All too often marketing messages get lost in the attempt to make them sound good.

For several years now, I have been using a tool to help organizations get past the marketing mindset and create a statement that really drives the business and informs every marketing decision.

I call this tool the Marketing Purpose Statement

The purpose statement is not meant to ever be directly communicated to your clients, but it is meant to be the basis for all of your marketing and customer service activity.Think in terms of this being your rallying cry in the boardroom. This is how you want to be perceived, in plain English, not in polished marketing rhetoric.

A good example might be, “We’re Crestwood Custom Home Remodelers and we want to be known as the no-mess, no-trash, we’ll-make-your-neighbors-happy contractor.”

Approaching the creation of a marketing purpose statement in this vein allows you to drop the mask and really articulate the ultimate purpose of your marketing. From this raw internal message you will find it easier to craft the more creative marketing messages you need and everyone in the firm will get it without the marketing polish. Don’t believe me? Take a quick survey around your office. Ask a few people what the purpose of you marketing is? Or, better yet, ask a few clients how they would characterize what you have to offer.

If created and supported correctly, your marketing purpose statement will impact the overriding purpose of the business as a whole. It will become the way you measure your success. Are you achieving your stated marketing purpose? Does the market think of your firm the way you want? Do your employees get it?

Does this decision, new product, ad support the marketing purpose you are trying to represent?

This is just one of the many tools that make up the Duct Tape Marketing System