marketing from true core values
Before embarking on social media, blogs, advertising, film, SEO and content take a step back. Dissect who you are, what you do, be honest – is your business true to what you think, feel and want to achieve? People will only buy in to you if you make sense, if you match your messages.
It’s easy to pick business values out of a hat, anyone can say they are loyal to customers and staff and dedicated to customer service but is that true? Have you checked against reality? The good bits of your company might be different, to what you presumed.
Let’s look at selected core values of some of the big brands that are successful to see if you agree with their self-perception. We’ve added an advert next to each so you can see the flavour of the values and their message seep into their marketing.
brand truths
Facebook – Focus on impact, move fast, be bold, be open, build social value.
H & M – We believe in people, we are one team, Straight forward and open minded, constant improvement, cost-consciousness.
Ikea – Humbleness and willpower, Daring to be different, constant desire for renewal. Togetherness and enthusiasm.
Proctor & Gamble – Integrity, leadership, ownership, passion for winning, trust. Now look how they leverage values into this advertisement film, The Look.
We would argue it is possible to match the brand to the values, and the values to the marketing, because they have wound their values into their style, their messaging and the marketing rolls out from this base.
Companies are ruled by their culture and their culture usually trickles down from top to bottom. The manager, the CEO, the board, they will dictate the pace, the values, what’s good and bad, what’s allowed and not, how clean and tidy the office is, what the dress code is. They will hire according to these principles too. Everyone in your company needs to know what is acceptable and not, what to encourage and discourage and of course, what to aim for in the context of the company.
define what, how and why…
It stands to reason that the one, or the team, in charge needs to comprehend, to believe in and be able to articulate their values, standards and the goal of their business. And yet, too often the leader does not give time to these critical definitions or sees them as superfluous when they need to be embedded into everything about the company, especially in the marketing.
With the FIND model we usually begin with these critical definitions – getting down the foundations, because poor foundations impact negatively on everything that follows and vice versa.
align to your values
If the values seem off, if the mission seems wrong then something needs to be done. It will be hard because we are creatures of habit. When you are used to a pattern, it takes a lot to change it. Comprehension, strategy and heaps of will power are needed. Most of all, you must understand why you need to change your patterns if this is the case. One thing that is for sure though, which is well used advice from us, is that if you do what you always did before, you will get what you always got before. To transform, you may need to fine tune your brand prior to marketing campaigns.
Something we learned recently is that a lot of life coaching templates are identical to marketing strategy wisdom and that’s an important connection. You have to know your business, like you have to know yourself, before designing changes and new patterns to follow that will lead to greater success.
Know yourself and know your business first. Build your success from a pivotal understanding of what values you steer by, what mission is critical for you and why you do the things you do. From that point, marketing can unravel with consistency and sense, and connect to the people you need as customers.
Contact us to find out more about our strategy and model.
Ref source for company brand values : https://inside.6q.io/190-examples-of-company-values/