While a meaningful mission statement is crucial for streamlining foundational company values and unifying principles among leadership and employees, it can also serve as the catalyst that will either compel a potential client to utilize your expertise or deter them from engaging with your services.
Further, a mission statement provides a one-stop snapshot that communicates to potential customers or consumers what your company does, or can do for them, in 30 seconds or less.
Throughout our 26 years as a company, the A. Larry Ross Communications (ALRC) mission statement has evolved considerably to speak to the ever-changing felt needs of affinity faith audiences. Although our core values, beliefs and message have not modified significantly since the Agency was founded in 1994, the way we present those elements has gradually shifted.
As the firm has grown and reached previous goals and objectives, our new business culture reflects the evolving marketplace and adaptations to technological developments in communications, including social media that have made everyone a publisher. Codifying your company’s values into a mission statement that is reassessed every so often is key to staying relevant to both current and potential clients.
A few months ago here on the blog, we talked about the “secret sauce” for developing a brand story. Is there a similarly special formula for creating a powerful mission statement that conveys your distinctives to consumers in a compelling way? We think so.
To demonstrate, let’s take a look at the initial ALRC mission statement juxtaposed against the current 2020 version:
Original ALRC Mission Statement created upon the Agency’s founding in 1994:
ALRC effectively operates between ministries and media to engage the public in matters of spirituality, faith and values. ALRC helps organizations with a Christian foundation increase their impact with thoughtful positioning of their stories in the context of traditional news values.
Current ALRC Mission Statement (Revised in 2020):
A. Larry Ross Communications (ALRC) assists leaders in increasing their influence and serves faith-based and humanitarian organizations in effectively and creatively communicating their unique story and message.
The updated Agency mission statement is shorter with fewer sentences and words. That is because succinctness is vital in the current communications environment, considering attention spans today are short and consumers want to obtain the information for which they are searching as quickly as possible.
Secondly, it immediately establishes what services the Agency provides: “assists leaders in increasing their influence...and faith-based and humanitarian organizations in effectively and creatively communicating their unique story and message.” A mission statement must quickly and concisely communicate who a company is and what needs it can fill for its audience, similar to defining taglines for comprehensive ad campaigns. This is aptly illustrated in the two differentiating slogans used by The Home Depot and Lowe’s to distinguish each other in the highly competitive and often overwhelming (for customers) home improvement industry.
Using the mantra, “You Can Do It, We Can Help,” The Home Depot caters to the enterprising “do-it-yourself” weekend warrior homeowner by staffing stores with qualified part-time contractors who can encourage, equip and empower them to handle a project on their own.
Similar market research revealed that the primary Lowe’s customer was a single parent or unmarried woman for whom the thought of tackling a repair or upgrade project is daunting. As such, the company wanted to convey the message they are community-based and customer-focused through their original catch-phrase, “Let’s Build Something Together,” (which has since been changed to, “Never Stop Improving.”)
The direct and brief nature of these statements ensures that the retail giants’ primary audiences immediately grasp what services they provide to improve their world one project at a time.
Thirdly, our new mission statement more directly conveys who our audience is and what we can do for them. A mission statement needs to communicate two messages, including “who” your company is and “what” it can do for your customers.
There are many PR agencies and firms available that can provide representation. The ALRC mission statement is intended to set us apart from other agencies in the industry by stating who we represent, “faith-based and humanitarian organizations,” and what services we provide, “effectively and creatively communicating their story.” Without reinforcing our identification with leaders and ministries operating at the intersection of faith and culture through an organic shared framework of belief that informs our work, potential clients visiting our website would have no compelling reason to recognize our values-added approach to help them meet their communications objectives.
As you seek to create a clear and holistic mission statement that will speak to your clients, consider how to make it succinct, direct and specific. A good mission statement not only summarizes who your company is and what it provides, but it also creates inspiration through messaging wordsmithery that leaves consumers with something on which to ruminate as they continue to research which service-provider they want to engage.
A powerful mission statement that resonates with the leaders and organizations you serve will enable you and your team to go beyond merely transactional agency-client/company-customer relationships to develop transformative long-term relational communications partnerships, based on trust and shared values, priorities and purpose.
By A. Larry Ross, founder & CEO of A. Larry Ross Communications as part of the June, “a word from our founder,” blog series.