Why Brand Values Really Matter
Brand values are more than just words. They help you make aligned business decisions and connect you to your target audience.
What does your brand stand for? What actions do you take to uphold your ideals and beliefs?
If you can’t answer these questions clearly, you’re missing a major piece of the brand puzzle: clear core values.
What are brand values?
Brand values are the foundational beliefs and philosophies that govern how your brand acts in the world.
It’s a bit of an elusive concept. That’s why it can be so hard to define them and talk about them. It’s also why so many brands will skip this major step, either ignoring it altogether, or coming up with loose, vague values on the fly. But without clear values, your brand will have struggles down the road.
You already have values that you live by. We all do. You have beliefs about how you want to be treated and how to treat others. You have beliefs about how best to live well, how to be a good person, how to make the most of life. These beliefs actively influence your behavior and choices.
The same goes for your brand. Even if you haven’t defined your brand values, when you do business, you hold beliefs about what’s best for you and best for your clients/customers. When these beliefs are made concrete and consistent aspects of your mission and align with your audience, they become your brand values.
Brand values are not abstract. They have real, tangible effects on your business.
Your values aren’t just lofty ideals that make people feel warm and fuzzy. They’re part of what holds the fabric of your brand together. They give meaning and context to what you do. They shape how your brand is perceived. But these values can’t just live in your head, on your website, or in a document gathering cobwebs somewhere in your Google Drive. They need to be brought into the real world as guiding philosophies for your day-to-day operations, and visible to the public.
If your brand were a car, your values (part of your brand strategy) would be the engine: driving your actions and informing the shape of the frame that we see.
What does this really mean?
Okay, enough high-level conceptual stuff, let’s talk about what brand values actually do in real life and why you need them.
People seek out brands that share their values.
This is even more true now than it was a few years ago, especially amongst Gen-Z. We’ve seen a major cultural shift in the branding and marketing industries towards a values orientation. There’s so many products and brands out there, and in order to really click with people, brands have moved away from being product-focused to value-focused. It comes down to a sense of human connection. People want to align their purchasing behaviors with what they believe. Brand values are the foundation of building trust with your target audience. Consider the sustainability movement: it’s a huge market, driven almost entirely by values and beliefs.
Clear brand values make for good decisions.
The language we see surrounding brand values seems really abstract, but it’s important to remember that it’s not metaphorical. Running your own small business is one analysis paralysis moment after another——this is something I struggle with, too. The solution is having brand values that are actionable IRL. Intentional choices are critical. If you are clear on what your brand stands for, decision pathways become way less complicated to navigate, just like your personal values do. When you have a set of beliefs that guide your actions, you’ll make better decisions faster and with more confidence. No more random decisions!
Strong brand values attract the right talent.
For many people, a job is a job, and that’s totally valid. But as a small business owner, it benefits you to hire people who actually care about what you do. Whether you’re working with an in-house team or freelancers, values that people can clearly identify are more likely to attract motivated, passionate people. And not just any people: the right people. We all know hiring the right people can make or break your business. Values drive internal culture and give people a sense of purpose. An appealing company culture, a meaningful purpose, and a clear direction are a big part of what people look for when they’re on the job hunt.
Brand values influence design.
While big-picture values and graphic design seem like two different areas, they’re completely interconnected. Designers are specialists in translating ideas into visual media, and design is how brands express their mission and values. I don’t like referencing corporate brands, but I’m biting the bullet on this one: take Apple as an example. In it’s mission statement, Apple says, “Whether it is iPhone, iPad, or wearable, Apple designs all its products to be user-friendly. The company does not compromise when it comes to user experience. Apple’s products come with innovative and user-friendly features, delivering the best experience for the end-user.” Apple makes this obvious through design style: clean, clear, simple, sleek. All of these design decisions are direct reflections of the company’s “accessibility” value component and it’s mission to create easy-to-use products. So, if you’re jumping into design before clarifying your values, there’s nothing to design around.
Defining your brand values feels good.
If you take anything away from this post, please take this.
Small businesses appeal to people because they feel human.
And guess what? You’re a human! That’s a solid advantage. What you value as a person is the best place to start zeroing in on brand values. If you’re doing business, you’re already acting on your values in various ways. Chances are, you already know them intuitively, and it’s a matter of putting them into words so you can put them into action.
In my experience, people feel better once they’ve done this. There’s a huge sense of relief that comes with having clearly articulated values to work off of. Getting into alignment is like finally finding the perfect pair of pants: your baseline becomes more confident and comfortable. You almost forget about the pants until you receive a compliment or catch your own reflection, and then are filled with a sense of satisfaction. Your brand should feel like the perfect pair of pants. Or… something like that. You get the idea.