Brand purpose isn’t dead—but the old way of doing it is.

What is dying is Purpose 1.0 and 2.0: vague mission statements, one-time campaigns, or socially conscious fluff with no follow-through. Consumers—and especially younger generations—have grown skeptical. They’ve seen too many brands say the right things without feeling or doing anything meaningful. 

So no, brand purpose isn’t dead—it’s being reborn. 

What’s emerging is a Purpose 3.0 world where the emotional is winning over the rational. In the Purpose 3.0 era, your employes and customers are your brand’s soul. People want to feel a brand’s values, not just hear them. Action over words is also a new strategic mandate. Purpose must be demonstrated in behavior, not just messaging. Purpose today also must be adaptive over static. It needs to evolve in real time with employee culture, communities, and customers. 

The brands that survive this shift will be the ones who stop asking, “What do we stand for?” and start asking, “How do we make people feel—and how can we turn that into impact?” “People” being both customers AND employees. 

Employee-led purpose in particular is a defining element of Purpose 3.0. As brand purpose evolves beyond top-down, performative messaging, the next generation of purpose will be about embedding authentic, actionable purpose into every layer of the business—especially from the inside out. 

Many people continue to question if purpose itself is dead, but also, if it is not, what the next phase can and should look like. Purpose 3.0 is about doing versus saying. It is not surface level advertising campaigns or ESG reports, but rather a brand holistically embracing it across all touchpoints. It’s emotion driven, not slogan driven and must be baked into a brand’s operating systems from product design to customer and employee experience, to hiring practices, and leadership.  

Purpose will need to be inculcated into core business models making it inseparable from the P&L. Therefore, profit and purpose will be inextricably linked with C-Suites not only having to justify purpose—but monetize it. Products will be designed around solving societal or environmental challenges and driving revenue growth. For example, a beverage brand that funds clean water initiatives through every purchase—but also uses its clean water tech as a separate revenue stream.

This is all so important right now as trust in institutions is at an all-time low. Consumers and employees, particularly those within younger demos like Gen Z and Millennials, are also demanding authenticity, not perfection. As a result, CMOs need agile insight into what emotionally drives their audiences—and this is where Purpose 3.0 thrives and will demonstrate itself as quite different than its earlier iterations. 

“Purpose isn’t obsolete—it has matured. What once served primarily as a marker of a company’s altruistic intent has evolved into a more actionable and measurable force. Today, purpose is about clarity of intention, direction, and ambition. It doesn’t need to be purely altruistic; it needs to be galvanizing—driving performance, accelerating financial outcomes, and creating conditions where growth lifts all stakeholders.” 

– Shannon Schuyler, Retired Chief Purpose and Inclusion Officer, PwC 

To do this, in the year ahead and beyond, organizations will really need to think about getting into the customer’s headspace much earlier. This will require a lot more discipline around implementing processes that are iterative and capable of straddling product/service scenarios, simultaneously. Expect to see an increasing list of niche as a service offerings designed to further realize the notion of bringing the as a service concept to life in nearly every industry from banking to auto. Additionally, look for new means of brand innovation that will make better use of first party data combined with other data sets to help improve customer understanding to do so. One time purchases and transactions will continue to become a thing of the past as day to day relationships that allow brands to anticipate and serve become the Holy Grail of new brand loyalty models that are now relationship based versus transaction driven.

The insight function inside leading companies must be rebuilt—not just retooled—because it’s no longer fit for the speed, emotional complexity, and strategic demands of today’s marketplace. There are many reasons why modernization efforts need to happen quickly, particularly as few if any dollars have been allocated towards upgrading systems of customer understanding despite billions having been spent on transformation efforts that won’t be stopping anytime soon. 

There are many reasons that insights function reinvention is required including outdated infrastructures that are siloed, being slow and overly reliant on lagging indicators, or the fact that they are not well structured for the nonlinear world we live in today. 

Additionally, traditional methods are not adaptive agile systems that are constantly listening, learning and adjusting. They also lack intelligence around core human emotions such as love, optimism and hope, versus rational drivers such as price and convenience or surface sentiment. 

Perhaps most importantly, they are not strategic enough. Insights professionals have traditionally been seen as “order takers” versus strategy partners to the C-Suite. In fact, they are not traditionally involved in helping to drive critical functions such as innovation, brand positioning or corporate culture and therefore cannot leverage insights against specific pain points to improve business outcomes. To remain competitive, insights functions must evolve from being passively observational to active emotional intelligence engines that guide a brand’s every move—with speed, empathy, and precision. 

CMOs must update their market research and insights functions because the old way of doing things no longer matches how customers will think, feel, and decide in 2025 and beyond. There are a few key reasons: including, customers increasingly being driven by emotion, not just logic. Data sources are also exploding — and getting more nuanced, allowing for more 360° views of the customer, which are imperative for brands to have if they are to succeed. Also, most importantly perhaps today, brand relevance now depends on empathy and foresight. Customers expect brands to anticipate needs and align with their values. That requires insight systems that can not only measure the present but forecast emotional and cultural shifts. 

If CMOs don’t modernize, they risk making big bets on outdated or incomplete pictures of their audience — and in today’s market, that can mean one thing — losing relevance fast. 

“In today’s volatile marketplace, consumer centricity isn’t optional – it’s critical for survival. Yet most companies are still running on insight engines built for yesterday: slow, fragmented and backward-looking. The winners will be those who are willing to invest in always-on systems that fuse artificial intelligence with human empathy, elevating insights into a true strategic co-pilot of growth. The truth is simple: you cannot win tomorrow’s growth battles with yesterday’s research machine.” 

– Nick Graham, Founder, CEO, Vertemis, Former Head of Insights at Mondelēz International 

Brand as a company’s most vital asset is now not just a lofty ideal, it’s a strategic imperative. Why? A strong brand creates a sustainable competitive advantage—and insulates a company from competitors by making it harder for others to steal customers, replicate experiences, or erode trust. It’s no longer just about clicks, it’s about connections and the idea of performance branding is stepping into the foreground. 

What this all really means is instead of competing on price, features, or convenience alone, companies with powerful brands will win because of the emotional engagement and trust they’ve built over time. Brand has suddenly become so important because in a world overwhelmed by choice, automation, and uncertainty, it is one of the few things that still builds loyalty and emotional connection. 

Why is this shift happening now? The world is BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible). In a chaotic world, people don’t just buy products—they seek meaning, safety, and alignment. Brands that offer emotional clarity and cultural resonance become anchors in the storm. 

Additionally, AI is leveling the playing field. Everyone now has access to the same tech, tools, and speed. What can’t be automated? Emotional connection. Identity. Purpose. That’s brand. Commoditization is everywhere, and differentiation is the Holy Grail. Most categories are saturated—features and price points alone no longer differentiate. A strong brand transcends function and becomes part of a customer’s lifestyle and values. 

Performance marketing has also peaked. Not sure how much juice is left to squeeze out of that orange. Paid ads can get attention—but not trust. As acquisition costs rise and attention spans shrink, brand becomes the long-term multiplier. Also, the need for measurement continues to rise, however it can no longer be just about clicks, it’s got to be about connections. 

Emotion is also increasingly driving decisions. Neuroscience confirms people feel before they think. In this climate, emotionally intelligent brands win—and brand is the vehicle for conveying the right emotions to people at the right time in order to positively influence their decision-making. Brand is no longer a “nice-to-have”—it’s the new corporate armor, the new culture-builder, the new growth engine. In a fast-moving, AI-driven, emotionally complex world, brand is how companies create value that lasts. 

“Brand creates asymmetrical upside and resilience when done well. In a world where AI can replicate features and algorithms can optimize funnels, the brands that win will be those that master the one thing machines cannot: helping people feel genuinely understood, valued, and part of something larger than a transaction.” 

– Arielle Gross Samuels, Chief Marketing + Communication Officer, General Catalyst