The quickest way to add Substance to your brand is to know your values and then to act on them.
We like to look at how values can be embodied in two main ways: 1) as internal behaviours within your organisation (or how you act if you’re working on your personal brand), and 2) as external messages to your audience.
1: They have to be real to you – don’t just choose something because it sounds good.
2: You have to be committed to embodying them in everything that you do (or they’re not your values, they’re just empty words).
3: Your values belong to you so the words you use to describe them can mean whatever you want. Own them. The important thing is that they can guide you to where you want to be.
Play around with the list of values at the bottom of this page: Try and narrow your brand values down to no more than five core values.
Once you’ve done that: Define the value on your own terms – What would it look like in terms of internal behaviours? What external messages could this be translated into for clients?
For example, with the value of ‘creativity’ (for an imaginary brand):
Brand Value: ‘Creativity’ – Our (imaginary) brand is open to playing with expectations at all times.
Internal Behaviours: Staff do not just follow the same old rules for the sake of following them but play with the context of what’s in front of them.
External Messages: Our clients know that we are there to explore creative solutions instead of just following the same old textbook methodologies.
Abundance
Acceptance
Accountability
Achievement
Activity
Action
Advancement
Adventure
Affection
Authenticity
Balance
Beauty
Caring
Challenge
Change
Character
Choice
Clarity
Collaboration
Comfort
Compassion
Communication
Community
Competence
Competition
Confrontation
Connectedness
Consciousness
Consensus
Context
Control
Conviction
Cooperation
Country
Courage
Courtesy
Creativity
Death
Dedication
Decisiveness
Democracy
Development
Dialogue
Difference
Dignity
Discipline
Diversity
Duty
Earth
Edge
Education
Effectiveness
Empathy
Empowerment
Entrepreneurship
Environment
Equality
Excellence
Excitement
Experience
Expertise
Faith
Fairness
Fallibility
Fame
Family
Fidelity
Flexibility
Flux
Forgiveness
Freedom
Friendship
Fun
‘God’
Goodness
Gratitude
Greatness
Growth
‘Happiness’
Harmony
Healing
Health
Home
Honesty
Honour
Human Nature
Humanity
Humility
Humour
Imagination
Impact
Imperfection
Independence
Individuality
Influence
Innovation
Integrity
Intelligence
Interdependence
Internality
Involvement
Joy
Justice
Kindness
Knowledge
Leadership
Learning
Life
Love
Loyalty
Meaning
Meditation
Mercy
Merit
Moments
Money
Motivation
Nature
Openness
Opportunity
Order
Originality
Paradox
Participation
Partnership
Passion
Patience
Peace
Perfection
Perseverance
Philanthropy
Planning
Pleasure
Possibility
Positivity
Potential
Power
Presence
Privacy
Process
Productivity
Professionalism
Progress
Prosperity
Provocation
Purpose
Quality
Questions
Reality
Reason
Recognition
Reflection
Relationships
Religion
Respect
Responsibility
Responsiveness
Resolution
Risk-taking
Ritual
Safety
Sanctuary
Security
Self
Self-acceptance
Self-actualisation
Self-awareness
Self-creation
Self-esteem
Self-guidance
Self-investment
Self-leadership
Self-reflection
Self-transcendence
Serenity
Solitude
Spirituality
Stability
Status
Stewardship
Stewardship
Strength
Substance
Surrender
Success
Systems
Teaching
Team Work
Time
Tradition
Trust
Truth
Uncertainty
Understanding
Uniqueness
Variety
Vision
Vitality
Vivacity
Vulnerability
Wealth
Wellness
Wholeness
Wisdom
List adapted from Personal Revolutions: A Short Course in Realness by Oli Anderson
