What brand values are right for your business?
Considering a wide range of brand values can help you to determine just how to break down your business brand value into themes that you can incorporate into every aspect of your business. A list of values is a great way to brainstorm what is essential to your brand mission.
What brand values are right for your business?
Core brand values are at the center of your brand. They are incorporated into the look of your brand, your marketing campaigns, and the relationships that you forge through customer service.
Structure
Product Sales
Furthermore, loyal customers will keep buying from you again and again. By having strong brand values and encouraging customer retention, you can make sure that you will continue to get their sales for years to come.
How do you write brand values?
Great brand values should:
- Be clear and sincere. You should care about the values that your business invests in and be clear about what those values are and where they apply.
- Build connections. Ideally, your primary customers will share your values and connect with your brand over them.
- Set you apart. Your values should be distinct and help your business to stand out from the crowd.
Distinguish values from goals
Do your research
Competition
Target Audience
Brand Story
Authentic branding wins customers
- If a project wasn't finished on time, perhaps the opposite situation is preparedness, so things don't fall through the cracks.
- If your employee had a bad interaction with a customer, maybe putting the customer first no matter what is a value worth incorporating into your business.
A strong brand can be the difference between an abandoned cart, and a conversion.
What do you stand for?
Ruling out options
Examples of brand values
BigCommerce

- Customers First. Make every decision based on serving customers.
- Team on a mission. Work together with ambition and humility.
- Think big. Never settle; challenge what's possible.
- Act with integrity. Honest, transparent, and no tolerance for hidden agendas or politics.
- Make a difference every day. Inspired to make an impact.
Cars.com

- Be bold. Take action and go.
- Build relationships/deliver results. Relationships deliver results, and we make a difference by working together.
- Challenge and collaborate. Have hard conversations, and don't assume anything.
- Focus on the outcome. Embrace learning curves to accomplish the goal.
- Start with the consumer. Always put yourself in the consumer's shoes.
- Stay open. Differences strengthen the team, and combining experiences and expertise makes for better problem solvers.
Wayfair

- We hire the best people. We stack the most talented and solution-oriented people against the best opportunities
- We give you the runway. We are all managers with ownership to innovate, build, and fix
- We innovate together. We build collaborative relationships
- We hold the bar high. We’re ambitious and back decisions with data
Adidas

- Performance. Sport is the foundation for what we do.
- Passion. We are always moving forward.
- Integrity. People trust us because we are honest and ethical.
- Diversity. It takes people with different backgrounds to make our company succeed.
Coca-Cola

- Leadership. Courage to shape a better future.
- Collaboration. Leverage collective genius.
- Integrity. Be real.
- Accountability: If it is to be, it’s up to me
- Passion: Committed in heart and mind
- Diversity: As inclusive as our brands
- Quality: What we do, we do well
MeUndies

- Stay balanced.
- Go further.
- Build relationships.
- Champion differences.
- Be humble.
Beeswax

- Be curious.
- Be open.
- Be customer-driven
- Be effective.
How do you integrate brand values?
Once you have determined what core values matter to you, the next step is figuring out how to integrate those values into your business. You want to make sure that your brand values are consistent throughout your marketing and branding.
Make sure that your core values are integrated with your customer engagement strategy.
Nobody likes a hypocrite, including the market. Whether consumers notice that your business does not behave along core values or not, you will certainly miss the opportunity to establish brand loyalty in consumers, which isn't a good brand strategy.
Your values should drive every choice that your company makes. Whenever you are debating an option, ask yourself and the other decision-makers in your company how well a given decision aligns with your values as a company.
Cause marketing
Cause marketing is a great way to make sure that your brand values are thorough and consistent and make sure that a positive image gets out into the world.
Utilize a cause throughout marketing. A great brand strategy for extending the impact of your core values is to combine brand values with a good cause. This can be accomplished easily by collecting and/or matching donations for your cause on your site, encouraging customers to think about your values while they peruse your site.
Customers will build trust in your brand every time they check out, without you having to do anything except for utilizing cause-integration for your eCommerce platform.
American Express is a great example of utilizing cause marketing to further brand image through values. They have contributed to charity to the tune of nearly a billion dollars since they began charitable giving in 1954. Their goals in charitable giving help to reinforce their values. Here are the summarized goals in charity:
- Developing leaders. They strive to develop leaders to address society's complex problems.
- Preserving places. They want to be good stewards of their community, especially historic places.
- Serving communities. They engage community members and staff to impact society.
Here are American Express' core values, summarised:
- Customer commitment. Develop positive relationships.
- Quality. Provide premium value.
- Integrity. Hold high standards of integrity.
- Teamwork. Cross boundaries to work together.
- Respect for people. Encourage development and reward performance.
- Good citizenship. Be good citizens in our communities.
- A will to win. Aim to win in the marketplace and in business.
- Personal accountability. Deliver on commitments.
American Express' business goals are reinforced by their charitable goals, helping to reinforce their brand image. A commitment to customers and respect for other people are supported by charitable causes of developing leaders and serving communities. Good citizenship and integrity are supported by preserving places.
Reinforce core values
Your values should affect your company culture from the bottom to the top. They should be a part of everything that your company does. Your employees should not only know but use and cite your values throughout their work.
Values should be an explanation for behavior and a reason beyond a possible choice. If a value proposition doesn't have this kind of universal functionality, it may not be the best choice for your company.
Use your brand values in hiring decisions
You want everyone on your team to share in your values. Therefore, values should be an integral part of the hiring decision. Don't just ask if a potential employee cares about your values. Remember, they may have researched your brand and values before coming to the interview.
Instead, ask questions that draw out their response to your values. For instance, if passion is a value that your brand stands for, ask the potential employee whether they are the kind of person who likes to "take their work home" with them. If leadership is important to you, ask an employee whether they would choose to act in a particular situation.
Build better brand values with Shopping Gives
ShoppingGives can help you to develop and integrate brand values that will provide a reliable structure for your company and shape a strong brand image. To discover how cause marketing can help your brand build stronger brand values to create more engaging customer experiences, schedule a quick chat with our team of experts.