A value is defined as something of importance to you – an internal deep-rooted belief. Our values affect who we associate with, our behavior, and even the products we as consumers choose to purchase. Having values as a business comes with two main advantages. One is that you stand for something good that can make a positive impact on the world and two, when it comes to marketing, you can target audiences who associate with your shared value.

Consumers are attracted to organizations that have the same values as they do. Take Patagonia for example, when you search them on google they come up as “Patagonia Clothing & Gear – 1% for the Planet every day”. Without doing further research the consumer already knows that this is a clothing company that cares about the planet – their company values. If I am a consumer who also cares about the planet, I am immediately interested and feel good about buying products from them. As a business, it is important to have genuine values, both within the organization and publicly. Having values as a company adds a human element to your business. It personifies what you stand for and it ultimately attracts like-minded individuals, aka customers! However, keep in mind that customers can smell when businesses are disingenuous from a mile away. Having a forced value is often worse than not having any outward values at all.

Take yourself out of the business owner or marketer role for a moment. What is it that you care about? What is it that you are passionate about? Take that passion and channel it through the company. Make your values as genuine as possible and you will see a difference in your customer base. More and more like-minded individuals will start noticing and your marketing efforts will only be bolstered.

At this point you are probably asking yourself “Well that’s great, but what about customers that don’t have the same values, how do I attract them?”. What makes our values so powerful is our resistance to change them. If values were easily swayed, they would not have such a big impact on our lives. As a business, you can get people on board by focusing on their attitudes. Our attitude towards things in our lives are merely just predispositions and they are not as deeply rooted, making them easily swayable. Think about it, your values probably have not changed that much in the past 5 years, but your attitudes have. You still believe in saving the planet but your attitude towards buying strictly organic may have significantly increased (or not).

By understanding the difference between your audience’s values and attitudes, you can tailor your messaging to reflect what you want your marketing efforts to focus on. This is no easy task, and there is no one answer on how to do this. If you would like to discuss this article in depth or need help with communicating your business’ values and attitudes to your audience, contact us here.