Only one third of Swiss companies convince with purpose statements

For the study, Globeone asked 1,200 Swiss consumers what they thought of the purpose statements of the leading Swiss companies. "The respondents assessed how memorable, credible and clearly formulated they thought the formulations were. They also indicated whether a statement has personal relevance for them and whether, in their view, it provides an understandable answer to the question of why a company exists," explains Carina Hauswald, Managing Partner of Globeone.

Statement from Lindt & Sprüngli most convincing

The top performer is Lindt & Sprüngli with its purpose statement "We enchant the world with chocolate": 81.1 percent of the Swiss think the wording is successful. "There is certainly a lot of pride in the internationally renowned company. In addition, the purpose naturally hits a nerve, especially in times of crisis," says Hauswald.

Second place went to "Coop, for me and you." with 72.6 percent approval. The cooperatively organized retail and wholesale company puts its customers at the center of its activities and does not aim to maximize profits. "More than 2.5 million cooperative members think that the Coop Group lives its purpose credibly every day," Hauswald explains. "Public approval of the company's statement is therefore correspondingly high."

Third place goes to the Geberit sanitaryware group. After all, 66 percent like the statement communicated as a mission: "With innovative sanitary products, we sustainably improve people's quality of life.

Few memorable statements in the last places

The last five places in the survey results are occupied by the formulations of SGS (29 percent), Sika (28.5 percent), Six (27.3 percent), Vontobel (24.5 percent) and Credit Suisse (21.7 percent), which has run into difficulties after years of mismanagement. As the low approval rating indicates, a significant credibility crisis was already apparent at Credit Suisse before the recent turmoil. "It is also striking that many of the last-placed companies communicate relatively long, less memorable purpose statements and thus give away a lot of potential," explains Hauswald. The specialty chemicals group Sika, for example, expresses itself in comparative detail with the message "To anticipate and meet future challenges by providing reliable, innovative, sustainable, and long-lasting solutions in the construction, building, and manufacturing".

According to the study, it is generally apparent that some large Swiss companies are not yet succeeding in striking the right tone with their purpose statement. "This also applies to companies that actually have a good reputation basis for being able to successfully communicate topics such as sustainability and future viability to employees, customers and the critical public," says Hauswald. However, formulating a purpose statement that is understood and positively evaluated by the general public is not trivial, as the study shows. "Valuable conclusions can be drawn from the Swiss public's evaluations as to what constitutes a successful and positively received statement and in which areas companies can score particularly well."

Not only the wording is important

Often, however, it is not the statement itself that is less well received by the public. "In most cases, the entire purpose concept has not yet been sufficiently filled with life, actively communicated and made tangible for the target groups. Fortunately, however, this can be worked on." The public quickly recognizes discrepancies between the actual business conduct and the announced purpose.

Sometimes a critical image of the entire industry also rubs off on individual companies. "Of course, this makes the starting position more difficult, but it does not fundamentally prevent credible positioning with a socially relevant corporate sense," says Hauswald.

Besides the Purpose Statement Study Globeone also has a Purpose-Readiness Study including Indext. Go to the results of this study this way.

The results of the largest survey of the Purpose credibility of leading Swiss companies will be presented on gfm Webinar "Corporate Purpose - the most credible Swiss brands 2023". discussed with Simon Aschermann and Carina Hauswald, Managing Partners at Globeone. Interested parties will learn more about the how and what of purpose-driven brand positioning and get insights and answers from Nadja Lemke, Senior Vice President Global Branding & Marketing at Schaeffler.

For the spontaneous here to the registration.