There is so much noise in the digital world right now, with a seemingly endless number of similar products and services to choose from. You could search online for your product and come up with hundreds (or even thousands) of results. 

How do you get your brand to stand out? 

You don’t need to change your product or service, but you do need to show your audience how you’re different from your competitors. To help differentiate your business, you need to highlight your brand values.

What are brand values?

Brand values are what your company believes in and stand for. They are the principles that guide your business decisions and are at your brand's core. Your brand values can help you create more meaningful relationships with your clients.

How do we figure out what our brand values are? I believe that your personal values are reflected in your brand values. 

What’s most important in life?

What do you want to share?

It’s essential if you spend some time and dig deep into yourself before defining your brand values. Knowing who you are will help you create a strong brand identity.

For example, one of my brand values is simplicity. Less is more approach. I was born and raised in Japan, so I am deeply rooted in the Japanese aesthetic principles of simplicity. Compared to Western culture, we focus on eliminating nonessential elements, so all that remains are the important items. 

In our crowded and busy world, you only have a few seconds to make an impression on your audience, so you have to be clear on what you want to say and how you’re going to say it.

I believe that simplicity creates clarity and highlights your brand uniqueness. I’d rather eliminate items than add more. 

Frequently, small businesses like ours don't have a large budget to promote our products and services. That’s why narrow focus is key to growing your small business faster, and this is where your brand values can help.

Why are brand values important?

Establishing brand values gives your business a competitive edge by boosting your brand’s credibility, customer recognition, and loyalty. 

“64% of consumers say that sharing the same values with a brand is the primary reason they have a relationship in the first place.”

— Harvard Business Review

If you select values that genuinely align with your brand, you will attract more of the people who share those values — your ideal clients. 

I’ve put together a list of brand value examples ( Download your PDF) that you can use to help identify your brand values. But, before you go through the list, there are two things to keep in mind when selecting your brand values.

1 - Make sure you pick brand values that are authentic to you right now, not what you hope to be in the future. These principles must reflect who you truly are. If you pick values that don’t truly match who you are, customers will feel deceived. Imagine for a moment that you choose “quality” as one of your brand values, but your packaging looks unprofessional. Something won’t feel right to your customer. He/she has certain expectations in mind as to what a quality product should look like. It’s important that your business lives up to that value. Remember to be authentic.

2 - Try to pick unique values. If you select unique brand values, they will be more memorable and meaningful to your  employees and customers. While you don’t need to avoid traditional values such as honesty and integrity, you should try to add your own personal spin on them.

A great example of this is airbnb’s value to “be a host.” This value includes everything we associate with a host: being caring, open, and encouraging. But airbnb didn’t make their tagline “be caring, open, and encouraging.” Instead, they found a unique way to tie these characteristics to their business model of good hosting. 

230 examples of brand values

Fairness

Faith

Family

Flexibility

Focus

Freedom

Freshness

Friendship

Fun

Genius

Giving

Gratitude

Growth

Guidance

Happiness

Harmony

Heart

Honesty

Hope

Humor

Imagination

Impact

Independence

Individuality

Innovation

Inspiration

Integrity

Intelligence

Intimacy

Intuition

Joy

Kindness

Knowledge

Leadership

Learning

Liveliness

Love

Loyalty

Mindfulness

Motivation

Openness

Optimism

Originality

Partnership

Passion

Patience

Peace

Persistence

Playfulness

Positivity

Potential

Productivity

Professionalism

Progress

Prosperity

Purpose

Purity

Quality

Acceptance

Accessibility

Accountability

Accuracy

Activeness

Adaptability

Adventure

Appreciation

Approachability

Attention to detail

Authenticity

Awareness

Balance

Beauty

Belief

Bravery

Calmness

Capability

Caring

Clarity

Collaboration

Comfort

Commitment

Communication

Compassion

Confidence

Connection

Consistency

Craftiness

Craftsmanship

Creativity

Curiosity

Customer-centric

Dedication

Dependability

Discovery

Diversity

Dream

Drive

Duty

Ease of use

Education

Effectiveness

Elegance

Empathy

Empowering

Energy

Enjoyment

Entertainment

Enthusiasm

Entrepreneurship

Environment

Equality

Ethics

Excellence

Excitement

Expertise

Exploration

Reliability

Resourcefulness

Respect

Responsibility

Safety

Satisfaction

Sensitivity

Serenity

Service

Sharing

Simplicity

Sincerity

Speed

Spontaneity

Stability

Success

Support

Sustainability

Talent

Teamwork

Timeless

Thoughtfulness

Transparency

Trust

Truth

Understanding

Uniqueness

Unity

Variety

Vitality

Wealth

Warmth

Welcoming

Wonder

Download your PDF version of 150 brand examples for your inspiration.

Conclusion

Once you’ve selected your brand values, make sure to incorporate them into your communications with clients. Make them a selling point for your business. If you’ve selected values that truly reflect your brand, your clients will feel even more excited about your brand (remember, it’s most likely they’ve chosen your company because your values align with theirs). Your promotion of those values deepens their bond with you.

As time goes by, you may find that your brand mission and brand vision change as your business grows. Likewise, your visual identity may change with various trends over time. However, your brand values will always remain the same. 

When your brand values are authentic and unique, you’ll be able to easily differentiate your company from your competitors and form an emotional connection with your ideal audience. 

What are your brand values? I hope you found my list of brand value examples helpful.