How To Define Your Core Brand Values (Steps Examples)

what's up brand builders stephen harahan here at brandmasteracademy.com and in this video you're going to learn how to define your core brand values so you can develop an internal compass for decisions and actions and show up to your market like you actually stand for something [Music] now if you're new to the channel and you want to build brands that go beyond the visuals using strategy psychology and creative thinking then you're in the right place hit that subscribe button and the notification bell if you want to fast track your results make sure you grab the pro

brand strategy blueprint it's a free download and the link is in the description now as people we're all very different we all come from different cultures different backgrounds we have different beliefs and of course different values and behaviors now what we tend to do is we tend to gravitate towards familiarity that's in our dna why because that familiarity represents safety and that is exactly how we choose our brands as well we tend to gravitate towards that safety because we want to trust the brands that we do business with and sometimes that's all we need so

what are brand values well in short there are set of guiding principles that guide our decisions and actions and how the brand behaves and when a brand is clear on what their values are then they can use that to dictate how the brand behaves it can use that for decisions and actions and these decisions and actions will ultimately move the brand towards the familiarity of that audience so they feel a connection with it so why are brand values important well as children were raised in a certain way we're raised through the values of our parents

and those values are established over generations from their parents and their parents before them and this all manifests in the way we behave so how we're raised and the values that are instilled in us from our parents comes out in how we behave now as people how that comes out is through our interactions with other people but as brands this comes out through our interactions with our audience and the wider world so ultimately the brand values are there to guide those decisions and actions and dictate how the brand is going to behave and that is

ultimately what our brand wants to be known for and the reputation that it wants to establish and this is why we develop brand values in the first place we develop brand values to guide those decisions and actions and communication as well so that we can show up to the market like we stand for something like we believe in something and we behave in a certain way what brand values are not is they're not a collection of keywords that are drawn up and then stuck in the bottom drawer they're not there as a piece of marketing

to put on your website they don't influence any decisions and actions because ultimately your brand wants to earn a reputation and be known for something and you want your audience to experience something from your brand and if you do this correctly if you use brand values the way they should be used to guide those decisions actions and communications then that is how you can make that connection and that is how you can establish yourself and make those familiarity connections with your audience so what are the traits of effective brand values well first of all they

should be actionable a single word is not going to drive any action it should have some kind of action to it you should be able to read one of those values and then be able to use that to make a decision or to communicate something with your audience so it should be actionable it should also be memorable those within the brand need to be able to remember the values because that is how they're going to behave and if they can't remember them then they're not going to be able to really communicate those values into the

marketplace it should also be unique as well and again going back to those single word keywords that's not unique enough any brand can choose a single word and you could have the same word as many different brands but if you take that word and make it into a unique sentence then that belongs to the brand and that really does represent the brand and you can bring your personality out through those values as well and finally it needs to be timeless these values don't change on a whim you're not going to change your values every month

or every year or even every 10 years you want those values to be timeless you want what is important to your brand today and how you value your audience how you value your brand's behaviors to be relevant in 10 or 20 years times really think long term about your brand and about how you want your brand to behave long term before you define your values now an example of brand values that i love is zappos now zappos have built a reputation for outstanding customer service and you can see this within their brand values they have

taken the time to carefully consider their brand values and they have 10 brand values so this just goes to show that it's not about just having three short brand values if you know what you want to stand for if you know the reputation that you want to build then it's entirely up to you and your brand leadership team to decide what brand values you're going to have now this brand has instilled these values into the fabric of the brand and this starts from the very beginning when they are interviewing people to come on board at

zappos they make sure that the values of the person and the future employee aligns with the values of the brand so it is communicated through the front lines of the brand so this is a great example of brand values and how they're used correctly so who defines the brand values well the answer to this is the brand leadership team now this is often the brand owner and the founder of the business but it may just be the leadership team maybe senior management and the founder has since left the business or whoever it is but it

needs to be the person or the people driving the brand forward it needs to include senior management it can't be drawn up by the marketing team and then sent up to the top for sign off it really has to be driven from that leadership team now the brand strategist of course should facilitate this the brand strategy should draw out what is valuable to the brand leadership team and really facilitate the development of those brand values but ultimately it needs to stem from that leadership team so how do you define your brand core values well i'm

going to give you a five step process right now so you can do exactly that number one define what is important to you in the way you do business now although i said before that single word keywords are not acceptable really for brand values that is a great place to start so start by defining what is important to you in the way you do business by grabbing those single word keywords and using those which you can expand on later on now again going back to what i said before this really does need to stem from

the leadership team and the leadership team should be involved throughout number two define what you want your customers to say about your brand behind your back now jeff bezos once famously said your brand is what your customers say about you when you're not in the room so essentially what we're talking about here is the reputation that you want to build in the marketplace now i'm not talking here about your products and your services and the outcome that you deliver i'm talking more specifically about your behaviors how you want to behave in the marketplace and how

you want your customers to talk about your brand number three define the nature of your brand experience now this should really tie into the position that you want to own in the market but you need to define the experience that your audience is going to have with your brand what is it that you want them to feel what is it that you want them to walk away with what memory do you want them to have because this experience is part of the reputation that you're trying to build which is part of the position that you

want to own in the mind of your audience number four shortlist the most important words now you should at this stage have a collection of keywords that you've developed from the previous steps and what we're looking for here are instances of the same keywords so you will have keywords in there that are down there multiple times and this is what we're looking for these are the values that are coming up time and again so highlight and shortlist those important keywords and step number five expand into unique sentences so you should be left with a handful

of words here that represent the values of your brand that represent what's most important to your brand and the way it does business in the experience that it's going to offer your audience and this is what is the foundation of your brand values you need to expand each and every one of these words out into unique sentences so that they are memorable they can be adopted by the internal team and then used for guidance in decisions and actions so that the brand is communicated through the values that it stands for now brand values plays on

the idea that the brand that you're building is a human entity and i really subscribe to this philosophy because at the end of the day the people that we're trying to connect with are humans we're trying to connect a business and a brand with a human being and if we're able to go into the marketplace and display those human values those human traits that will then connect and resonate through familiarity with who our audience is and what they also believe in then either consciously or subconsciously they will be drawn towards your brand now brand values

are extremely important when it comes to resonating and influencing how your audience sees your brand but within the brand strategy there are nine other elements that are used to influence how your audience sees your brand if you want to learn what those nine other elements are well then this video will help you out until next time brian like a master and i'll see you in the next video