This is the 10th and final post in my series of “2013 trends and predictions” and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them all so far.

Out of all the posts I believe this one is very important, if not the most important of the 10 topics. It is the reason why some of the worlds most successful companies are where they are today, including Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, Starbucks

Don’t want to be an internationally known house hold brand? or don’t think you can become that size? Don’t worry, you don’t need to be in order to adopt what I’m going to share with you today. In fact it’s something that even individuals can adopt for themselves and exude in their everyday lives.

It gives you and your business a purpose, and having clarity on your purpose will dictate what you believe, say and do. It’s powerful.

If I asked you what you think the vision of the above 3 companies were, would you have some sort of idea? Stop for 2 minutes and have a think about it. For real, have a think about it. Start now.

Once you have thought about it for each one, click on their respective names below.

Notice how each one of them have no vision that is connected in whatsoever way to what they sell or do? This is very important to note because it means that your company can essentially do anything it wants still, including providing your existing services and products, only there will be a sense of purpose and direction, a stronger reason why you do it.

Take Google for example who’s vision is to organise the worlds information. This does not apply specifically to search engines or say anything about search engines, for all we know they could have started to reorganise the worlds library books which are also full of information.

What about Coca-Cola? To inspire moments of optimism and happiness is their vision but they sell soft drinks!

What we’re aligning ourselves with when we trend to either of these brands or even between competing brands is their vision, their company message, and what they stand for. Why? Because they’re the values and messages we have or want to have for ourselves so when there’s a brand who delivers what we want, we stick and hold strong to that brand. We embody what we believe and as humans we naturally promote our beliefs because we all want to be heard.

This is what we call a classic case of emotional buying.

So if we’re buying purely through our emotions and because the brand stands for what we stand for, does it matter we’d buy whatever they try to sell to us? Any product, any service? Most likely.

Once we have committed to a brand and it becomes a part of our identity we’ll tend to do whatever they say and pretty much buy whatever they try to sell us. How do we know this? Well simply look at Apple – I mean their loyal followers, some who have purchased 5 iterations of the same phone. But kudos to Apple for creating such a great following and it’s all because of their message and why they exist.

I believe that more brands need to be considering this concept today because in today’s world there are so many brands, so many different options, but only few that we connect with on an emotional level. If you create a brand that consumers will follow because for the message, purpose and vision, then you’ll be able to sell anything to them, including things that are repackaged in a new case.

Who knows where all the first generation iPhones are? I sure as hell know where they are… recycled!