Adopting and clearly communicating a higher purpose has become a key priority for many brands. More and more commercial organizations see purposeful branding as the next competitive advantage and are aligning themselves with a worthy cause or societal issue. Non-profit organizations (NPOs), which arguably are inherently purpose-driven, should also be leveraging the power of brand purpose. This paper studies brand purpose within the NPO space and explores different dimensions of purpose communicated through social media, namely Facebook. Twenty brands across five broad NPO categories of Community Development, Education/Children, Culture, International and Environment were chosen. Four key purpose dimensions emerged: CHANGE, SUPPORT, EMPOWER, and FIGHT. Further analysis of the diversification versus concentration of these purpose dimensions indicated that only a few of the brands communicated a single purpose on their Facebook page. Most NPO brands examined adopted a multidimensional brand purpose. This study adds to the brand communication literature and offers managerial implications for NPOs considering brand purpose strategies.

中文翻译：

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探索非营利组织的品牌目标维度

采用并清楚地传达更高的目标已成为许多品牌的关键优先事项。越来越多的商业组织将有目的的品牌塑造视为下一个竞争优势，并与有价值的事业或社会问题保持一致。非营利组织 (NPO) 可以说是本质上以目标为导向的，也应该利用品牌目标的力量。本文研究了 NPO 空间内的品牌目的，并探讨了通过社交媒体（即 Facebook）传达的目的的不同维度。选择了社区发展、教育/儿童、文化、国际和环境五个大类 NPO 类别的 20 个品牌。出现了四个关键的目的维度：改变、支持、授权和战斗。对这些目的维度的多样化与集中度的进一步分析表明，只有少数品牌在其 Facebook 页面上传达了单一目的。大多数 NPO 品牌都采用了多维品牌目的。这项研究增加了品牌传播文献，并为考虑品牌目标战略的非营利组织提供了管理启示。