I know you have heard the term brand values roughly 30 million times whilst you have been searching the internet and learning more about branding for your business, so I am here to break it down into a 3 minute, easily digestible snippet for you.
What are brand values?
They are the core of your brand, they are the single most important component of your brand strategy, they are the element that every business decision should be based upon.
From your brand visuals, your personality to your marketing efforts and the relationships that you create through customer service, they are all based on your businesses core values.
Tips.
Brand values should;
Be clear and honest.
Set you apart from your competitors, I see you browsing your competitions website. Looking at what their brand values are to see what yours should be! NO! Stop! The only way to stand out is to be different and values that resonate with you may not resonate with others, which brings me on to my third point.
Attract your ideal client, it is important to work with people who hold the same values as us. Otherwise, business becomes an uphill struggle.
How do I know what my brand values are?
Working out what you brand values should be is not as tricky as you might think.
My biggest tip:
Write down 10 values that you personally live by each day, if you can not think of 10 that you personally live by...
Have a think about those closest to you and what you admire about them.
What values do they hold that you resonate with strongly?
Now that you have a list of 10 strong values, narrow these down to a list of only 6 and make sure that they are values that you feel that you carry through to your business and will not be a struggle to stick to when it comes to doing business.
NOW, you can go and do your research, find out what your competitors values are and how you are different, go and have a look at your audience and the values that they hold too. It is important to sit with the values that you have come with and ask yourself;
Are they clear and honest?
Do they set you apart from the competition?
Are they in line with what your ideal client is looking for in a business?
Some businesses half halfheartedly throw together a couple of values and tick it off their branding to do list but this does not serve them well in the long run. The values that have been chosen do not go hand in hand with a wildly successful, growing business. Instead they become harder and harder to live by and so the over arching brand crumbles as there is no foundation, nor consistency in the brands personality, the service, visuals or the story telling.
ps.
One more tip, when you are writing your values make sure that they resonate with your overarching brand personality. By this I mean, if you are a fun and quirky brand that loves to crack a joke. Let's make your values reflect that in their write up. Let's come up with fun names for "integrity" and "customer service". It will set you MILES apart!
If you would like some help with coming up with your brand values... book in a strategy call with me and lets build your brand foundations together!
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