Brand Values
Mark Gallagher and Laura Savard
The days of advertising-led brands are dead. A shift from monologue to dialogue has occurred. No longer can a company say one thing and do another. People want brands they can trust. Violate that trust and they won’t just flee, they’ll rebel.
People’s buying decisions are largely driven by brands which embody values that reflect their own. In other words, consumers aren’t buying the products that they like. They’re seeking out the brands that are like them. They’re choosing brands whose meaning reflects their own sense of identity, making a statement about who they are, and what they stand for. By choosing one brand over another, consumers are creating their own personal narrative, “This is who I am.” It is, in essence, a shared reality between company and consumer.
Beliefs and values combine to drive actions, both inside and outside the organization.
Different brands tell different stories. Consumers connect with brands that align with their beliefs, values, and sense of self. By combining these stories consumers form a mosaic, which expresses what they believe in. Whether they know it or not, consumers shop not only for goods and services, but for the meaning behind those purchases.
Given how fast competitors can copy one another, brand value is moving from features and benefits to an expression of the companies beliefs and values, giving context and added relevance to the offering. It’s about creating a personal connection between consumer and consumed. Therefore, employees must live the values of the brand in order to deliver an authentic brand experience. Over time beliefs and values decentralize decision making, by becoming the company’s culture. This ethos provides employees with an understanding of how it should act. Beliefs lived inside the company drive consumer experience outside the company. Consumers are attracted to the meaning embedded in those actions because it is relevant to their own identity.
On the flip side of the equation, employees are more effective when they’re emotionally invested in the brand’s greater purpose. Organizations that provide employees with greater emotional engagement, attract and retain not only better talent but people who understand and live the brand. It is these employees who cultivate ideas and deliver the brand to the public, not an ad campaign or PR push. It’s the people within the organization.
What does your brand stand for? Are those values helping people stand for something that matters to them or is your brand simply a facade?
“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.”
– Edward R. Murrow
For me, this is an oddly prescient post as I enjoyed an engaged lunch conversation earlier today with a client and partner on values-based brands, and what that means to the different audiences that interact with them (customers, employees etc.).
I am impressed with how many B2B brands I am encountering that totally get this reality, and that seem to be fearlessly moving into new territory and new relationships with their customers and stakeholders. Something has changed, and the traditional/legacy firewalls to this kind of genuine interaction with people, with customers, seems to me to be falling away. At least for those brands fortunate enough to leave the past behind.
Great post.
Our hyperconnected world has torn the skin and veneer off of brands, and exposed the guts of companies. Values need to move from posters and powerpoints into practice. My daughter walks around with a cell phone camera and texts like a fiend. Nothing escapes her and her pack of connectors. One slip, one miss and her pack knows about it, and they share it with a network that can reach most teens in Canada within minutes. Values need to be chanted like mantras, and lived like religion…
Excellent post by Mark and Laura. This is best summarized by one of our clients who came to realize "our customers are our boss." But they've accepted this CAUSATIVELY, not as some other-determined "life sentence." Approached in that way, one comes out one top and winning. Thanks!
Great post guys. In my experience, it's one thing to define the brand, it's another thing entirely to have an organization commit to genuinely transforming their culture – which is really where the rubber hits the road for many brands.
The future of brands will also be kind to products that have their brand differentiation 'baked-in'. These are the brands who's image and voice project with greatest authenticity as they're more than just strategic constructs.
Nice post.. Just recently I watched a TED talk by Simon Sinek, making the point that people do not buy what you do, they buy why you do it. I particularly take notice of brands where It’s obvious that they truly believe in what they do and know why they are doing it. These brands are the ones that one can connect with because the GIVE you something to connect with. I can’t connect to a benefit, but I can certainly connect to a belief.
Seth,
Would you post a link to the Simon Sinek TED talk you referenced? I'm sure others would be interested.
Thanks for sharing!
Laura Savard
Brand Expressionist®
Yes, AND, I'd just add that it seems you have a holistic view of branding. If an organization is holistically aligned, innovation will also emerge from the employee culture and customer connection. It's the reason Apple doesn't need to do traditional market research. In a sense, they ARE the market and therefore understand what the market needs. Thanks for your insightful post.
Great post! I'd modify Morrow's quote, “To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible our actions must demonstrate our beliefs.”
Today, what companies do is much more important than what they say they do!
Thank you everyone for sharing your insights. I love it when the comments begin to eclipse the original post!
Mark Gallagher
Brand Expressionist®
hi blackcoffee! i like this post a lot but i think it's not so much that brand value is "moving from features and benefits to an expression of the companies beliefs and values" but that it is expanding to include them — at the end of the day, people love apple for their products and what they represent, right?
p.s. i like tom asacker's modification of morrow's quote!
Denise,
We never meant to imply that the two were mutually exclusive. Brands must deliver on their promise of quality. However, all things being equal, the brand that captures consumers' sense of self, will beat out competing brands which do not.
Then again, consumers boycott superior offerings for moral, ethical and "I just don't like what your doing" reasons all the time.
Mark Gallagher
Brand Expressionist®
Terrific post guys. I have a new book coming out in the fall that is entitled Spend Shift. And I look at how values-led consumerism is inspiring values-led innovation. I have data from two years of research to suggest we're entering an age where public companies actually learn how public they really are. This is a time when character, convictions and accountability become integral to a company culture and business model. And that virtue begins to trump hype. I also think that brands are never more important than now. But brands are moving from external badging to internal reflections of our own character, which then become an expression we're proud to share. It's a slight twist, but a huge one. That's why Recyclebank, Sun Run, Nau and others are the Nikes of tomorrow. John
John,
The brands of tomorrow will be those which adapt to reflect consumer values. Those who continue to "push their message" as opposed to "live their message" will soon find themselves harvesting their brands.
Also, if you're looking for someone to read an advance copy of your new book?
Mark Gallagher
Brand Expressionist®
Hi, Blackcoffee, my first (but not last) visit here, courtesy of having written a post which my Scribe SEO subscription paired with yours; I say fortunate find for me.
I like where you were going by discussing a connection between consumer and consumed. I think even with all but the most commoditized of products, we seek to associate with brands (and by extension, products) with which we can relate–even if it’s our aspirational self. We want to see a reflection of who we think we are, or who we should be, which is why I believe we often “buy up” when investing in considered purchase products. It’s not the right fit for who we are right now, in sloppy jeans and old sneakers–it’s about the successful, accomplished and polished (even respected) person we know we can be, if only…