When a CEO intends to build consensus around and anchor his or her organization’s raison d’être, he or she often looks to mission, vision and core values statements to do this. The CEO leads the process of crafting these statements with his or her senior leadership team and board of directors, usually with the help of an outside facilitator.

When the organization’s primary or sole brand is at an organizational level, a similar process can be pursued to anchor the brand’s essence, promise and personality.

These exercises (organization mission/vision/core values and brand essence/promise/personality) are complementary and can be addressed together. For instance, the mission talks about what the organization does, while the brand’s promise talks about the covenant it intends to make with its customers. A strong promise will focus on meeting an important customer need in a unique way. This provides the added dimension of relevant differentiation.

The vision focuses on goals to be achieved. Obviously, this should be closely linked with brand’s promise if the brand is an organizational brand. The brand’s essence is closely related too as it captures the brand’s “heart and soul” in an economy of words. And the organization’s core values should complement and support its brand’s personality.

So one can make the argument that the organization’s mission, vision and values and the brand’s essence, promise and personality can be created in sequence or together using a similar process. I have begun to do this for an increasing number of organizations. CEOs like this as it provides even greater clarity and depth around which to “rally the troops,” while chief marketing officers like it as it provides clear direction on brand strategy that is cohesively linked with organization strategy.

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