Our mission statement has always been an internal lighthouse for us. Something to direct daily, monthly and broad macro decisions. This lil' beacon gets whipped out of the business tool belt more than any other "formally written" tenant. I'm putting "formally written" in inverted commas because most documentation here at Howlet written by myself is likely plagued with grammatical and spelling atrocities.
I have never found it too difficult to generate ideas, but as I have so many ideas flopping around loosely in my dome at any given time, my mission statement becomes my mental cheese cloth - something to sift out the dribble and choose the right concepts to focus on.
However, after explaining it recently to a customer and watching in real time as it resinated with him, I thought it might be worth just spelling it out plain and simple. Rather than trying to artistically represent the mission statement in our marketing collateral.
So here it is, Howlet's Mission Statement is;
To provide the best blank canvas for experiences to be built on; by giving our jewellery purpose and the ability to have legacy.
It may not look like much, but this actually took years to perfect. I deliberated on the word 'ability' for months and now I feel it's the most important word in the statement. The ABILITY to have legacy is us both understanding our role as a brand and what customers require of us... without getting too over our skies and marketing our rings as 'heirloom' rings. They're not. They have the ability to be and it's our job to provide that capability to be held by the wear in the highest significance. We do this through building provenance, giving the pieces a defined cast date and therefore an age. We do through exclusivity. We also have the Ring Library that archives every single ring we make.
But until a customer makes that crossover into seeing their piece through a different lens, which is the crossover from aesthetic to purpose, we are not going to force anything further on them. Nothing pisses me off more than these big jewellery labels marketing their new ring as 'The Heirloom Piece'... Pfft, is it mate? Good chance it's just going to be lost up a rectum the first weekend.
We appreciate that most of our customers just love the look of the design and they are looking to juice up their mitts. That's why we firstly remain product and design centric - articulated in the section 'provide the best canvas'. From there, the ability and purpose is built.
Anyway, that's a little breakdown for anyone who didn't ask but wants to know.
- Ryan
