The Importance of Core Purpose

Ask a CEO to explain his company’s core purpose, and most will give you a clear answer. Ask an Emergency Response Coordinator or Public Information Officer to explain the core purpose of his communication plan, and you might be lucky to hear the words “fulfill deliverables.” This response is because most communication planning at the local level is designed to satisfy parameters demanded by grants. Rarely are the plans designed with a core purpose in mind.

Core Purpose

In the business world, the core purpose is the reason a company exists. These statements answer “Why” a company does something. They don’t focus on products or services, but upon values that never change. For example:

• To build the finest cars ever built (Lexus).
• To refresh the world (Coke-Cola).
• To connect people in new and better ways (Nokia).

When developing a strategic communication plan, the first order of business is to define exactly what you want the plan to do if (or when) it is used in the real world. For example:

• To provide citizens with accurate, life-saving information as quickly as possible.
• To explain how local property taxes are calculated.
• To answers the most frequently asked questions about the state’s new domestic violence act.

Like any other advertising or marketing, you have to build your plan around the net end result. Do you want the public to do something specific? Does your spokesman have a specific check-list to deploy a joint information center? Where will press conferences take place when six agencies are involved?

As you can see; when you set out to write a plan with the end action in mind, you can focus all of the details to better serve and achieve that goal. A core purpose brings clarity. Yes, you may have grant deliverables to incorporate, but you will find them easier when you understand the focus of your overall planning objective.

Here are other articles I have written on this topic:

• The Eight Elements of a Strategic Communication Plan
• What Is Strategic Communications?
• Peter Weill: IT Savvy Can Be a Strategic Asset
• Catechetical Plan
• New Campaign for Will County Health Department
• Chicago 2016: The Biggest PR Failure in a Generation
• 10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 10: Team Briefing
• 10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 2: Your Message
• 10 Day Tune Up for H1N1 – Day 1: Influenza Update
• Writing a Strategic Communications Plan: Executive Summary