In today’s crowded marketplace, it seems like new brands are popping up every day. As a consumer, it can be tough to decide which companies are worth supporting with your hard-earned money. More and more, people want to buy from brands that stand for something bigger than just making profits. They look for companies that have a clear sense of purpose that goes beyond their bottom line. Brands that lead with their core values and align their actions to a meaningful mission tend to connect better with customers and foster real loyalty.

So how can you make sure your brand is built on this solid foundation of authentic values and higher purpose? In this comprehensive guide, I’ll walk through best practices for identifying your core brand values, communicating them genuinely, and integrating your purpose across all brand touchpoints. My goal is to provide helpful tips so you can build an iconic brand that customers love and meaningfully relate to. Let’s dive in!

What Are Core Brand Values?

Before we get into how to determine your specific values, let’s make sure we have a shared understanding of what core brand values actually are.

At the most basic level, core values are the fundamental beliefs and guiding principles that inform every aspect of your business. They articulate what your brand cares about and prioritizes above all else. Your values help shape your brand’s personality and set you apart from competitors.

Some examples of potential core brand values include:

• Integrity
• Innovation
• Sustainability
• Community
• Quality
• Transparency
• Inclusivity

Your values reflect what makes your brand unique. They guide decision-making across your company, serving as a “moral compass” to point you in the right direction. Your values are your north star when it comes to things like messaging, partnerships, policies, and more.

Identifying Your Brand’s Core Values

So how do you uncover the most authentic core values for your brand? Here are some tips:

Look inward – Reflect on what originally inspired you to start your business. What principles or beliefs were most important to you personally in those early days? Revisiting your founding story can help uncover inherent values.

Talk to your team – Your employees often have insights into what makes your workplace culture and brand special. Survey staff at all levels to see what words they use to describe your brand personality and principles. 

Study your history – Look back on pivotal moments that shaped your brand journey. What actions were you most proud of? What core beliefs guided key decisions and strategies? This can help reveal living values.

Observe competitors – Analyze brands you admire and those you wish to avoid emulating. What values do their messaging and actions reflect? How could you distinguish your values? 

Gather customer feedback – Talk to long-time customers about why they connect with your brand. Look for themes around values that consistently attract your audience.

Emphasize the non-negotiable – Uncover the core principles that are absolutely essential to staying true to your brand. What would you never compromise, no matter the outside pressures?

Reflecting thoroughly on these perspectives should help you determine which values are fundamental to your brand DNA versus those that are secondary. Define around 5-7 core brand values that will inform all of your messaging and experiences going forward.

Communicating Your Core Values

Once you’ve identified your authentic core brand values, the next step is effectively communicating them. You want customers to quickly glean what you stand for. Here are some tips:

Prominently display them – Feature your values prominently on your website’s About page. Integrate them into brochures, signage, packaging, and other channels where new customers first engage your brand.

Share value-driven stories – Highlight stories of how you’ve lived your values through actions and policies. Help customers connect the values abstractly defined to real-world applications.

Showcase employee testimony – Have team members share first-hand why your brand’s values resonate and how they influence daily work. This brings values to life in an authentic way. 

Reinforce consistently – Reference your core values consistently across marketing campaigns, social media, email newsletters, and any brand messaging. Repetition is key.

Celebrate value champions – Publicly celebrate team members or partners who exceptionally modeled your values. This solidifies values as priorities.

Explain value violations – If you make a misstep, sincerely explain how you failed to uphold your proclaimed values in that instance and your plans to rectify going forward.

Integrating your values across platforms and continuously reinforcing them through words and actions ensures customers quickly grasp what you stand for as a brand.

Living Your Core Values Authentically 

The strongest brands move beyond just stating their core values, but actually living them out in tangible, visible ways. When your actions align with your stated values time after time, you build trust and credibility.

Here are some best practices for authentically living your values:

Lead by example – Executives and leaders should model upholding brand values in their own behaviors and decisions. Values can’t just be theoretical ideas but must be practiced beliefs.  

Empower all employees – Provide training to help employees at all levels understand your brand values and how to apply them in their unique roles. Recognize those who demonstrate the values.

Evaluate policies and practices – Audit your internal policies, procedures, office culture, and business partnerships through the lens of your values. Identify where they’re already aligned and where gaps exist.

Make values-based decisions – When weighing options on campaigns, products, hiring, vendors and more, evaluate how each aligns with and upholds your core brand values. Let values guide choices. 

Handle mistakes responsibly – When your brand misses the mark on living up to a core value, own up to the mistake sincerely and transparently. Outline how you will improve going forward. 

Evolve appropriately – While core values shouldn’t change radically, evaluate periodically if they need adapting to fit your brand’s growth. Stay true to your heritage while accommodating maturation.

When you thoroughly integrate your values into daily operations – not just marketing materials – you demonstrate authenticity. Customers will reward brands whose actions reflect their words.

Connecting Your Purpose to Your Core Values

Beyond identifying core values, today’s iconic brands also connect to a higher purpose. Your brand purpose articulates the meaningful impact you aim to make and how you will improve people’s lives.

When developing your brand purpose, begin by looking at societal needs or challenges that align with your core competencies. Then consider how your products or services could provide solutions. Finally, craft an inspiring statement that explains the positive change you will drive. 

Your purpose should be tied directly back to your core brand values. Ask yourself:

• How does my purpose reflect my deepest values?
• Would this purpose resonate with my employees and community? 
• Does it capture what makes my brand unique?

Connecting your purpose and values also guides decision making. When debating brand choices, you can evaluate if each option ladders up to fulfilling your values-driven purpose. This ensures continuity across all brand messaging and experiences.

Aligning Your Messaging and Actions to Your Purpose 

With your purpose defined, the next step is aligning your messaging and actions consistently to bring it to life. 

Here are some tips:

Lead with purpose – Feature your brand purpose prominently in messaging. Weave it into your About Us, website copy, product descriptions, mission statement and more.

Share impact stories – Collect and highlight stories of how customers benefited from your brand purpose coming to fruition. Quantify your progress.

Show behind the scenes – Create transparency by bringing customers along on your purpose-driven journey. Share challenges you face and wins through social media. 

Spotlight value partners – Promote partners, suppliers, grantees and other collaborators integral to achieving your purpose. Demonstrate the ecosystem required.

Encourage customer participation – Provide ways for customers to support purpose-driven initiatives through donations, content sharing, events and other activations.

Report progress – Share annual reports or impact reports that quantify how you’ve lived your purpose through metrics like volunteer hours, environmental savings, dollars donated, etc.

Address criticisms – If customers critique how well you are achieving your stated purpose, respond transparently rather than defensively. Provide plans for improvement.

Aligning your actions, messaging and experiences to your brand purpose builds trust and helps customers feel emotionally invested in your mission.

Integrating Your Purpose Across Touchpoints

Today’s leading brands don’t silo their brand purpose to one-off CSR initiatives or a single marketing campaign. Instead, they integrate it holistically across every consumer touchpoint.

Here are some examples of how to bring purpose to life throughout the customer journey:

Product design – Create products/services that directly deliver on purpose-driven benefits like sustainability, inclusivity, health-promotion and more.

Retail spaces – Use signage and displays in physical spaces to reinforce your purpose. Train staff to engage customers in it.

Website – Articulate your purpose upfront on your homepage and About Us page. Share related impact stories.

Mobile apps – Integrate reminders of your purpose-driven efforts within app content and prompts. Gamify involvement.

Packaging – Include reminders of how purchasing that item contributes to your purpose, such as charitable partnerships.

Loyalty programs – Incorporate opportunities to redeem points for social impact. Reward purpose-promoting actions.

Advertising – Ensure your campaign creative ladders up to communicating your purpose and values.

Email marketing – Add quick purpose refresher in email headers or footers. Feature related impact stats.

Social content – Dedicate regular social media posts to purpose-related stories vs only product promotion.

Influencer marketing – Align with brand partners who can authentically speak to shared purpose and values. 

When customers see your purpose consistently across channels, it becomes ingrained. Integrating it holistically makes it seem intrinsic to the very fabric of your brand rather than a one-off program.

Conclusion

Today’s consumers are drawn to – and remain loyal to – brands that offer more than just quality products or services. They seek out brands whose core values and higher purpose align with their own. 

By taking the time to authentically identify and communicate your core brand values, you can start establishing meaningful connections with your audience. And by further linking those values to a brand purpose that drives real impact, you foster deeper emotional bonds.

Remaining diligent about consistently and creatively reinforcing your values and purpose across all consumer touchpoints is crucial. When your actions and messaging align, you demonstrate an authentic commitment beyond profits.

Brand building takes ongoing work. But brands that successfully integrate their values and purpose into all operations will reap rewards in the form of lasting customer affinity and advocacy. In a crowded market, your values and purpose provide “sticky” differentiators that set you apart. By investing in this foundational brand building, you lay the groundwork for becoming an iconic brand that consumers trust and believe in for the long-term.