Marketing consultant and all around guru Hugh MacLeod of Gaping Void talks about the term "Purpose-Idea". P.I. is a term coined by Mark Earls in his marketing book "Welcome to the Creative Age". In this thesis, he discusses the meaninglessness of "The Brand" and instead promotes the P.I.
The P.I., Mark says, is the reason we all get up out of bed in the morning and go to work instead of roll over and wait for the waffle fairy to bring us hot breakfast. What is it that drives us as individuals, as entrepreneurs, as a company.
Are we really all in this just to bring home a paycheck, to get that corner office, or to maintain an x% profit margin? Or is there something deeper, something that speaks to our core, a higher meaning.
He goes on to argue that it is more fun and interesting and even profitable for a company to find and share in this P.I., this ideal that it believes in. That this ideal needs to be articulated, and that it provides a shared basis for the 'Brand'
This is a neat concept and one that I wholeheartedly agree with. I did not start my own business on a tagline. I did not set a "Mission Statement". I founded it upon the following core ideas that make up New Focus Creative's "Purpose-Idea"
1. Websites should MAKE and not just COST money.
2. Websites should be EASILY NAVIGABLE and UNDERSTANDABLE to the viewer.
3. Websites should SAY SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR COMPANY.
4. We are here to help our clients navigate this new world of online marketing.
5. We will have a BEER FRIDGE and be able to have a beer WHENEVER WE WANT.
So there is my P.I. The reason I get up at 5:30 and work all day and at night and weekends and on vacation. Because good web design is my passion. Because there is too much sheer ugliness and incompetence on the web that must be corrected. Because my clients, and their customers, deserve the best online experience that can be delivered. Because I never again want to work anywhere where someone else gets to make ANY of this not happen for convenience or profit.
So what is YOUR P.I.? Why do you do it? What is your companies P.I.? Why, in essence, do you exist?
It's good pondering material, and can lead to a clearer objective idea about what your "Core Values" really are.
