What are Brand Values ?
Your brand values are essential to building a successful brand strategy & developing a deeper connection with your target audience. Without a carefully selected set of brand values you’ll struggle develop brand messaging that’s clear & consistent & may face a lack of engagement on your social media posts. In this blog post you’ll learn exactly what brand values are & how to choose the right brand values for your small business!
01 What are Brand Values?
02 Brand Value Examples
03 Mistakes to avoid when choosing your Brand Values
04 Tips for Choosing your Brand Values
01 What are Brand Values?
Brand values are typically a set of 3 words that outline your businesses core beliefs & help you to both guide you through decisions you make in your business whilst also helping to connect with your dream customers (AKA target audience) on a deeper level.
Your brand values help you to gain clarity & set the tone of how & what you communicate through your brands visuals (eg. your logo design, brand colours & brand photography) & marketing messaging.
Brand values also help you to frame your business in a way that’s different to others in your industry. Put simply, they are a set of guiding principles for your business based on the shared values of you and your customers.
02 Brand Value Examples
The easiest way to understand brand values is by looking at sustainable brands. In recent years, eco-conscious brands have begun to appear across pretty much every industry especially in areas such as fashion, homeware & the food & drink industry.
Their focus on sustainability helps to set them apart from other brands in their industry by offering products that align with consumer shopping habits that are increasingly more environmentally conscious.
If a shopper is looking for a product within a given category (eg. jewellery) and sustainability is important to them, they are much more likely to choose a sustainable jewellery brand over a jewellery brand who’s brand values don’t align with them.
In addition to their marketing messaging, their value of sustainability will also help them to make decisions across other areas of their business. For example, when they’re developing a new collection they will use their value of sustainability to consider what materials to use, how to avoid excess waste throughout the production of their products & what packaging to use when delivering the products to their customers ect.
Further Brand Value examples
Authenticity
Transparency
Efficiency
Community
Collaboration
Freedom
Flexibility
Longevity
Creativity
Joy
Calm
Fun
📌 If you’d like a full list of brand values you can find over 90 words to choose from in both my Discover Your Brand Value workbook & my Build Your Brand in 30 Days Pack.
03 Mistakes to avoid when selecting your brand values
The biggest mistake you can make when selecting your brand values as a small business owner is by choosing a value based on what you think your customers will care about over selecting values that align with your personal values & beliefs.
The most powerful part of being a small business owner or personal brand is that your potential customers & clients are able to get to know the person behind the products or services they are considering purchasing from.
Building authentic, personal relationships with your community is key to effective marketing & therefore, if you choose a brand value that doesn’t really align with who you are & what you value on a personal level - you’ll find it difficult to consistently show up with your brand values in tact!
To illustrate this point, if we go back to the sustainable brand example from before, let’s think of a brand that has sustainability as their primary brand value…but the founder decided to select this value based on what they thought their customers would want, rather then what’s important to them.
The brand may tell their audience that they value sustainability, but aren’t making decisions in the back end of their business that puts their value of sustainability into practice. We’ve seen this time and time again where brands are “Green Washing” (appearing as being sustainable) & quickly loose the trust & loyalty of previous customers when their unsustainable practices come to light.
04 Tips for Choosing your Brand Values
Now you know how not to choose your brand values, here are some actionable tips & questions to ask yourself to identify your brand values.
📌 Before you get started, a quick side note from me to say that you can change & refine your values as your brand & business evolves. In the same way that peoples values & beliefs change over time, businesses values & beliefs can too. Although it’s great if you can select brand values now that will last the longevity of your business, it’s much better to select them from the start & adapt as you grow then not select them at all. Hopefully this helps to take the preasure off when choosing which brand values to go for!
Step 1: Start by putting together a list of as many brand values you can think of.
(You can also find a list of 90 brand value ideas within my “Build Your Brand in 30 Days Pack”.)
Step 2: Begin by picking out the words that resonate with you in some way & create a short-list of ideas.
Step 3: Now spend some time considering your answers to the questions below & use them to reduce your list to 3 brand values.
➤ Which of the brand values reflect your personal values or beliefs?
➤ What emotions or feelings do you want your brand to evoke?
➤ Which words will help you support your personal goals?
➤ What makes you/your brand different?
➤ What unique offerings do you provide that your competitors don't?
➤ What sets you apart in terms of product, service, quality, or values?
➤ What do you want people to think of when they think of your brand?
➤ How do you want your brand to be perceived by your customers?
➤ Why would your customers or clients pick you over someone else?
➤ What value do you bring to your customers?
➤ What are your personal passions that you want to bring into your business?
➤ What words will help you to build trust with your customers by aligning your brand values with theirs?
📌 When you’ve selected your 3 words, I’d really recommend writing out the reasons why you’ve selected them as if you’re explaining them to someone else. This will help you to make sure that you’ve selected the right words for where you’re at in your business right now.
NEXT STEPS: Once you’re clear on your brand values, the next step is to begin implementing them across your business & marketing strategy.
🤓 Further Reading & Resources
📥 Discover Your Brand Values (Workbook)