Do Your Brand Values Set Clear Expectations?

Don’t gloss over your organization’s values. They are critical guideposts for behaviors, decision-making, and delivering a positive customer experience.

How often do you see these values on a company’s website?
• Respect
• Innovation
• Customer-focused

They are fine principles, but do the really dig deep to define the behaviors of your people and the unique experience you deliver to customers?

Why are values important for your brand?

Brand values express the ethics that guide the behavior of the organization and its employees as they work to fulfill the company’s mission and achieve its vision. They define what your organization stands for and set expectations for the experience you will deliver to your customers.

Brand values are the principles that guide and direct day-to-day behavior and decision-making every day at every level. They outline:
• How you choose to operate – establishing guidelines for what is appropriate and desired, and what is not.
• How you strive to treat your customers, employees, partners, and community.

These are the beliefs that guide your firm’s actions and unite its employees. Living the brand’s values contributes to an organization’s culture, attracting and retaining employees, and improving business experiences and brand impressions at a human and operational level. They define your brand in action.

Having a core set of company values makes it easier to make decisions, guide how employees work together, quickly communicate principles to customers, and attract and hire employees with the right attitude. Research has shown that organizations with a well-defined mission, vision, and values see greater employee engagement and performance, enhanced customer relationships, and increased brand value.

Assessing your core values.

Take a look at a few companies that you admire and review their brand values. What you’ll quickly see is that there is no “one way” to create values for an organization. Our experience has shown us that the best values are unerringly authentic to the organization and the brand. Brand values should define your company’s ethos – the distinguishing characters and guiding beliefs that guide how you operate and build affinity with your audiences.

A few examples:

NIKE

As one of the world’s most recognized brands, Nike’s core values embody their unique brand personality and define a way of working.
• Accomplish more together
• Have a positive impact
• Make it even better
• Have a good idea and be bold
• Be the best person you can be

PATAGONIA

Patagonia's leadership revisited and updated the company's brand values  on its 50th anniversary to demonstrate who it wants to be over the next fifty years.
• Build the best product, provide the best service and constantly improve everything we do. 
• Examine our practices openly and honestly, learn from our mistakes and meet our commitments. 
• Protect our home planet.
• Be just, equitable and antiracist as a company and in our community. 
• Not bound by convention – Do it our way. 

HEART OF THE CUSTOMER

And it’s not just the big guys! Heart of the Customer, a growing customer experience consultancy, sought to update its values as they grew. Heart of the Customer’s values reflect their passion for their craft and the unique experience they deliver working with clients.
• We drive business impact.
• We are fierce advocates.
• We seek, and find, the truth.
• We are nimble collaborators.
• We love what we do.

As you review or update your values, consider how they will inspire your employees’ actions and behaviors, and uniquely embody your distinct brand story.