Brand values are the essence of your brand. The core of what drives you and how you act. They are behind everything you say and do. They act like a compass, guiding your every action.
You want values which are a combination of distinctiveness, authenticity and compelling story
How do you choose values?
Two types of values to avoid
- Too broad or too obvious values should be avoided. Having values such as “honest” or “teamwork”
- Big unachievable values such as best practice or best in class or world class are aspirations rather than values.
Here are some ideas…
- abundance
- acceptance
- accomplishment
- accuracy
- achievement
- acknowledgment
- activeness
- adaptability
- adventure
- affection
- affluence
- agility
- altruism
- ambition
- appreciation
- assertiveness
- attractiveness
- availability
- awareness
- balance
- beauty
- being the best
- belonging
- boldness
- bravery
- brilliance
- calmness
- challenge
- charity
- charm
- clarity
- cleanliness
- comfort
- commitment
- compassion
- completion
- composure
- concentration
- congruency
- connection
- consciousness
- consistency
- contentment
- contribution
- control
- coolness
- cooperation
- correctness
- courage
- creativity
- credibility
- curiosity
- daring
- decisiveness
- dependability
- determination
- devotion
- dignity
- diligence
- diplomacy
- discipline
- discovery
- diversity
- drive
- duty
- education
- effectiveness
- efficiency
- elegance
- empathy
- endurance
- energy
- enjoyment
- enthusiasm
- excellence
- excitement
- experience
- expertise
- expressiveness
- extroversion
- fairness
- faith
- fame
- family
- fearlessness
- fidelity
- financial
- independence
- fitness
- flexibility
- focus
- freedom
- friendliness
- frugality
- fun
- generosity
- giving
- grace
- gratitude
- growth
- happiness
- harmony
- health
- helpfulness
- heroism
- honesty
- humility
- humor
- hygiene
- imagination
- independence
- insightfulness
- inspiration
- integrity
- intelligence
- intimacy
- introversion
- intuition
- joy
- justice
- kindness
- knowledge
- leadership
- learning
- liberty
- logic
- love
- loyalty
- making a difference
- mastery
- mindfulness
- motivation
- neatness
- obedience
- open-mindedness
- optimism
- organization
- originality
- passion
- peace
- perfection
- perseverance
- philanthropy
- playfulness
- pleasantness
- pleasure
- polish
- popularity
- power
- practicality
- pragmatism
- precision
- preparedness
- privacy
- professionalism
- prosperity
- realism
- reason
- recognition
- recreation
- relaxation
- reliability
- resilience
- resourcefulness
- respect
- restraint
- sacrifice
- satisfaction
- security
- self-control
- selflessness
- self-reliance
- serenity
- service
- significance
- silence
- simplicity
- sincerity
- skillfulness
- solitude
- spirituality
- spontaneity
- stability
- strength
- success
- support
- sympathy
- synergy
- teamwork
- temperance
- traditionalism
- timeliness
- tranquility
- trustworthiness
- truth
- understanding
- uniqueness
- variety
- victory
- virtue
- vision
- warmth
- wisdom
Amazon.com’s Leadership Principles
- Customer obsession
- Ownership
- Invent and simplify
- [Leaders] are right, a lot
- Hire and develop the best
- Insist on the highest standards
- Think big
- Bias for action
- Frugality
- Vocally self critical
- Earn trust of others
- Dive deep
- Have backbone; disagree and commit
- Deliver results
The Container Store’s Foundation Principles
- 1 Great Person = 3 Good People
- Communication IS Leadership
- Fill the other guy’s basket to the brim. Making money then becomes an easy proposition.
- The Best SELECTION, SERVICE & PRICE
- Intuition does not come to an unprepared mind. You need to train before it happens.
- Man In The Desert Selling
- Air of Excitement
IKEA’s Core Values
- Humbleness and willpower
- Leadership by example
- Daring to be different
- Togetherness and enthusiasm
- Cost-consciousness
- Constant desire for renewal
- Accept and delegate responsibility
Netflix’s Culture: Behaviors and Skills They Value
- Judgment (making wise decisions; identify root causes; think strategically)
- Communication (listen well; concise speech; respectful)
- Impact (amazing amounts of important work; consistently strong performance; focus on results, not process; bias to action, not analysis)
- Curiosity (learn rapidly; seek to understand; broad knowledge)
- Innovation (re-conceptualize issues to discover practical solutions; challenge prevailing assumptions; create new ideas that prove useful)
- Courage (say what you think; make tough decisions; take smart risks; question actions inconsistent with their values)
- Passion (inspire others with excellence; care intensely about company success; celebrate wins; tenacious)
- Honesty (candor and directness; non-political; quick to admit mistakes)
- Selflessness (seek what is best for Netflix; egoless when searching for best ideas; help colleagues; share info openly and proactively)
Southwest’s “Live the Southwest Way”
- Warrior Spirit (Work Hard; Desire to the best; Be courageous; Display a sense of urgency; Persevere; Innovate)
- Servant’s Heart (Follow the Golden Rule; Adhere to the Basic Principles; Treat others with respect; Put others first; Be egalitarian; Demonstrate proactive customer service; Embrace the SWA Family)
- Fun-LUVing Attitude (Have FUN; Don’t take yourself too seriously; Maintain perspective (balance); Celebrate successes; Enjoy your work; Be a passionate Teamplayer)
The Ritz-Carlton’s Service Values
- I build strong relationships and create Ritz-Carlton guests for life.
- I am always responsive to the expressed and unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.
- I am empowered to create unique, memorable and personal experiences for our guests.
- I understand my role in achieving the Key Success Factors, embracing Community Footprints and creating The Ritz-Carlton Mystique.
- I continuously seek opportunities to innovate and improve The Ritz-Carlton experience.
- I own and immediately resolve guest problems.
- I create a work environment of teamwork and lateral service so that the needs of our guests and each other are met.
- I have the opportunity to continuously learn and grow.
- I am involved in the planning of the work that affects me.
- I am proud of my professional appearance, language and behavior.
- I protect the privacy and security of our guests, my fellow employees and the company’s confidential information and assets.
- I am responsible for uncompromising levels of cleanliness and creating a safe and accident-free environment.
Under Armour’s Brand Values
- Let’s be great. Build great product, tell a great story, provide great service, and build a great team.
- Without it we cannot be a team.
- No one person is bigger than the brand—Team. No athlete either.
- Make one dollar spend like three. We must be creative with the resources we have.
- Help others. Volunteerism and serving others are vital parts of our mission.
- Walk with a purpose. Everything we do is part of a deliberate, long-term strategy/vision. Know where you’re going.
- Protect the UA culture, but embrace change. Evolve and innovate. We’re a different company every 6 months, and we can’t use culture as an excuse to not change product, process, or people.
- Be humble and stay hungry. Nobody’s going to give us anything. We have to earn it every day.
The Motley Fool’s Core Values
- Collaborate: Do great things together.
- Innovate: Search for a better solution. Then top it!
- Fun: Revel in your work.
- Honest: Make us proud.
- Competitive: Play fair, play hard, play to win.
- Motley: Make Foolishness your own. Share your core value _____________.
Zipcar’s Core Values
- Obsess about the member experience (Build trust and confidence among our member community by delivering leading convenience, dependability and service excellence)
- Be the best we can be (Support personal growth, impact, and excellence)
- Deliver results (Create enduring value through growth)
- Keep it simple (Win through simplicity and continuous innovation)
- Have an impact
- Change the world through urban and environmental transformation
Notice how all of the above values are specific and actionable. They help define each company’s culture and encourage a specific type of behavior within each organization.
A great tool you can use to generate values for your brand is the “Grid method” which involves drawing an 8×8 grid. Enter one value per box. It should be a value or concept that guides your actions.
Ask about each value listed and rule out if it doesn’t meet the following criteria
- Is this value genuine? If no cross out
- Is this value liveable?
- Is this value compelling internally? Emotional and intellectual power
- Will this value mean anything to customers?
- Is this value relevant to your brand?
- Does this value contribute to you being distinctive as a brand?
- Does this value have longevity/sustainability?
- Can you communicate this value to people?
- Can this value be brought to life in behaviour? Needs to change behaviour otherwise means nothing, and is an empty promise.
- Would you fight to preserve this value? Be careful of personal convictions that could get in way
If you say no to any of these, discard the value
Give your value short or memorable name. i.e. The good stuff
Give your value a succinct explanation i.e. contain top quality meat only
Describe how your value is brought to life in practical times i.e. list of rules
Once declared you must live by them in everything you do. If hand-made, don’t be mass producing them.
Branding 101
- Branding 101: start here
- Assessing your brand
- Finding brands authentic purpose
- Brand strategy
- Brand purpose, vision and mission
- Branding: talent
- Brand values
- Differentiating your brand
- Focusing on your ideal customers
- Developing brand – six legged spider
- Brand positioning
- Brand story
- Brand name
- Crafting the Internal brand positioning statement
- Shaping the external brand positioning line