As you can tell from my Personal Blog, I'm quite excited about the new TV show Cosmos.
Partly because of the great new TV content for me to watch, but especially because of it's bigger, important mission of educating the people of the world on science and the scientific process.
A lot of people connect with me asking for advice for their startup and they start by telling me all the features of their app. It does X, and Y and if you press this button it will do Z as well!
If X or Y is unbelievably cool or novel, then that might be enough, but personally I'm far more interested in WHY it does X, Y and Z.
What is your Startup's bigger mission? How are you changing the world for the better?
Often times you will here about 'Marketing Narratives' from marketing people. David vs. Goliath/Challenger or Widest Range or Cheapest Prices or whatever. But that's not enough. Your story needs to go much, much deeper. It needs to be an actual mission. It needs to address an injustice in the world.
Having strong answers to these questions can inspire and motivate customers, employees, investors and journalists in a way that features can't. In turn, that motivation will open doors, fuel loyalty and drive success.
Continuing the case study of Cosmos, the creators of that show clearly have (and communicated) a mission around science literacy and continuing the legacy of Carl Sagan. As a result they managed to produce something far more than just another TV show. Instead they have created the most widely distributed first-run TV show in history boasting feature film quality CGI - All for something that could have easily been just another, run-of-the-mill science documentary show!
Remember though: A mission is not just for marketing. It's not something that you should just bolt onto your press releases. It should be part of the very DNA of your company. If you don't have one, then take the time to think more deeply about why you care about the thing your building and have it inform every decision from feature prioritization to partnership opportunities.
Live it, breath it, and actually change the world.