Brand values are a guidepost that are used to direct your company’s business marketing. They help inform content creation in everything from social media marketing to blogging. But, what exactly are these values, how do they work, and how are they developed? Let us explain.
What are Brand Values?
If you are branding or rebranding, your company will need to create a core set of values that defines your business. Whether you pick “quality,” “innovation” or something else, these attributes will eventually help to define the look, voice and messaging of your brand.
To develop a set of brand values, think about what is most important to your business. Above all else, your brand values must remain true to your company’s mission.
5 Things to Consider First
- What your business stands for
- The value you give potential customers
- What makes your business unique
- The experience you want customers to have
- Impressions you want to avoid making
Once you have completed this exercise, boil all the information down to one or two phrases. That statement will then define the values of your company.
How the Values of a Brand Set it Apart
Brand values may also be how potential customers identify your business. It may help them distinguish your products or services from those of your competitors.
Meaningful
The values of a brand should dig deep into the essence of your company. They should be the type of words that your team feels passionate about. Integrity, teamwork and customer commitment are three powerful examples.
Actionable
Your values are meant to guide the company’s marketing campaigns. In order to do so, they must be clearly-defined. Brand values should be phrases that show an action, like “working together for a common goal” or “serving customers’ needs.”
Memorable
To be effective, the values of a brand must be short and sweet. If they can’t be easily remembered, they are not very valuable. If they are memorable, you could then use these values to form taglines for advertising campaigns.
Timeless
Your brand values shouldn’t be something that your company changes every year. So, choose wisely. You will benefit from selecting words or phrases that your company is willing to stand behind and stick to.
The development of brand values is one of the early exercises that your company may go through during the branding process. This planning step helps you define and differentiate your products and services from those of your competitors to help your digital marketing campaigns hit the mark.
