoughts, and beliefs align with the company's 'three views' (worldview, life view, and value view).
**When we use value endorsers for marketing, we should dig into their real stories and use their real life experiences and spiritual strength to endorse our brand philosophy.** Because only when your values are spread by people who truly believe in them can users be convinced.
Let's look at a documentary:
Purcotton's 'She Changed'
The protagonist is Bai Xiang'en, 'China's first female navigator to cross the Arctic Ocean.' Her parents wanted her to be a doctor, but she followed her heart and eventually became a captain.
This film resonates with the audience because it tells a person's real life situation. It is precisely because of its authenticity that many people see a part of 'themselves' in Bai Xiang'en.
There are countless 'she's in the world who change their fate because of a choice, or succumb to fate because of a choice. Whether to change or succumb depends on the courage within 'her.'
Purcotton chose Bai Xiang'en as a value endorser because they share many similarities: Bai Xiang'en persisted in her inner choice and finally realized her life ideal; Purcotton chose to make only cotton, hoping to improve the quality of life and the ecological environment with a cotton flower.
This documentary series has four episodes, from 'the most beautiful village doctor' Luo Haixiang, 'women's football coach' Shui Qingxia, 'Beidou navigation system scientist' Xu Ying, to 'female captain' Bai Xiang'en. Every story is real. These real life choices and real spiritual concepts, when projected onto the brand, create an emotional chemical reaction.
**Real issues: not**
**Pushing concepts, but gathering like-minded people**
Positioning instills a concept, while mission summons like-minded people.
If a company firmly believes that what it does is valuable to society and users, you don't need to try to make users accept a concept; you can find people who share your beliefs.
Finding value endorsers helps the company find preachers. The next step is to tap into social issues that the public cares about and amplify your influence.
But remember, **a mission-driven brand should focus on real social issues, not just fun social topics.** Let's first distinguish between social issues and social topics.
Marine plastic pollution, third-child policy, left-behind children in rural areas, families who lost their only child, 996... These are social issues. Social issues refer to things we truly care about in real society but haven't been well solved; these things have some discussion online.
Picking up trash in Sanlitun on Valentine's Day, the most prestigious dog in China, or how spicy the dried tangerine peel dishes are after 'The Knockout'... These are social topics. Social topics are more like topics for after-dinner chats; they are often fleeting, and discussing them doesn't help solve real-life difficulties.
Simply put, **social issues are questions and explorations of real society, while social topics are just jokes about real society.**
When a company cares about social issues, it cares about the world and wants to change it. When a company creates social topics, it's just using the world's material for marketing, consuming the world.
So, when a company engages with a social issue, it can leverage the attention on that issue to gather people who share the same beliefs.
Purcotton's 'She Changed' documentary series actually explores social issues related to women through the life experiences of four women, such as how women choose their life dreams and how women can break gender bias in the workplace...
They don't instill product selling points into users, but through these issues, they permeate the brand's philosophy. When the brand blends its values into social issues, viewers who care about these issues will spontaneously gather and discuss.
So, **correctly communicating mission is not about rigidly pushing a concept, but through the values you believe in, discovering like-minded people, finding them, and gathering them. When people with similar values come together, they form circles, form value camps, and become a force powerful enough to change the world.**
Truly mission-driven companies don't initiate social issues just to ride on social hotspots. They don't randomly change social issues for creativity; the issues they care about have often been advocated for many years. Because the purpose of a company caring about social issues is not to please the public, but to resonate with them.
For example, Dove discovered that women feel inferior about their bodies and looks, so they launched the 'Real Beauty' campaign, advocating for women to discover real beauty. This campaign has been running for 20 years. Purcotton's 'She Changed' IP is not treated as a one-off campaign; they've already made four episodes.
As long as social problems exist, the issues advocated by the company should continue. With your leadership, more people committed to changing social problems will gather.
**Real actions: use actions**
**To bring change, not just slogans**
For most brands, getting users to consume is the goal, and brand mission is just a means. But when you do that, users can easily see that your mission is just empty talk.
**For mission-driven brands, achieving the mission is the ultimate goal, and getting users to consume is just a natural result.** To make users believe in your brand mission, you can't just shout slogans; you must prove with actions that you mean what you say.
Parents teach their children to go to bed early and wake up early, so they can't lie in bed playing with their phones after turning off the lights; leaders want employees to work hard, so they must lead by example.
Slogans may briefly 'boost morale,' but actions bring real change. When a brand conveys a certain value, it can't just shout slogans; it must use actions to involve users.
LEGO advocates the concept of 'learning through play,' and their promotion logic is to act together with players.
They have a platform called LEGO Ideas, where players upload their ideas, and if enough people like them, they can actually be made into products. For many children, LEGO is not just a toy; it represents their imagination and creativity in exploring the unknown.
So, as a mission-driven brand, you not only need to continuously permeate your values to users, but also invite more like-minded people to participate. Only when people's awareness and actions are in sync will 'mission accomplished' become a natural thing.
Over the years, Purcotton has distributed about 14.08 million eco-friendly shopping bags made of cotton. When you go to their stores, the staff won't give you plastic bags but cotton non-woven shopping bags. Compared to many grand brand activities, this action seems very 'small,' but the meaning behind it is profound.
Since the brand's establishment, Purcotton has been doing content related to cotton culture. In addition to the 'She Changed' documentary IP, they also made the 'What is Cotton' traceability documentary and have held the 'Cotton. Nature. People' theme exhibition for 8 consecutive years.
Cotton culture promotion has changed users' perception of cotton, and the seemingly 'insignificant' shopping bags connect consumers' actions, allowing them to participate and feel the benefits of cotton firsthand.
Many users say that after getting used to cotton, they started reducing plastic products in their lives. So, 'Cotton changes the world' is not just their slogan, but a summary of their actions in fulfilling their mission.
In my view, spending hundreds of millions on an event marketing campaign or creating a nationwide interaction is not really fulfilling a mission, because your actions may not bring real change to the world. Permeating your values with 'small actions' that moisten things silently and changing consumers' consumption habits in the long term is the real fulfillment of a mission.
**Conclusion**
Positioning can help you break through in competition, but mission can take you further. Compared to winners of competition, the future market will surely welcome those who take on social responsibility.
 _PS: Friends interested in the on-site speech content can follow the recent posts on the 'New Distribution' WeChat official account. We will compile and publish all speakers' speeches for readers._
 _Click **Read the original text** to see more highlights of the 8th China FMCG Innovation Conference..._


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