Brands Should Always Lead With Their Values, Especially During Times Of Crisis
Values Might Trump Mission and Positioning
It's Business 101: establish a Mission Statement, then prepare a Positioning Statement and Strategy. And to be sure, brands do need to place their business on a solid foundation of a clear Mission, one that not only grows profits but improves the world in doing so. It is also imperative that they have a finely crafted Positioning Statement and Strategy that outlines why the brand is unique in the market. But, the Covid-19 crisis has shown us that it’s time to step past Business 101.
Your Mission sets forth your purpose. Your Positioning Statement outlines how your brand fits into the market. But your Values, well, those outline where your brand fits into humanity. That may sound a bit grandiose, but when your brand functions with a clear set of human values, it is better prepared to handle both everyday issues and a once-in-a-century crisis. Values inform each decision you make, from how you treat your customers to how you treat your employees (hint: treating both well is vital). During these times, when everything seems so bleak and confusing, operating within your values will create clarity in terms of what is the right “human” thing to do, as each new aspect of a crisis unfolds.
Relying on your Mission and Positioning alone may mean you miss a vital pivot point in a crisis. Maybe your industry is no longer relevant or needed at this time. Brands that make decisions based on Values - those things that bind the people in your organization to one another and the community - can mobilize their resources for good, beyond the narrow confines of their market or their industry. We have been witnesses to this throughout the Covid-19 crisis, from brands big and small. Local distilleries switched their production from liquor to hand sanitizer. GM switched its production from cars to ventilators. These decisions were not about profits or market position, but about being part of the community as a whole. They were Values-driven.
I feel that companies should have a tight set of high-level values that help guide how they treat people, relationships and the planet. By tight, I am thinking between five and ten, the fewer the better. They should be developed in a cross-company way that breaks down corporate hierarchy and focuses on being human with each other. Each value should be high-level enough that it can help address multiple situations. Write down the values with a loose definition, then robustly share them with everyone within your enterprise. Discuss them and determine how to live your Values statement within your daily relationships.
What might this look like in practice? One of my favorite values is “generosity.” This is a complex and multi-dimensional value that can speak to altruism, affordability and, even, grace. If you were to use the value lens of generosity in assessing the Covid-19 crisis, your company would have immediately pivoted to see who needs help both internally and externally in your community.
Another favorite value of mine, “responsibility”, would encourage your company to think about your people, community and supply chain in a sustainable fashion. You would view your global supply chain as a partnership rather than just canceling orders or asking for a one-sided discount. Leaning into your value of responsibility would result in your community, your consumers and the world supporting you rather than scorning you when you seem to act for profit alone. (I call this a karmic perk. You do the right thing for the right reasons, and people will reward you for it with their good will.)
To take this thought further, imagine the forward planning you would have done if you had the value of “stewardship”. You probably would have held off on that stock repurchasing plan to bolster your price and instead kept cash reserves for a rainy day (or global pandemic). Granted, few people could have forecasted this current global situation, but if more brands would have crafted a Values statement to bolster their Mission and Positioning statements, I feel like the outcomes might have been different.
A Little Insight Into My Thinking
I remember a conversation I had with my super-creative force friend Nadine Steklensky in her office at Target. We were chatting about redoing our Kids Clothing Brand Portfolio. She and her Merchandising Business partner, Amanda Nusz, had just returned from a whirlwind tour of global leaders who focus on kids (including Michelle Obama). She started talking about how kids deserve better and that the brands kids buy should represent kids’ values. We then embarked on one of those coo coo crazy creative conversations that I love to have with Nadine where we both focus on the idea of “wouldn’t it be awesome if…” We talked about the fact that all kids want to feel included, as we can all remember a time we felt left out. We also talked about the fact that just making low-quality stuff that will be thrown away is neither sustainable nor generous to families trying to manage their limited resources. The conversation then moved on to celebrating the capabilities of kids and how given the right opportunity and guidance, kids can do almost anything an adult can do, but in a fresher, more creative way. This conversation led to the creation of the values and mission that helped establish Cat & Jack, a now 2+ billion dollar kids powerhouse brand.
The Mission led to the Positioning, which led to the Values. And that guided everything from research to design and even how we marketed the brand. After the brand had been established, the teams continued on with the value of inclusivity to create an industry-first adaptive clothing and accessories collection for kids who are differently abled and who had been feeling left out of existing brands. I was so moved to see images shared on Instagram and Twitter of children in wheelchairs responding to marketing materials that showed other children in wheelchairs. These are the results that stem from the internal behaviors of designers, merchants and researches that truly love their consumers. They are living and strengthening a brand’s values. And creating love for the brand in the process.
Government Mistrust Fuels The Need For Company Values
Polling in American shows that there is a steep decline in trust in government, particularly at the federal level. People are now looking toward other institutions to step in and do the heavy lifting that was traditionally done at the federal level. I believe it’s never too late to revisit why you created your brand or business. Now is the perfect time to think about how your efforts might serve a greater good while growing a living for you, your teams, and the communities in which you operate. Take a moment to reflect on what your values are, whether everyone is on the same page, and whether those values are making the world a better place.
