Is it just me, or are all brand values the same?
We recently took a 10-hour road trip to the Scottish Highlands for my brother’s wedding. When we hit traffic, Dom and I entertained ourselves by critiquing the logos on logistics trucks (we’re fun at parties).
Anyway, in an utter waste of ad space, one food lorry had its company brand values printed on the side, and it hit me that they were a variation of the same blah values that virtually every brand has:
- Excellence / Quality
- Respect / Inclusivity / Diversity
- Teamwork / Collaboration
- Sustainable / Responsible
- Trust / Honesty / Integrity
It’s hard to find brands that don’t have at least four of these values, even if they’re dressed up in fancy language. The fifth value is probably something like ‘innovation’ or ‘leadership’.
You get the odd wildcard, but it’s often industry-related and, again, totally expected, e.g. ‘creativity’ in creative industries.
So what’s up with this?
These values are not bad or wrong, but they’re just basic behaviours you’d hope to find in any decent workplace.
They don’t speak to what makes that brand or its culture unique. There’s no grit, no soul, and not even a point of view. I guess that’s capitalism for you!
But I think we can do better than that, don’t you?
Here’s a better brand values exercise
I haven’t done a brand values workshop for years, but here’s my old go-to exercise:
Grab my free brand values workshop worksheet
This choice of values is more emotive because it’s based on a study of personal values.
Some might argue that’s a different thing entirely, but in founder-led businesses, the personal and professional are always intertwined.
(As an aside, founder or family-led corporates often have the most interesting brand values too).
These days, instead of values, I prefer to dig into personal points of view to get more granular on ethos and culture.
Here are a few go-to prompts to help you think about yours:
- What’s the elephant in the room or ‘emperor's new clothes’ nobody talks about in your industry?
- Where is too much money and time being wasted?
- What are the main myths about what you do?
- What excites you and makes you feel proud about your industry and work?
- If someone were to go to your competitor, what would they need to ask, and what answers should they expect?
- Your work matters more today because…
- At its heart, your work is about…
Questions like this can help reflect what you care about and how you want to show up beyond just being good people trying to do good work.
Because, of course, you’re that, but you’re so much more than that.
