Elizabeth Breslin, Author at RichardsDee

What values are and why they’re important:

Do your employees know your company values and what they mean? Would they be able to recall them or easily recount stories which demonstrate them in action? If not, they may not be truly understood or lived within the organisation.

Values are the moral code which guides an organisation. They are a set of principles that reflect the ethics of the people in the organisation so that everyone can be held accountable to a consistent standard of behaviour (Coleman, 2022). They are more often than not thought of as how a company should operate at its natural best, rather than being purely inspirational (Sinek, Start With Why).

While most organisations have values, there often is a disconnection between these values are lived in organisations. A study from the workplace consultancy firm Gallup (2018) states that just 27% of employees strongly agree that they believe in their company’s values, and only 23% of employees strongly agree they can apply their organisation’s values to their work every day. What this tells us is that a brand’s values need to be relevant. Values should be simple, and while they don’t need to be completely original they should be distinct, meaningful, and memorable.

Strong values matter because they’re the bedrock of an organisation’s culture. A values-driven culture can fuel organisational growth and attract talent. Talented people want to work for organisations that have strong cultures, and employees who belong to fulfilling workplaces are more likely to serve as brand ambassadors to deliver compelling customer experiences.

How brands are expressing their values

Values have been typically thought of as one-worded nouns – think, honesty, integrity, innovation. Many of the world’s leading companies subscribe to this view, with one study finding that 55% of all Fortune 100 companies claim integrity is a core value, 49% espouse customer satisfaction, and 40% tout teamwork. Yet, while these inarguably are good qualities to have within any organisation, they do not provide a distinct blueprint for employee behaviour. In recent years, what we’ve seen is a move away from one-worded brand values into more action-orientated statements with more of a behavioural focus, making it easier for employees to connect and engage. As Simon Sinek laments, “The value isn’t ‘honesty’, the value is ‘tell the truth’, but if you have to write ‘honesty’ on your wall to remind you to do it, then you probably have bigger problems anyway”, or likewise, the value isn’t innovation. You can’t execute on innovation, it’s not an instruction. But you can tell people to ‘look at the problem from a different angle’.

Bringing your values to life

Values are there to be lived. There are numerous ways in which values can be brought to life and embedded into organisational cultures. One way to activate this is planning, hearing, believing and living it.

Planning it

Planning is cornerstone of any brand engagement program because it ensures that every action taken aligns with the brand’s strategic goals and long-term vision, and it aligns the efforts of all stakeholders towards a common goal. Planning is not only central to making time with the senior leaders to champion the programme, but who, how and when can train and champion the values through each department, and each facility. Many workforces are in working situations where they have little day-to-day communication, so it is key to plan how to reach everyone through the channels that they have access to.

Defining it

Creating the approach and platform to engage, listen and create the values is central to ensure they are meaningful, representative, and actionable. Build a diverse and broad team to build the inputs, stimulus and starting points to create initial values that reflect the collective input of the organisation. Ensure that there is also an ongoing collection of stories from around the organisation – these can help bring the values and associated behaviours to life for other employees. Once created these can be focused and refined.

Hearing it

Employees need to be informed about the brand’s mission, values, and goals. This involves clear communication from leadership about what the brand stands for. This is more than communication giving but inclusive onboarding through workshops and training sessions to give them the reasons, meaning and expectations on what our brand is, the values and why they are important.

Believing It:

Once employees are informed, they must develop a belief in the brand. This can be fostered through training and involvement in brand-related activities that resonate with their personal values. Having values front and centre is a must, reinforcing the values, examples in practice that make an emotional connection between each core value and all employees, and communicate these through making prominent in areas where employees can access them or congregate.

Living It:

Finally, employees should embody the brand in their daily actions. This requires integrating brand values into company culture and ensuring that employees feel empowered to represent the brand positively in their interactions with customers. Recognising and rewarding values-centric behaviours is important and how values can be integrated and achieved.

Sources:

_{https://hbr.org/2022/03/its-time-to-take-a-fresh-look-at-your-companys-values}

_{https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtsteinhorst/2019/10/17/rethinking-the-value-of-core-values/}

_{https://www.groovehq.com/blog/core-values}

_{https://www.gallup.com/workplace/406418/company-values-words.aspx}

_{https://www.groovehq.com/blog/core-values}

_{https://www.fastcompany.com/90901044/13-ways-to-instill-your-brands-core-values-across-all-channels}

_{https://www.loreal.com/en/group/culture-and-heritage/our-values-and-mindset/}

_{https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/articles/why-values-are-good-for-business/}

Let’s start with a question. What do Square, Slack and Zoom have in common? Granted, there could be numerous responses to this question, but one thing is abundantly clear when you tell stories of who they are and what they can do. Each brand has ignited change within its sector and its world to transform the space it occupies in its favour. Take Zoom for example, which emerged and transformed communication and collaboration practices during the Covid-19 pandemic, while taking on sectoral Goliaths such as Google, Microsoft and Cisco. Zoom made its mark so much that it became one of the Oxford Dictionary’s most influential words and one of the most prevalent eponyms of 2020. Not bad for a brand that was relatively unknown prior to 2020.

What makes a brand a challenger?

Challenger brands can be start-ups or established brands that disrupt the market by challenging the status quo. Typically characterised by their bold and unapologetic approach, challenger brands play havoc in the market by addressing unmet needs and adopting an unwavering customer-centric mindset. In today’s competitive and borderless market environment, the competition can be fierce. It can be tough for new brands to establish a presence. Yet this is where challenger brands feel most at home, as they revel in the unexpected, breaking through the noise of their category to make an impact as they carve out unique and unfilled spaces. At their core, challenger brands focus on knowing what to challenge, rather than focusing purely on the who. Think of Oatly, who has become a recognised challenger to the dairy category – finding unique and valuable market space as a dairy alternative.

Lessons learnt from challenger brands

In our work with some leading challenger brands, we’ve learnt several lessons about how these brands set themselves apart to create a distinctive space within their categories. This list does not intend to be exhaustive, but it does intend to illustrate how these brands think and act differently from more established brands.

An ambition to push the status quo: Challenger brands look to challenge the status quo and push boundaries in their favour. With their fingers on the pulse of customer insight, they identify areas where the market is lacking to create a differentiated brand, product or service with compelling value propositions to fill unmet consumer needs. Putting creativity, focus, and determination at the centre of their practices assists them in pushing the boundaries of their categories, allowing them to optimise their chances of success and demand-led growth.
A customer-first mindset: Challenger brands put the customer experience at the forefront of everything they do, ensuring that they are always delivering high-quality products and services. When a brand is customer-centric, customers feel valued and appreciated, creating a likelihood of stronger customer advocacy, which is a crucial component for brands looking to establish themselves in a crowded market.
An innovative-driven culture: Challenger brands are always looking for new and innovative ways to do things better. They are not afraid to try new technologies, processes, or approaches, and they are always looking for ways to improve their products and services. Embracing an innovative mindset for improvements – both large and small – can help them to stay ahead of the competition and can allow them to defend their unique position in their category.
A strong, unique culture at their core: Challenger brands typically have a strong and unique culture that sets them apart from their competitors. This culture is rooted in their values, purpose and beliefs. They are not confined by industry constraints, are focused on asking questions, and are open to change – allowing them to see opportunities where others don’t.

All brands need to be distinctive, and all customers need a choice. Challenger brands provide both; challenging the norms of their category by providing choices to customers which were previously uncatered to. We can learn a lot from how challengers operate, whether that’s their ability to tap into customer-led insight, their innovation process or their strong unique culture. While more established brands in their categories may not fit their moulds, we can learn a lot from challengers and their success.

Author: Elizabeth Breslin

Brand Values Need to Be More Than Just Words