What would make people choose to wear its colors, defend its badge, and celebrate its victories?
It is a simple question, yet it reveals one of the greatest opportunities facing brands today.
When we think about the world’s most admired soccer teams, we remember the trophies they won. But long after the final whistle, people remember something even more powerful: what those teams represented—their culture, their values, and the sense of connection they inspired.
In many ways, that is exactly what a brand represents.
A brand is far more than a name, logo, product, or advertising campaign. It is the visible expression of what an organization believes, how it behaves, and the value it consistently creates for the people it serves.
Soccer has a remarkable ability to bring people together. Individuals from different countries, cultures, languages, and backgrounds can share the same emotions, celebrate the same moments, and feel part of something larger than themselves.
Research from the University of Oxford and studies published in the European Journal of Social Psychology suggest that major sporting events can strengthen collective identity and social belonging. As the world comes together around the 2026 Soccer World Cup, we are witnessing this phenomenon in real time.
Yet the most interesting lesson may not be about sports. It may be about brands.
If a soccer team can inspire millions of people to rally around a shared identity, what can organizations learn from that ability to create connection?
Customers may initially choose a brand because of its quality, convenience, innovation, availability, or price. They continue choosing it because of the experience it consistently delivers.
Trust is earned over time. Loyalty is built through consistency.
The strongest brands eventually become more than products and services. They become trusted symbols that help people make decisions with confidence and feel connected to something they value.
Perhaps the most revealing question for any marketing leader is not how many people recognize a brand. It is this:
If your brand disappeared tomorrow, would people truly miss it?
Not simply because they would need an alternative, but because something meaningful would be missing from their lives.
The answer often reveals the difference between a company that sells products and a brand that creates lasting relevance.
At their best, brands do more than facilitate transactions. Like successful soccer teams, they align people around a common objective and create the conditions for collective success.
They unite employees, attract customers, engage partners, strengthen communities, and help people move in the same direction.
Throughout history, people have come together around shared values, aspirations, and goals. Brands can play a similar role within organizations and markets by creating clarity around what matters and why it matters.
When that alignment exists, decisions become clearer, relationships become stronger, and organizations are better positioned to create long-term value.
For decades, business discussions often treated profitability and social contribution as separate objectives. The strongest brands demonstrate that they do not have to be.
A brand reaches its highest potential when it creates value for the organization while simultaneously creating value for the people it serves.
Business value enables investment, innovation, employment, growth, and long-term sustainability. Human value strengthens trust, opportunity, well-being, and the quality of the relationships organizations build with customers, employees, partners, and communities.
The most admired organizations understand that these outcomes are not opposites. They reinforce one another.
When a company consistently improves people’s lives, it earns trust. Trust strengthens loyalty. Loyalty supports growth. Growth creates resources for innovation, and innovation creates new opportunities to serve people even better.
The cycle becomes mutually reinforcing.
Consider some of the world’s most admired brands. Adidas connects people through a shared passion for sport and achievement. Airbnb built a global community around the idea of belonging anywhere.
Although their industries differ, they share a common principle: their influence extends beyond the products and services they offer. They create experiences, relationships, opportunities, and meaningful connections.
Research from Deloitte suggests that organizations aligned around a clear purpose are often better positioned to strengthen relationships with customers, employees, and stakeholders. Trust influences loyalty, advocacy, resilience, and long-term performance.
This is why purpose matters—not because it sounds inspiring, but because it influences behavior.
When purpose shapes decisions, innovation, culture, customer experience, and leadership, it creates alignment. Alignment drives consistency. Consistency strengthens trust. Trust supports sustainable growth.
In a world where products, technologies, and even content can increasingly be replicated, sustainable advantage may depend less on what an organization sells and more on how consistently it improves the lives of the people it serves.
Perhaps that is why many of the world’s most valuable brands invest so heavily in global sporting events. They are not simply purchasing visibility. They are participating in moments that create shared memories, strengthen relationships, and connect people through common experiences.
Great soccer teams are remembered not only for their victories, but for what those victories came to represent.
The same is true of great brands.
The most enduring teams do not inspire people solely because they win. They inspire people because they stand for something worth supporting.
The most enduring brands operate the same way.
Results matter. Performance matters. Growth matters. Yet the organizations that endure are those that transform those achievements into something people can recognize, trust, and choose to support.
The strongest brands do not choose between purpose and profitability. They understand that long-term success is often strengthened when both advance together.
If your brand were a soccer team, what would it be defending every time it stepped onto the field?
And more importantly, would it represent something meaningful enough to inspire people, strengthen the organization, and create a positive impact for years to come?
Fabiola Rojas