Thanks to modern connectivity, there has never been a more exciting time to propel something unique before the masses. Today's world is filled with exciting and dynamic companies offering an abundance of choice to their global audiences. However, all of that opportunity comes with a cost, because brands also need to go the extra mile to stand out from the competition. Fortunately, conceptualizing an awesome set of brand values is a brilliant place to begin!
Listing out brand values might sound like a corny marketing gimmick to some, but when rooted in authenticity, this powerful tactic can crank the brand in question's prestige up to the max. The reason for this level-up is that 82% of consumers want the values of the brands they buy from to mirror their own. That means that getting brand values right and sending them out into the consumer eco-system truly can make all the difference.
But marketers beware, a cookie-cutter approach to this important element of branding isn't the way to go. The best brand values are crafted and tailored to the company in question, its audience, its employees, and its long-term goals. With all of that in mind, what goes into creating truly epic brand values? Today we're going to take a whistle-stop tour of all things brand values-related, including why they matter, some great examples, and how you can start formulating yours today.
What Are Brand Values?
A simple way to understand the function of brand values is to consider your own personal values as a human being. We each have a number of beliefs and principles that help us navigate through this world. When it comes to establishing a rockstar of a business, a core set of defining values can be immensely useful for enabling that enterprise to act in a cohesive and consistent way. So, even if the brand is driven by thousands of people, it operates as if it has a single personality and matching moral compass.
Brand values are a distillation of the beliefs or ideals that steer a company's actions, laid out in an easy-to-digest way. What's more, they also allow the public to quickly identify if the brand is in step with their own personal perspective, which can help them decide if they want to stick around and shop. Depending on the brand and its target audience, the values they choose may include things like environmental commitments, customer care standards, diversity and equality, speed and efficiency, privacy protection, and more.
Why Do Brand Values Matter?
As we mentioned, the vast majority of consumers prefer to seek out brands whose values align with their own. However, when it comes to showcasing compelling brand values, it isn't enough to talk the talk—businesses have to walk the walk too. Because alongside seeking out calibrated values, today's customers are serious about seeing authenticity too.
How vital is it for your brand to dazzlingly convey its authenticity in lights? Well, as it happens, 88% of contemporary consumers consider authenticity to be a key factor when considering which brands to support. This means that your brand needs to not only outline a clear and relevant set of values, but also draw from them daily in every aspect of what you and your team get up to.
How Brand Values Can Benefit Your Business
There is nothing like a bright and bold set of brand values to help a company build an unbreakable bond with its customer base. However, there are even more reasons to prioritize really dialing down the best values that you can. Here are some of the ways that your efforts will be rewarded:
1. Strong Brand Values Entice New Customers Research from Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman sheds more light on why demonstrating values is so important for connecting with customers. In his book, How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market, he shared that “95% of our purchase decision-making takes place in the subconscious mind.” This means that even our most practical purchasing choices may be more rooted in emotion than we realize. Knowing this, it is easy to imagine why communicating brand values from the get-go is so critical to securing those key first-time purchases from customers new to your brand. When values are not only placed front and center, but also laced throughout marketing messages on social media and beyond, subconscious consumer confidence is far more likely to be inspired.
2. Your Brand's Values Will Attract the Right Talent Amazing people always serve as the foundation for incredible brands, so how can a top-notch set of brand values help you bring the right people into the fold? For sure, it helps to know that 60% of job seekers will choose a place to work based on their beliefs and values. This means that well-defined values can help you onboard the type of talent that will drive your business toward its next epic destination.
In contrast, when values are either poorly defined or not adhered to, you can anticipate recruitment that misses the mark, stalled productivity, and a higher employee turnover. So yes, the best way to attract and retain unbeatable talent is to ensure that your brand values are reflected in the daily experiences of your team. This will ensure that they get to step into an engaging working environment that they can feel truly passionate about, and you get to share in the bounty of their journey.
3. Brand Values In Action Build Lasting Customer Loyalty Well-crafted brand values do so much more than simply tempt the kind of customers you want to come and check out your business today. Crucially, when those values are proudly ever-present in the way your enterprise operates, they can ensure that those customers also climb aboard for the long haul.
Over time, whenever consumers see the values that first attracted them to a company upheld and honored, this forges trust, which in turn transforms into loyalty. When it comes to creating stable and enduring business success, this mighty, values-driven, and mutually beneficial brand-consumer relationship simply cannot be beaten.
**4. Clear Brand Values Will Help Your Team Synergize ** Without a guiding set of tenets to serve as a compass, any group of people can begin to drift off mission. That's exactly why establishing core brand values is so essential for keeping teams on task. Better yet, when businesses make a point of highlighting to employees how the work they do ties directly into the values that the brand represents, they can anticipate greater engagement and productivity.
5. Epic Brand Values Will Guide Your Business Forwards Not only can brand values serve as a navigational tool for employees, but also for critical leadership decision-making as your company expands and evolves. Every decision, large or small, can be held up against your brand's guiding values to ensure that it is fully in alignment. This will ensure simultaneously that the company stays on track and that customers aren't caught off-guard by a sudden change of tack.
Inspiring Examples of Brand Values
Curating the most poignant values for your brand means striking a balance between what you as a company want to achieve and a deep understanding of your audience. While some values are likely to be more niche, others can be much more broadly relevant. For example, these days, 66% of consumers globally consider sustainability when they make a purchase, making earth-friendly brand values particularly meaningful.
But let's sniff out some more ideas to draw from. Here are some inspiring examples of big-name brands with brilliant values to get your juices flowing:
Apple American technology company Apple's late founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, made an excellent point when he shared: “Marketing is about values. It’s a complicated and noisy world, and we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us.”
As such, the company offers an excellent example of clear and concise brand values in action, focusing on a list of core values that serve as a firm foundation for its ethical operations:
• Accessibility
• Education
• Environment
• Inclusion and Diversity
• Privacy
• Racial Equity and Justice
• Supplier Responsibility
**Ben & Jerry's ** The brand values of iconic ice cream company Ben & Jerry's build upon their ambitious tagline: “We believe that ice cream can change the world.” Keeping things even simpler than Apple, they lead with just three clear and contemporary values: ▪ Human Rights & Dignity
▪ Social & Economic Justice
▪ Environmental Protection, Restoration, & Regeneration
Adidas Globally popular sports brand Adidas cleverly divides its brand values into three separate concepts. While striving to be a “credible, inclusive, and sustainable leader” in their industry, Adidas keeps this trio of things in mind: • Brand Purpose: “Through sport, we have the power to change lives.” • Brand Mission: “To be the best sports brand in the world.” • Brand Attitude: “Impossible is Nothing”
How to Choose the Right Values for Your Brand
The values that serve as a guiding light for your brand should unite as something that you and your team come back to again and again. To make them effective, it's important to minimize the fuss and maximize the clarity. For your team to consistently live your brand values, you'll ideally want to choose around 3-5 core values that are easy to internalize and incorporate. Here are some further brand value examples that might inspire:
• We prioritize sustainability
• We embrace diversity
• We support our local communities
• We keep things simple and efficient
• We deliver outstanding customer care
• We stand for inclusion
• We never compromise our standards
• We elevate our employees
• We're always here when you need us
• We see your win as our win
• We encourage self-expression
• We give back with green initiatives
These are all strong starting points, but until you truly make them your own, they won't have much substance. Ultimately, the values that you land upon must be tailored, fully but simply articulating your brand's passions, goals, and personality. Plus, they aren't something to plonk on your website before getting back to business as usual—they will exist to be a touch-point that ties into everything you do.
Here are a few handy exercises to help you formulate your ideas:
1. Consider Your Own Big 'Why' Why did you start your company in the first place? What did you want it to stand for, and how can that be reflected in its guiding principles moving forwards?
2. Do Some Market Research What are the brand values advertised by your competitors? Have a sneaky peek to see what's working for them, and perhaps more critically, what they have missed that could give you an edge.
3. Talk to Your Customers If you don't ask your audience directly, you're really only guessing. Survey your customer base to discover what really matters to them. Next, you can figure out how to incorporate what they share into your brand's values and identity.
4. Get Your Team Brainstorming All too often, leaders believe that their brand stands for one thing, only to realize that their team are on an entirely different page. Inviting team members to join in this critical conversation can be revealing. Your employees may mirror and inspire you, or they may spotlight a need for improvement that a new set of brand values can fuel.
Once you've drawn together a decent amount of insight into how you, your audience, and your employees currently perceive your brand—plus any potential market opportunities—you can begin conceptualizing and refining your short and sweet list of authentic and powerful core brand values.
What's the Difference Between Brand Values and Brand Guidelines? You might have come across the term brand guidelines and wondered how it differs from brand values. In reality, these two things are not quite the same but are intimately related to one another. While brand values are the beating heart of any savvy company's identity, brand guidelines are a tool that can be used to expand upon those values for greater specificity and consistency.
When it comes to interpreting strong brand values into a more directional set of brand guidelines, it helps to go value-by-value, creating a handful of guidelines for each one. Here's an example of this idea applied:
Brand value:
• We elevate our employees
Brand guidelines:
• We ensure that all employees receive quarterly one-to-one feedback
• We provide high-caliber training at regular intervals
• We have an open-door policy for ideas, innovation, and constructive criticism
• We provide employees the opportunity to grow and progress
In this way, brand guidelines can be used to translate the values that steer your company into actionable and measurable strategies without watering them down. This leaves space for evolution while supporting that all-important central consistency. Which is a good thing, no doubt. Because research suggests that brands maintaining consistency in their presence enjoy an increase in revenue of 33%.
The Brand Values Takeaway A well-thought-out and implemented set of brand values can have a powerful impact on steering the course of any enterprise toward success. To be effective, they must be tailored to the company, based on genuine insight, rooted in authenticity, and woven throughout everything that the brand puts out into the world.
When these aims are achieved, customers and employees are sure to be more engaged—not only today but also in the long run. Vitally, that all adds up to a recipe for enduring rockstar brand status. So, if you don't already have inspired brand values in place, it's time to get brainstorming!
