How to define your core brand values (and why you should)

Your core brand values are the compass that points to the true North of your business success. Which means they’re pretty darn important.

But what are brand values, and what do you do with them once you have them? Let’s start from the very beginning by taking up the relationship between a brand and its values.

Values stand at the very core of your brand. They’re the center from which everything radiates—including your brand’s look (design), message (voice), and relationships (customer service).

And unless you’ve been living under a rock with no wi-fi connection (which is pretty hard to find these days), I’m sure you already know that you need to create a brand around your business.

If you’ve got no idea how to start thinking of your business as a brand or how having a brand can help it grow, you can find out all about it in our article covering what branding is (hint: it involves unicorns!)

If you’ve already got the basics of branding covered, then you may already know that branding can be quite an involved process. Contrary to what many small business owners tend to think, branding goes way deeper than a simple logo.

On the whole, a brand consists of two main “external” aspects:

But for a brand to be complete and substantial, there’s an important third “internal” aspect that every business owner needs to address before even thinking about the logo or a tagline: the brand values.

Your brand values will help you capture the three Ps of a brand:

Without values to guide you, your brand will seem like just any other, instead of being distinct and recognizable. As a result, your growth and sales will suffer.

Interesting question. Does the value of your brand have anything to do with your brand values?

Don’t be too quick to say no… and don’t be too quick to say yes, either! Let’s break things down first with some brand values examples.

When we say brand value, we usually think about a monetary sum. How much is your brand worth? For example, a pair of no-name jeans could be worth $19, while a Levi’s branded pair of jeans could be worth $119. Clearly, there’s a difference in value based on the brand.

Seth Godin gave a nice, timeless definition when he wrote:

When Levi’s shared a sneak peek of their upcoming collaboration with Beyoncé on her Cowboy Carter era, it raised a lot of expectations… and money. Within 48 hours of its launch, the ad campaign generated $5 million in media exposure.

As you can tell, now we’re getting into deeper ground. A brand’s value is not simply how much extra people will pay ($100 more for a pair of Levi’s jeans over an unbranded pair), but also how often they choose that brand and for which reasons.

Example: A branded pair of jeans may cost $119. But if people choose them only once for a matter of prestige but never buy again, then the brand doesn’t have much value. Most businesses can’t survive on one-time customers.

But if, let’s say, another brand of jeans costs $79, but the people who buy once choose to buy again and again, then this second brand has a far greater value than the first one. Repeat customers are the lifeline of every business.

And repeat business is tightly tied to values. According to the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brands and Politics, 84% of consumers say:

You don’t wear VEJA over Nike (or vice versa) because they’re more comfortable. You wear them because you’re into the “sustainable design” brand or the “performance/legacy” brands, depending on which value you consider most important.

For your brand to be valuable, you don’t have to have the most expensive products or services in your industry. Your value gets multiplied every time a customer:

And that choice is tightly connected to your values.

So if you want to create deep and meaningful relationships with your customers that last for years, you need to clearly define your brand values. It’s key for your audience to have something to connect to. Something to stay loyal to.

OK, time for the practical stuff. How do you translate these brand values examples into an actual list of brand values for your company (that can also influence your brand promise)? Let’s go through three steps you can take right now to get some clarity on how you want customers to know and remember your brand.

Probably the most obvious way to start thinking about your core brand values is by considering what’s important to you and making a list. Be careful, though: a lot of things sound “nice” or “noble” when we think of them in theory.

Choosing standard values like “timely,” “reliable,” or “trusted” won’t help you stand out from the crowd in any significant way. There’s no real feeling or emotion behind these words other than that they sound nice.

But “nice” won’t get you chosen. As a wise man once said, nice brands finish last. Or something like that.

So, how can you dig deeper with your values in a way that goes beyond “nice”? Forget about idealized perfections. We’re talking about discovering the real, raw feelings that connect you (and your brand) to the world.

The best way to do this is to start with the things you don’t like. We often experience negative emotions more intensely than positive ones, and may articulate far better why we’re not aligned with something.

Think about a brand experience you had that you hated. Maybe the customer service was terrible. Maybe the project wasn’t done on time. Maybe the result was sloppy. Or maybe the company was painfully average, and left you feeling like you just shook hands with a cold, heartless robot.

Download this free worksheet. It’ll help you create your brand values list​—think of it as the first draft.

Start by filling in your negative experience in the first column of exercise one.

In the second column, write the negative emotions or values that the specific experience evoked. What are the things, in other words, you like to avoid doing yourself?

In the third column, write the opposite value that you’d like your brand to project instead, as a way of connecting to your audience.

For example, let’s say that you stay in a glitzy glam hotel on a weekend getaway. Although the hotel is nice and the service is good and timely, you didn’t like the treatment from the staff. So you write in column one, “snobby glitzy hotel stay.”

The reason you disliked the experience was that it left you feeling empty and disconnected. You didn’t like how the place looked like every other hotel you’ve ever been to. Plus, you felt like no one there was really interested in you, but only in your money. And you write these negative emotions in the second column of your exercise.

So what are the opposite and positive values you’d like to project instead? It could be “homey,” feeling like you’ve visited a friend’s house and not a faceless resort. Or “friendly,” by being made to feel like a valued guest, not simply a paying customer. Or even “unique” because you value experiences that stand out from the ordinary ones.

And this example isn’t entirely imaginary. It could be how Airbnb came up with its brand concept and values of offering unique places to stay with local hosts around the world.

Make your brand values list here, starting with the negative brand experiences you’d hate to be associated with. Then, turn those into specific positive values you want to cultivate in your brand. There’s room for five on your worksheet, but feel free to experiment around with as many as you want.

Once you finish the list of brand values, pick three that mean the most to you and that you’d like to focus on.

If your customers were asked to describe your brand in just 2-3 sentences, what would they say about you? What would you want them to say about you?

As business owners, we often give explanations of what we stand for and what we believe in. But no one will be able to remember or repeat that about our business.

When promoting your business in any way (through your website, customer service, social media content, ads), make sure to clearly promote the 2-3 values that you want customers to know about you.

Think about Apple. What are the words that come to your mind?

And it’s not by accident that we think these things. During a 1997 presentation to his employees at Apple, Steve Jobs gave the following advice:

Even if you’ve never read this quote before, every Apple user knows that they’re all about the storytelling. It’s their power tool, and it is through storytelling that they instill the perception they want the world to have of them. It’s a brilliant move to set the values of a brand.

In the same presentation, Jobs added:

That’s what Apple believes in, and they make sure to promote these core brand values through every aspect of their business. Yes, we all recognize the Apple logo, but we also effortlessly understand what its brand is all about.

Another great example from a business that started small and online is Marie Forleo. In her “About” section, Marie writes the following about her core brand values and purpose:

And that’s all great for the About page, where a brand gets to elaborate on who it is and what it believes in. But that’s not something her audience will remember verbatim or be able to say about the brand.

So what about something shorter? Marie has boiled her business brand values down to this powerful sentence on her homepage: “Create a business and life you love.”

And that’s the essence of her brand: encouraging others to reach for their dreams.

(Which, going back to our first exercise, could have been born out of negative experiences with a lack of support system that helped people discover what they really love to do.)

Start by elaborating your thoughts in the second exercise of your worksheet on what the 2-3 values you’ve selected really mean to you and why. (Aim for something like Marie’s longer message on her About page, but packed with your values.)

Then, try to condense everything into one concise and powerful phrase that captures the essence of your brand. What do you stand for?

The most important thing after defining your list of brand values is staying consistent with them. Everything about your brand, from the colors you use and the logo you choose to the language you speak, has to represent those core values.

A logo isn’t a brand. Neither is a slogan, a color, or an ad. But it’s important that your values consistently speak through these elements—and setting clear brand guidelines can help you ensure this consistency.

Emonee LaRussa built a successful personal brand and used it to make her art known worldwide. She’s a two-time Emmy-winning motion graphics artist with a big, successful presence on social media (she probably read our social media tips).

Emonee’s creativity and fun personality shine through the vibrant color palette she uses in her content. Just by looking at her social media, you can tell that she’s not afraid to take risks and experiment with new tools and methods to bring her art to life.

There’s a very important note to make about consistency: it doesn’t mean you have to be the same across all channels or throughout the years. It means that the image you project must be consistent with your core brand values.

In fact, if you scroll back enough into Emonee’s Instagram profile, you can see how her content has evolved through the years to what it is today. The look may have changed, but her brand always remained consistent with her creative, cutting-edge essence.

Are you staying consistent in the messages your brand puts out?

Once you clearly define your core brand values, it will be much easier to do so and much easier to promote your brand across various channels.

What does your brand stand for in the world? Do the exercises on the worksheet to define your brand values list. You’ll see how your business path becomes so much clearer after that.

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