Brand Values For Startups

Branding is a tricky subject; it is guaranteed to affect your business, for better or worse.
Your brand is your initial split-second message to your audience.
It’s either intriguing and inviting them in, or repelling them away.
Designing your brand isn’t about choosing which colours you like the most, it’s about creating a good impression with the right people, setting expectations and then delivering a great result.

Many entrepreneurs either avoid thinking about their brand, or they obsess over details that don’t contribute to their success.
In these articles, we’ll look at what a founder needs to think about and how they can make the most of a designer’s skillset.
We’ll start with the values and DNA of your brand, then look at where you want to be positioned in your industry.
Finally, we’ll look at your brand identity and show you what will go into your style guide, so that you can create documents, products and content that gives off the right impression.

Please Don’t Go It Alone

It’s generally not advisable to cut your own hair – even the best hairdressers go to another hairdresser.
But it helps to know what you want, and to bring some reference photos that give a sense of what you’d like.
The same applies for working with a designer or coach for your business – they can’t tell you who and what you are.
They can reflect and express and capture who you are, but you the founder need to decide on your DNA.

We’ll look at ways of drafting and prototyping your thoughts and preferences, but please work with someone knowledgeable to tie it altogether.
Good branding makes a difference, as does poor branding.
It won’t be free, but the good news from Joel Spolsky is “Design adds value faster than it adds cost”.

Starting From Scratch

“The best definition of a brand I’ve ever heard is this: a brand is the most valuable piece of real estate in the world – a corner of someone’s mind.” – John Hegarty

As a new business, you won’t have much of a track record or established position in your customer’s minds.
That means you get to choose the framing and narrative, but will also need to work hard to convey that message.
But even if your story and beliefs aren’t recognisable in the market, you’ve probably been working on them for quite some time.
They are likely similar to your own beliefs and values – the attitudes and philosophies that you hold, which have inspired your work or have been missing from your competitors.

Imagine that your town had two new restaurateurs, one of whom values authenticity, tradition and old-school hospitality, whereas the other values inclusion, affordability and playfulness.
Both of these founders would have good reasons to start restaurants; the former might be inspired to return to the roots of their cuisine, while the other might want to make it more accessible to a broader audience.
Those differences will affect the menu, the seating, the prices, the staff and their target markets.
The two restauranteurs might be able to be friends, but you’d imagine they privately hold frustrations about each other’s businesses.
But both restaurants can co-exist and thrive.
You might even love each of them, but for different occasions with different groups of people.

By understanding the essence of a brand, it becomes easier to navigate all of the choices an entrepreneur faces each day.
In a lot of cases, there’s not a singular “correct” option for all businesses, but there’s often an option that best matches the spirit of your particular company.
We aren’t trying to be fluffy and cute – if your brand doesn’t have an essence, you’ll be vulnerable to every charismatic competitor who approaches your customers with their compelling story.

Values Force Tradeoffs

You can’t be all things to all people, and some nice-sounding values are mutually exclusive.
That means you’ll be making some tricky tradeoffs, choosing between good options.

·      Innovation vs Tradition

·      Affordability vs Craftsmanship

·      Elegance vs Flexibility

·      Certainty vs Surprise

·      Ethical vs Economy

This is why there is so much room in every industry for multiple players, because there is such diversity amongst customers.
Some people want to buy into your story and your worldview, and some people want the cheapest, easiest option possible.

The aim isn’t to avoid these tradeoffs, the aim is to embrace them and present them as credible strengths.
As customers, we often are more inclined to trust something with a visible flaw, as we’re suspicious of “too good to be true”.
e.g. the restaurant with bad lighting, blunt staff and a line out the door instantly looks like it’s going to serve you an amazing meal.
Or the specialist with a two month waiting list might offer some reassurances that they are going to be the best person to speak to.

It is virtually guaranteed that some customers will think that you’re too expensive, some will think you’re too cheap, too inconvenient or are not progressive enough.
You cannot appease them.
If you value something highly enough, you will disappoint some people, and that’s ok.

This is why the branding process is so helpful to discuss with your team.
You’re not choosing lovely words for your website, you’re picking values that are worth fighting for.
You are also thereby deciding not to fight for the other words that also sound nice, so that everyone is clear on what is sacred and what are the nice-to-haves.

Types Of Values

Patrick Lencioni describes several types of values a company can hold:  

·      Core values, which are unlikely to ever change and underpin everything you do

·      Accidental values, which guide your decisions even if you didn’t “choose” them

·      Permission-to-play values, the bare minimum for someone to work with you or shop with you

·      Aspirational values, which you might not have today but would like to have in the future

A startup might want to say that “Respect” is one of their core values, but when they look more closely, it’s a Permission-to-play value that stops them from hiring rude people.
Or they might want to say that “Professionalism” or “Brilliance” are core values, but they’re not exhibiting those behaviours yet, making this an Aspirational value.
These aren’t strict rules, it’s helpful to have terminology to discuss these as a team.
For the purposes of this stage, we’re mainly interested in core values.

A good way of thinking about core values is that they are things you’re liable to take too far.
e.g. if honesty is a core value, you might have examples where that honesty has cost you a sale, or you’ve advised a customer to choose a cheaper option than what they initially picked out.
If relationships are a core value, you might have a hard time replacing staff or spend too much time talking to your customers.
If openness is a core value, you might have examples of where staff/competitors have taken your ideas, or when you’ve said things that have attracted some scrutiny.
If it’s courage or experimentation, you probably have examples of failures and initiatives that didn’t work out. 

Examples Of Bad Values

“Don’t tell me you’re a comedian, make me laugh” – Dave Trott

Despite their best intentions, companies who have to print their values on a lanyard are usually kidding themselves.
It’s not their fault, it’s just that values should be visible through a company’s actions, relationships, decisions on who they promote and who they hold to account.
On top of that, these corporations usually pick the blandest, most generic values too.
At ANZ Bank, the lanyards had: Integrity, Collaboration, Accountability, Respect and Excellence.
Each of those values sound great, but anyone who worked at ANZ in that era would have a remarkably hard time finding examples of each of those five.
Australia’s Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry would have a tough time substantiating the words Integrity and Accountability.
Anyone navigating their bureaucracy would struggle to explain Collaboration.
Staff and customers might scratch their heads thinking of examples of Respect and Excellence, particularly when they met the sort of person who was being promoted and rewarded at that time.

ANZ didn’t suffer from a lack of values in this era, it did a lot of things well and it made a lot of people very happy (and wealthy).
Going by their actions and results, some more accurate words would be Consistency, Prosperity, Expertise, Growth and Reputation.
These values drove who they promoted, what was celebrated, what they prioritised and what was important to shareholders.
Integrity, Collaboration, Accountability, Respect and Excellence are all good things, but ANZ claiming to value them was painfully hypocritical.

As a general rule, your startup won’t sound convincing when telling people your values – you need to show them what you value.
You do that by:

·      Saying “no” to some customer expectations/demands

·      Making tradeoffs and adopting a different approach from your competitors

·      Going the extra mile for a customer

·      Doing hard things well

Examples Of Good Values

The best examples usually have a few things in common:

·      The use short sentences rather than a single word

·      They use metaphors or similes that paint a vivid image

·      They take common values to uncommon lengths

·      Their words match their behaviours and reputations

A good example is the All Blacks, New Zealand’s national rugby team.
One of theirs is “Sweep the sheds; never be too big to do the small things that need to be done.”
Even if you’ve never seen them play, you instantly understand their mentality and philosophy, and the culture that would create.

Another is “Be a good ancestor; plant trees you will never see”, as is “No one is bigger than the team”.
These are so much clearer than words like “Greatness” or “Teamwork”, and you can easily imagine how they filter down to the way the team plays their matches.

Steve Jobs used to talk about “Varnishing the back of the dresser” – an example of perfecting the details that the customer/user doesn’t often see, because you know it’s the right way to work.
This approach rings true when you hear stories of Steve’s management style at Apple (for better and for worse) and explains why Apple release products like their AU$1699 Pro Stand.
Love it or hate it, it’s a core value.

Good values will make sense in hindsight, not in advance.
They describe what customers can already see or experience, but customers are unlikely to take you at your word.

IKEA are a good example, if you’ve been to their store you’ll know that they live up to their values:

Cost Consciousness - As many people as possible should be able to afford a beautiful and functional home. We constantly challenge ourselves and others to make more from less without compromising on quality.

Simplicity - A simple, straightforward and down-to-earth way of being is part of our Smålandic heritage. It is about being ourselves and staying close to reality. We are informal, pragmatic and see bureaucracy as our biggest enemy.

Different With A Meaning - We are not like other companies and we don’t want to be. We like to question existing solutions, think in unconventional ways, experiment and dare to make mistakes - always for a good reason.

These aren’t just conveyed in IKEA’s choice of logo, colour palette and uniform; it extends throughout all of their designs and even their restaurants.
IKEA might not be your dream furniture, but they’ve created a clear expectation for customers, and they always live out their values.

The Opposite Test

“Take the opposite test. Most companies use the same terms to describe their product.
It’s as if they all believe their customers have never heard of a product described as ‘high quality’, ‘robust’, ‘easy to use’, ‘fast’ or ‘safe’.
Take the opposite test: Do you describe your offering in a way that is opposite to your competition?
If you do, then you’re saying something different.
If you don’t, then your positioning is useless.” – Guy Kawasaki

Try it for your draft values; would the opposite of this value be unthinkable?
If so, it’s likely a “permission-to-play” value, a basic expectation you hold for yourself, and not an interesting or compelling core value.

Some Starting Points

The internet is full of lists of potential values, and these are helpful as a starting point.
You can glance over the list to see what jumps out, and encourage your team to do the same.
They might use different words to describe the same core ideas, or even spot different values that you hadn’t previously put into words.

But these are a starting point, not the end.
Almost any combination of 5 words will sound good and also be completely forgettable.
For your top 4-5 words, write a tagline or example, like what you saw with the All Blacks or IKEA.
It can use a metaphor, a quote, a past experience, etc.
You don’t need to publish these on your website, but they’ll be useful for the next two steps; Brand Positioning and Brand Identities…