Brand Purpose at a Crossroad: Evolve or Self-Implode

In a world with free information, abundant data, and virtually no barriers to entry, companies will succeed by selling purpose, not a product.

Something sinister happened over the past algorithmically driven decade: brands took a sharp turn toward efficiency and benefits mindshare, often focusing on a laundry list of functional and emotional whoop-de-doos.

It’s this paint-inside-the-lines mentality that stokes irrelevancy and meaninglessness. And the whole point of a brand is to create an ... See more