An organization exists to accomplish something, and this purpose should be clearly stated. Forging a sound mission begins with the following questions: What is our business? Who is the customer? What do consumers value? What should our business be? These simple-sounding questions are among the most difficult the company will ever have to answer. Successful companies continuously raise these questions and answer them carefully and completely.

Many organizations develop formal mission statements that answer these questions. A mission statement is a statement of the organization’s purpose—what it wants to ­accomplish in the larger environment. A clear mission statement acts as an “invisible hand” that guides people in the organization.

Some companies define their missions myopically in product or technology terms (“We make and sell furniture” or “We are a chemical-processing firm”). But mission statements should be market oriented and defined in terms of satisfying basic customer needs. Products and technologies eventually become outdated, but basic market needs may last forever. For example, social scrapbooking site Pinterest doesn’t define itself as just an online place to post pictures. Its mission is to give people a social media platform for collecting, organizing, and sharing things they love. And Microsoft’s mission isn’t to create the world’s best software, technologies, and devices. It’s to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” Table 2.1 provides several examples of product-oriented versus market-oriented business definitions.2

Table 2.1

Product- versus Market-Oriented Business Definitions

Mission statements should be meaningful and specific yet motivating. Too often, mission statements are written for public relations purposes and lack specific, workable guidelines. Instead, they should emphasize the company’s strengths and tell forcefully how it intends to win in the marketplace.

Finally, as we discovered in the chapter-opening Starbucks story, a company’s mission should not be stated as making more sales or profits; profits are only a reward for creating value for customers. Instead, the mission should focus on customers and the customer experience the firm seeks to create. For example, Ritz-Carlton Hotels & Resorts doesn’t see itself as just renting out rooms. It’s on a mission to create “The Ritz-Carlton Experience,” one that “enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.” Ritz-Carlton follows up this mission with specific steps of service by which every employee can help to turn the mission into reality.3

The company needs to turn its broad mission into detailed supporting objectives for each level of management. Each manager should have objectives and be responsible for reaching them. For example, most Americans know CVS as a chain of retail pharmacies selling prescription and over-the-counter medicines, personal care products, and a host of convenience and other items. But CVS—recently renamed CVS Health—has a much broader mission. It views itself as a “pharmacy innovation company,” one that is “helping people on their path to better health.” The company’s motto: “Health is everything.”4

CVS Health’s broad mission leads to a hierarchy of objectives, including business objectives and marketing objectives. CVS Health’s overall business objective is to increase access, lower costs, and improve the quality of care. It does this through the products it sells at its retail pharmacies and by taking a more active role in overall health-care management through research, consumer outreach and education, and support of health-related programs and organizations.

However, such activities are expensive and must be funded through improved profits, so improving profits becomes another major objective for CVS Health. Profits can be improved by increasing sales or by reducing costs. Sales can be increased by improving customer engagement and raising the company’s share of the health-care market. These goals then become the company’s current marketing objectives.

Marketing strategies and programs must be developed to support these marketing objectives. To increase customer engagement, sales, and market share, CVS Health has reshaped and broadened its lines of products and services. For example, it recently stopped selling tobacco products, items not compatible with its “better health” mission. And it has placed CVS MinuteClinic locations in more than 1,000 of its 9,500 stores, providing walk-in medical care for more than 18 ­million patient visits since 2000. CVS Health has also broadened its range of customer contact activities to include tailored advising to customers managing chronic and specialty health conditions.

These are CVS Health’s broad marketing strategies. Each marketing strategy must then be defined in greater detail. For example, the company’s rapidly expanding MinuteClinic services will require more advertising and promotional efforts, and such efforts will need to be spelled out carefully. In this way, CVS Health’s broad mission is translated into a set of specific short-term objectives and marketing plans.