How Mission, Vision and Values Maintain a Brand’s Reputation

What are Missions, Visions and Values?

Companies and businesses around the world have set their missions, visions and values, prior to launching, in order to have an overall basis of understanding regarding the companies beliefs, morals and standards. A mission statement is a “brief strategic description of the purpose of a business or noncommercial organization” (Smith).

Mission statements answer these three questions:

1. What kind of organization are we?

2. What kind of organization do we want to be?

3. What kind of organization do people think we are (Smith)?

By having a mission statement that answers these three questions, consumers, stakeholders and employees will have a general understanding of the purpose of the company. Without a mission statement, there could be confusion on what the company stands for, who they are trying to be and who they are trying to reach through their business. “Firms that have a clear and strong mission statement tend to outperform their competitors in the marketplace, according to empirical studies” (Cavanaugh).

A vision statement is a “brief strategic description of what the organization aspires to become” (Smith). You could say that every person, with life goals, has a vision statement, as they aspire to become something down the road. When creating a vision statement, you must be specific, inspirational, raise a challenge and be concise. “Changes are not always expected or easy, so a well thought out vision statement will help everyone stay focused and meet the organization's goals” (Mission and Vision Statements). Later in the strategic planning method, positioning will occur; having a vision statement will aid in efficient planning while positioning.

Lastly, your organization might formulate a values statement. This is “a set of beliefs that drive an organization and provide a framework for its decisions” (Smith). These are brief statements, but can go further in depth in some situations; perhaps when organizations have a list of core values. Values statements are beneficial to the company's employees because it provides a framework for the work done within the company. If the company values having products that are cruelty free, for example, this would be in their values statement, or list of core values. Smith describes a value statement by having “significant ethical dimension” (Smith).

Maintaining Your Brand’s Reputation

With the help of your mission, vision and values, your company should prioritize maintaining a good reputation among its competitors, in order to keep the company, its employees and its stakeholders at ease. A brand’s reputation is affected by how people view the brand with the information and current situation that the brand is in. Reputation is “based on both word and deed - that is, on all of the verbal, visual, and behavior messages, both planned and unplanned” that are flowing from an organization (Smith). For example, an unplanned message that could affect a brand’s reputation, would be a crisis. If this crisis is not properly dealt with, the brand could suffer long-term effects, including a diminishing effect to their reputation. Public perception influences reputation and can be very subjective. The main way to avoid ruining your organization’s reputation would be to establish your mission, vision and values statements, and also encourage your employees and stakeholders to uphold these statements, as well.

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Cavanagh, G. F. (2008). Missions and Mission Statements. In R. W. Kolb (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society (Vol. 3, pp. 1393-1396). SAGE Publications. https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/apps/doc/CX2660400534/GVRL?u=norm94900&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=737ec53f

Distel, A. (2019, May 14). Photo by Austin Distel on unsplash. Beautiful Free Images & Pictures. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://unsplash.com/photos/wD1LRb9OeEo

Jordan, B. (2021, June 5). Photo by Brett Jordan on unsplash. Beautiful Free Images & Pictures. Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://unsplash.com/photos/q8ZgKZutttE

Mission and Vision Statements. (2009). In Encyclopedia of Management (6th ed., pp. 577-582). Gale. https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/apps/doc/CX3273100188/GVRL?u=norm94900&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=7cfe4b77

Smith, R. D. (2021). Step 2: Analyzing the Organization. In Strategic planning for public relations (pp. 58-78). essay, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.