Vision statement exercises

Brand Core: Vision Statement Workshop Exercises

by | Feb 26, 2023 | Blog, FAQs Articles

It’s an exciting time to start a brand – a time to define your values, purpose, and personality. But where do you start? One of the most critical steps in fully understanding your brand core is to craft a vision statement that encapsulates your values and defines your direction. It’s essential to guide your team and inform your strategy, but it can be difficult to approach such a delicate, introspective task.

Fear not: In this blog post, we’ll explore the art of crafting meaningful vision statements by looking at some of the most inspiring vision statements of both large and small brands.

From there, we will give you an insider view of some vision statement workshop exercises we do in our brand development workshops. Afterward, you should have enough to craft your own vision statement.

Together, we’ll unpack the core elements and values of a remarkable vision statement and come away with a better understanding of how to create a message that stands out.

At the same time, we’ll peek into some of the best and brightest brands in the world and see what we can use from their extensive branding processes. Let’s begin!

What is a Vision Statement?

A vision statement declares an organization’s purpose, goals, and values. It is a roadmap for the future that provides inspiration and direction for the organization.

A great vision statement should be inspiring yet actionable. It should capture the essence of your brand’s core values while maintaining a clear, concise tone that will not mislead your audience. Some of the best vision statements are short, memorable phrases that showcase what is most important to the brand in question.

Although they are rough “road maps” for the future of your brand, they should not be strategies for achieving specific goals. Instead, they are a broad-scope general outline of valuable services you hope to pass to the customer.

(If you want to know what an in-depth roadmap for your brand looks like, check out our blog post about Brand development strategy and why it matters!)

example of a vision statement pic

Examples of the Best Vision Statements

Now that you clearly understand what a vision statement is and why it is essential to brand building, it’s easy to see why the most successful and innovative companies also tend to have some of the best vision statements.

They have the foresight to see how their vision statement will act as a driving force for their brand. These examples offer a rare glimpse into the mind of successful entrepreneurs before their success.

Let’s take a look at some of the examples below:

amazon brand strategy framework
  1. Amazon: “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

Initially the #1 spot for your favorite romance novel, Amazon started as an online bookseller during the Dot Com boom. After the bubble burst, they shifted their focus from trying to be a one-time online store to anyone’s online platform for consumer products.

As you can see, the best vision statement does not need to be poetic or awe-inspiring. It’s not about crafting the best vision statement of all time. It only needs to be the best vision statement for your company and match your core brand beliefs. 

  1. Nike: “We see a world where everybody is an athlete — united in the joy of movement. Driven by our passion for sport and our instinct for innovation, we aim to bring inspiration to every athlete in the world and to make sport a daily habit.”

The Nike vision statement is a contrast to Amazon. It is more poetic and emotionally driven, but these companies differ greatly.

Nike has designed their core brand elements to inspire a passion for sport and push the boundaries of physical limitation. Their iconic slogan, “Just do it” encapsulates their vision statement and embodies their core beliefs. Nike’s global presence and strong brand identity are a testament to its dedication to these values, no matter where you find them.

Google's vision statement examples
  1. Google: “to provide access to the world’s information in one click.”

Sometimes there is an opportunity for a brand to revolutionize the world with creative and innovative ideas. Google is a prime example of a company that has seized this opportunity with a service everyone uses. Their ability to “organize the world’s information” and make it “universally accessible” has benefited their brand and humanity. These ideas can inspire others to make a difference and improve people’s lives.

Moreover, their vision statement provides a unique insight into what they value and how they can use these values to help other companies in the marketplace. This shared value has made Google one of the world’s most influential and beneficial companies. Clearly, they have successfully captured their original vision.

Vision Statement Workshop Exercises

Now that you have a diverse understanding of a company vision statement, it’s time to do some easy brainstorming to put your true intentions down on paper.

In our brand development process, we typically have brands meet with us to conduct a brand development workshop. These workshops are day-long brainstorming sessions where we review every facet of the brand development process. Although extensive, it allows us to know each intimate detail of your brand and how we can maximize your marketing investment to showcase your brand identity. 

One of the first steps we take in our workshop is crafting a vision statement. As discussed, these vision statement workshop exercises can take many forms.

Create Your Vision Statement

Once you have completed these vision statement workshop exercises, you should be able to craft a clear and decisive vision statement. Remember, it is not set in stone and must adapt to your evolving brand. Having one before this point is critical to preserve some of your original intentions as a brand.

Conclusion

These are just a few quick examples of the best vision statements from the most innovative companies of our time. It can take time to navigate all of the directions your company could decide to pursue. Luckily, our full-service creative team has brand development workshops, content strategy ideas, and more.

(Do you need a full-service creative team? Check out our blog post on Freelancers vs. Full-service Marketing Teams for guidance!)

Although we’ll help you determine your core beliefs as a brand, most of the ideas come directly from you in the most authentic manner possible. We are merely here to guide you as you make your burgeoning brand a reality.

Thanks for reading, and please check out our blog for more helpful tips during your brand development process!

The experts at Unhinged are just waiting to help bring your brand to life. Get in touch now!

References:

Gennaro-Cuofano. “Amazon Mission Statement and Vision Statement in a Nutshell.” FourWeekMBA, What Is The FourWeekMBA, 26 Oct. 2022, https://fourweekmba.com/amazon-vision-statement-mission-statement/.

“Google’s Vision Statement & Mission Statement Updated Jan … – Honkamp.” Honkamp, https://www.honkamp.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/1b-Google-Vision-and-Mission-Statement-Article-1.pdf.

Kupelian, Katya. “9 Things You Probably Didn’t Know about Amazon.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 2019, https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-jeff-bezos-facts-brand-history-name-2019-3.

Nike Mission, Vision & Values | comparably. Comparably. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.comparably.com/companies/nike/mission

Patel, Riddhi. “10 Things to Learn from Google Values and Culture of Success.” The CloudTutorial, 20 Sept. 2021, https://www.thecloudtutorial.com/google-values/#:~:text=FAQs-,What%20are%20Google’s%20core%20values%3F,What%20is%20Google’s%20vision%20statement%3F

Ward, Susan. “What Is a Vision Statement?” The Balance, The Balance, 23 June 2020, https://www.thebalancemoney.com/vision-statement-2947999#:~:text=You%20can%20think%20of%20a,goals%20and%20plotting%20your%20milestones

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About Jake Tripp
I'm a content strategist and copywriter who specializes in social media and blog content architecture. I help brands nationwide to communicate their values and build loyal audiences.