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