Build your brand around your core values, and your brand will withstand downturns and crises. CRITICS argue that, because they constantly reinforce an association between consumption and happiness and focus on individual immediate needs, commercial advertising—and by extension branding—contribute to the squander of resources and the erosion of human values. Corporations are often portrayed as profit-driven evil beings, and advertising as the manipulative arm. For sure, advertising has permeated modern society so thoroughly, it doesn’t only reflect popular culture—but actively creates it. Advertising has been around long enough, in fact, for us to realize that people do not respond to our brands as unthinking automatons who are easy to manipulate. People may be influenced by ads, but they are also—without question—thinking beings who are also able to exert a counter-influence on the makers of these ads.
Thinking, Discerning Beings
FOR ONE, countless philosophers throughout history have put forth the belief that people are thinking beings with a capacity to discern that separates us from our relatives in the animal kingdom. Recent advances in biology also buttress our belief in human thinking nature. Such advances reveal that tiny differences in our genetic code allow us to outthink and outdo our evolutionary cousins, the chimpanzees, and give us the ability to speak, read and write, to compose symphonies, build skyscrapers, start businesses, launch advertising campaigns, and brand our products and services.
Naturally, the recipients of our ads and branding efforts–our target audiences and consumers —also share with us that minute fraction of genetic code that enables them to discern our attempts to influence them.
What’s more, humans are not only thinking beings, but are also value-driven creatures. Various anthropologists, psychologists and other experts have posited the belief that being human necessarily means embracing universal values that hold the key to our happiness. Some of the values put forward as universal include: health, home, connection, discovery, challenge, play and self esteem. Such universal values, experts claim, are essential to our survival as a species, and are probably even coded into our genes.
Value-Driven Branding Makes Sense
GIVEN these, it makes far more long-term sense to brand our products and services around values.
Somewhere within this set of universal values lie our own personal ones, and as business owners, the companies we found are inevitably based on these. For businesses wanting to develop a branding strategy, the first step is thus as fundamental as: identify your business core values.
The truth of the matter is, core values are not created on the fly. They are practiced by people in any business or other organization. You can capture these living values only by spending some time in the workplace.
But are these core values high-minded, preachy sayings straight out of a morality tale? Definitely not. Core business values are down-to-earth and practical beliefs that guide your operations and the day-to-day conduct of your employees.
Capture Your Value
Think of it: Which values are so natural and ingrained in your company that, if you removed them, your company would stop being what it is? How has your company survived today’s competitive business scene? Why do your customers buy your product? Why do people come to work for you? Why are investors still investing in your company? Answer these questions and you will be able to easily determine your company’s core values.
Your core business values represent what you are doing right, which has caused you to survive and thrive: What is it that you represent in the marketplace that other companies don’t represent? Are you making your product more efficiently? Are you doing it better, cheaper, faster? Do you have more knowledgeable people? Whatever it is that truly differentiates you from your competitors, you need to understand it, recognize it as a core brand value, and get it to work for you.
As you begin to develop your brand position, don’t try to compensate for what your company does not have by injecting these values into your company’s identity. Don’t focus on values you wished you had, or on the good traits you think you should have. For example, if your success is based on outsourcing your manufacturing to keep costs down, but your products are not high end, then admit this—and hype this as your strength. Make sure that everyone in your company understands that this is what makes your company.
Consistently Deliver Your Core Values Despite Obstacles
You know you’ve distilled your core values when you can deliver what you promise consistently, despite all obstacles, no matter what the circumstances.
One way to test whether your core value is really a core value is to test if you are willing to spend on it:
Are you a flower shop that promises to deliver anywhere under 12 hours? If this – speed – is your core value, have you invested in the systems, equipment and manpower to ensure that you can deliver on this promise? Or, your value in providing high quality apparel. Have you invested in quality-control systems and processes?
A good way to determine if a value is a core value is to see if it stands the test of stressful situations: increased competition, downsizing, product recalls, or stock devaluation. After all, the Star Spangled Banner does not say “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, er, Sometimes.” It makes the statement with conviction. Ambiguity has no place in core value branding.
Which values in your company don’t have a price tag on them? Which values hold up under all sorts of stressful circumstances? Which values can you state with conviction? These are your core brand values.
Another mark of values being core values is passion. Are you passionate about speed? About product quality? About providing the cheapest possible products in your market? With passion, your brand will gain an emotional connection to consumers that will transcend your ad campaigns. Think now: Which of these core values fall into the “passionate” category? This is your core value.
Your business values may—or may not—be explicitly revealed to the public, but they should be evident in every aspect of your business routine: from customer service, to direct marketing, to teleconferences, to how you treat your employees and strategic partners. It is also reflected on your website design.
There should be no ifs and buts where these vales are core. Keep your values black and white, and all your people will understand what’s expected of them. This brings you closer to doing what you say you’re going to do 100 percent of the time.
Compose Your Creed
So you’ve just embarked on positioning your brand? Begin with the fundamentals. Your business values are the cornerstone of your brand’s positioning. While your proposition will change with changing times, your core values will not. Go forth now and compose your creed.