Brand Values

How many of you have clearly identified your brand values?

For example....my company has the following brand values.

Recruitment & Training Excellence
…at the next level…
Innovation
Excellence
Results

We make sure that everything we do is a reflection of these values, when we do that, our actions are in line with our brand values.

__________________
www.optimumautomotive.com

Another excellent thread, Snowman...

I just consulted with a company this week to define and refine their brand identity in their marketplace. Often, companies pick nebulous values because they sound good, but when you really examine these values, they are just words, with no real "meat" behind them.

For instance, many companies would say that one of their brand values is "excellent customer service", yet few companies really do anything different or amazing to differentiate themselves from their competitors in the realm of customer service excellence. If this is one of your brand values, then you'd better make sure that it shows up over and over again throughout your organization in many different ways. Other overstated brand identities are "innovation" (a grossly overused term because few companies are truly innovative) or "we offer high value".

Chipotle Mexican Grill is one company that has been very successful in part because they seem to have such clear brand values. One of these values, I believe, is "simplicity."

Chipotle restaurants have simple decor. They also have only FIVE menu items (plus chips, guacamole, and beverages). It's simple to order at Chipotle because it's such a SIMPLE menu. Customers get it. This methodology has worked for them. You can view Chipotle's menu at http://www.chipotle.com/assets/menu.pdf.

Most other Mexican restaurant in the U.S. have traditionally chosen to take the "more is more" approach to their menus.To compare, you can check out another Mexican restaurant in my neighborhood (with probably hundreds of menu items) at http://www.elloromexicanrestaurant.com/menus.nxg , but Chipotle chose to go against the Mexican restaurant tradition to differentiate themselves from their competitors, and it has worked.

To truly be a real brand value, it must meet the following criteria:

1. It must resonate with the market
2. It must be either TRUE or BELIEVED by the market, and
3. It must make you different from your competitors

If your brand values don't meet these three criteria, they're not really brand values, they're just words on a page in some computer file, or words in your mind.

So my advice is to get real and define your REAL brand values (but don't be surprised if you find that you really don't have any brand values yet, because a lot of companies haven't been "walking the talk" of their brand identities, and in the process have rendered their brand values invalid.)

Skip Anderson

__________________
Selling to Consumers
B2C Sales Training

that's some good knowledge. i'll have to think about my brand values.

Skip,

I fully agree with you that misguided companies often "pick" nebulous values for their brands because they sounded good. I have seen too many of that here in Malaysia because some executive read about the value of having brand values somewhere.

But, then again, the brand values concept is still very new in emerging markets. Most of these nebulous values are actually targets set by management, with action plans on how to get there.

Shah

Hi Snow man

An intersting topic and one most companies spend far to little time on.

I am working with a branding expert at the moment in our mastermind group. The key thing to remember is that branding is all about how "you" or your company make the client feel. We buy things for the feelings it gives us. Period. Think about it.

If you engender a specific feeling with a client you will move your business forward.

This also links with the different types of archetypes that people exhibit... you then link your brand to these people and attributes. So often companies attempt to be all things to all men and end up being nothing to nobody??!!

Best Wishes

SalesManagersCoach

Cool stuff… educative. Provided information is of worth reading, thanks for sharing.

that's a nice informative things to rethink about ur own brand values!

i have to think again for my brand values!

hey nice and cool stuff!

thanks for posting

I've found that all organizations of people - from sales organizations to organized religion (which I'm not saying bad things about) to martial arts associations (I'm an instructor...) - all feel that their culture is an important part of their message to the masses because it's so important to them.

If you've ever done network marketing, you'll hear things like "our company really believes that the representative/distributor should come first." All religions have "the true message." Every martial art is great for whatever reason it's curriculum was organized around it's philosophy. They all talk about the leadership's history and traditions, what they believe in, and how they're different from everyone else who may appear like them.

Which, in a sense, makes them no different from anyone else.

I'm not saying that understanding your organization's values is unimportant, but the most important part is how they're communicated internally and demonstrated externally.

Specifically that there should be a message to the members within the different levels of the organization to identify the big goals and the little goals along the way, facilitate the obtaining of those goals, and to give them a litmus test against the organization's values as to what's appropriate or inappropriate while reaching those goals.

That's all internal. The organizational culture.

Then there should be ANOTHER message (or OTHER messages) geared specifically toward who they want to serve as an organization. What's important to the client? The person needing guidance? The potential student?

That's external. The message-to-market match.

When the goal is to recruit people IN TO the organization - there's another message for that... and it's not the same message as you give to people who are already part of the culture. It's not the same as the message you give to the person the organization serves.

That's a whole different outbound.

The true significance of "brand values" then, on an external message is the litmus test. If "honesty" and "innovation" are principles you value, you need only be truthful in expressing the real benefit to the market that your creative solution provides.

I often tell my martial arts students this: integrity is not a "value" but a measure of how strictly one adheres to and acts according to their most highly valued principles. If you don't know what principles you value most highly you can't even begin to call yourself a person of integrity.

If your organization doesn't know what its values are you cannot begin to call your organization one of integrity - nor can you expect each department within it to be very tightly integrated.

Marc, your post is terrific and enlightening.

I don't entirely agree with the words I quoted above, but I do agree with the spirit that I believe was intended.

My take, based on what I've learned, is that an attempt to brand must be truthful (have integrity) or fail in that attempt.

Although honesty and integrity are priceless, a company could brand with those, and yet not value them necessarily as part of their culture.

__________________
www.acecoldiron.com

Thanks, Ace!

I certainly agree with both your points - all branding should be truthful and that superficial branding without regard to the realities of the culture definitely exist.

Perhaps I should have left out the word "only" in the lines you quoted me on... it really isn't all you need to do...

The internal message within an organization is as important by nature of its effect as Autosuggestion is on an individual. (For those who aren't familiar with Autosuggestion, read Napoleon Hill's works like the Law of Success or Think and Grow Rich).

And that's vitally important because ANY organization is ultimately an extension of it's key or founding leader(s). That before the organization can be integrated, it's leadership must have integrity to it's most highly valued principles and must be continually reminded of those valued principles. When the leader feels that he or she can no longer serve and remain true to those principles, it's time for a new leader.