No brand sets out trying to be everything to everybody. Every company or organization ever conceived and birthed has had a very specific vision and mission in mind.

What can happen over time is that mission gets obfuscated, forgotten or subverted. The original visionaries retire, or the company goes public and the need for shareholder profit becomes all consuming, or it gets caught up in its own bureaucracy—like when companies put the ability to measure their marketing results over the marketing itself.

When this happens, and companies begin to decline into irrelevance, you’ll inevitably hear industry pundits spouting off to the world about how they have lost their way.

The only thing companies can lose is sight of the reason they existed in the first place—they lose their WHY.

The role of an engagement agency—ours anyway—is to help them rediscover what they are really about. We call it our Enlightenment Process, but a lot of the time it really involves re-enlightenment. When their “why” becomes the driving force behind everything they do, from packaging to customer interaction to all their communications’ touch points, good things happen.

When their “why” becomes the driving force behind everything they do, good things happen.

The reason is simple. Humans respond better to other humans who are on a mission. Following a dream and a cause is in the DNA. At Cult, Job One is to find that mission and communicate it in a more accessible fashion.