Develop Your Brand’s Core Values
What we believe and how we behave. Values are a brand’s standards of conduct even (and especially) when things get difficult.
How To Define Your Core Values
Your Brand’s “Right Now”
We label Core Values as “Right Now” because these are the principles that guide everyday decisions as they happen in the moment.
Core Values are independent of specific business activities. It’s a way to define the fabric of your brand’s culture and how it operates. It’s a tool that instills a sense of consistency and builds trust for your team and with your customers.
It should be obvious how decisions align with your values. If a decision isn’t aligned, it provides a mechanism to recognize the issue and remedy it.
Questions:
What behaviors are important and non-negotiable regardless of what you’re doing?
How will you conduct yourself as you work to bring your vision to life?
How would you describe you and your team when you’re performing at your best?
Exercises:
Choose between 1-3 Core Values in each of the core values tables below. You can also write your own into the blank spaces. You should aim for 5-8 core values in total.
There are only so many values-related words, so many Values lists look similar. To make your core values more meaningful, clarify what each one means to you below:
Core Values Examples
- Focus on the user and all else will follow.
- It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
- Fast is better than slow.
- Democracy on the web works.
- You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
- You can make money without doing evil.
- There’s always more information out there.
- The need for information crosses borders.
- You can be serious without a suit.
- Great just isn’t good enough.
Zappos
- Deliver WOW through service
- Embrace and drive change
- Create fun and a little weirdness
- Be adventurous, creative and open-minded
- Pursue growth and learning
- Build open and honest relationships with communication
- Build a positive team and family spirit
- Do more with less
- Be passionate and determined
- Be humble
Whole Foods
- Selling the highest quality natural and organic products available
- Satisfying and delighting our customers
- Supporting team member excellence through profits and growth
- Caring about our communities and our environment
- Creating ongoing win-win partnerships with our suppliers
- Promoting the health of our stakeholders through healthy eating education
Map & Fire’s Core Values
- Evidence Over Ego: When it comes to decisions and recommendations, we use research, data, and an outside perspective to provide an objective point of view.
- Excellence Through Empowerment: Our goal isn’t just to deliver great work but to share how things work. We want to provide resources, tools, and knowledge to encourage success beyond our engagements.
- Fast And Focused: To maximize efficiency, we keep our processes and methods lean so that we can put strategies into practice and learn from them as soon as possible.
- Collaborators At Heart: Our best work and best relationships have always come from openly sharing ideas and working on challenges together. Swooping in and dropping off a solution (even a good one) rarely works.
- Naturally Curious: We’re always excited to learn as much as we can about new businesses and teams to help them find untapped opportunities.
- Make It Fun: If you can laugh together, you can relax together. When you’re relaxed you’re more likely to share ideas and do your best work.
Note: The key theme of empowerment that starts in our purpose continues all the way through to our values. In addition, collaboration, efficiency, process, curiosity, and fun are all central to what we believe in to deliver great work.
Get Help Developing The Big Picture Strategy Of Your Brand
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