Your business brand is your personality. For many small business owners, value is the key component of defining a brand, because the values you choose will affect every single area of your company, from the marketing to the relationships of connections you make. Defining your core values can help you make better decisions, improve credibility and morale, but it can be difficult to define your core values. So how can we do this?
Look at the Brands You Admire
Sometimes, if we want to improve our brand, we need to gain inspiration from others. You can start by writing down the names of brands or entrepreneurs you admire and wish to emulate. And for each one, you should drill down and find an adjective or a noun that represents them. When you start to identify the consistent characteristics and themes, you can use this as a way to guide your values. Sometimes, it can help us to gain insight into what made them who they are by the company they kept. For example, if a business you admire used a digital marketing firm like SunCity Advising, you could go and work with that firm because they will go through a similar process to help you and cover your brand. However, it’s important to remember that you are completely different from the brands you admire, so it’s about making sure that you emulate certain approaches while still being faithful to who you are.
Look at Your Legacy
Many businesses don’t look too far into the future. One of the best ways to define your values as a business is to eulogize them. You can write everything down that you would want people to say about you in the eulogy. And when you are done, look for repeating themes and these consistent values can help you guide your business towards your core values.
Writing Down a List of Adjectives
One of the best brainstorming methods is to make a list of all the values that you think are important, and when you start to narrow them down to a top 10 and top 5, new are then getting to the core of what your business actually is.
Asking for Input
If you are already operating, you can ask for insight from clients, colleagues, customers, and everyone in between and this can be a hard thing to confront. But if you are trying to get to the core of what you are, you need to ascertain the feelings that already exist out there in the great wide open. As you go through this process, you may identify certain values that are pertinent to you as a business, but it’s also important to recognize there is a difference between personal values and brand values. Of course, personal values link in very effectively with personal branding but if you’re trying to get to the core of a business brand’s value, you may need to dig deeper.
It’s important to conduct this essential, almost therapeutic process, not just because it will help the company, but it will help you to lead it more effectively.