What's the difference between brand values and brand purpose?

A purpose explains why a brand exists. Values lay out the ideals that the brand must maintain in pursuit of that purpose, never compromising along the way.

Can a brand have too many values?

Yes. Most lists longer than four or five end up diluting a brand's standards, rather than sharpening them.

Should brand values be aspirational or descriptive?

Keep them descriptive, ideally rooted in how the company already behaves. Aspirational values with no practical behaviours behind them read as empty promises.

What happens if a brand fails to live up to its values?

Trust erodes fast. Since consumers engage more with brands that align with their own values, you can expect that loyalty to be affected if they begin to feel any misalignment.

How do you measure whether brand values are working?

Sentiment scoring and qualitative consumer testing will show the effect of values in practice, but it's the consistency of these attitudes over time that really shows how well they're performing. Look for what's not being told too; many values succeed quietly, by not being the thing customers complain about.

Branding Handbook

Brand Strategy

Brand Values

Brand values are what a brand believes in, and what it stands against. It's the standard it holds itself to, whether anyone's watching or not.

What are brand values?

Brand values are the specific ideals that guide how a brand moves in the world. They reflect what's most important to a brand, giving meaning to its day-to-day activity and long-term strategy.

While brand values are formalised for the purposes of internal strategy, they're not always expressed to consumers word for word. Instead, they're felt through a brand's actions, occupying a more subconscious role in people's minds.

By humanising a brand in this way, brand values play an important role in shaping consumer perception. Beyond a market position, they allow a brand to be part of wider social discourse, lead societal progress, or develop a more intimate relationship with consumers who share their values.

How brand values get built

Narrow down your core beliefs

Look past the generic virtues every brand claims, and isolate the 3-5 values that get to the truth of yours.

Make them tangible rather than abstract

Put behavioural context behind each of your values. How are these expressed every day? What's at stake?

Honour them (and stick to them)

Consistently apply your values to real decisions (even the uncomfortable ones) so they resonate with consumers deeply over time.

How brand values work in practice: Wild Thingz

A brand like Wild Thingz proves exactly how values shape long-term success. When you're building a challenger brand from scratch, having a strong sense of self is essential. That goes double for the FMCG world, where there's no shortage of rebels. But rebels with a cause? They're harder to find.

Challenger

Consumer Goods

DTC

Wild Thingz

A full brand build from concept to launch, Wild Thingz hit the market hard as a plant-based punk in a supermarket aisle full of organic sameness. And like all punks, these sweets have some fierce standards.

Wild Thingz believes in a world where kids can be kids and parenting doesn't always have to look perfect. Where you can taste the rainbow without consuming all that rubbish. Not that either of those ideals needed explaining: these values shine through every part of the experience, from the ingredients in the product through to the Venus flytrap mascot on the front of every packet.

Outcome: A rebel with a cause, listed in over three supermarkets nationwide 6 months from launch.

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