Act on Your Brand Values

Do your employees have your brand values memorized? Do they know where the latest templates are stored? Do they live your brand every day? How do you keep living your brand when the process you used to develop it isn’t fresh anymore?

When a brand is shiny and new it’s easy to keep it unified. Your templates are all tidy and clean. The whys and hows of the process are burned in your brain. Everyone is excited by the new tools and talking points. But what if a key ambassador leaves the company? What happens a few years down the line when nobody remembers why you chose those brand values? How do you keep the love alive?

Here’s a simple activity that can help your team keep your brand platform top of mind.

Have a monthly team meeting (or series of meetings if your organization is large) led by your best brand ambassadors. At the start of each meeting, review your brand platform—your bigger purpose, your story, your value proposition or differentiation points, and your brand attributes. This repetition will make sure that your values don’t get forgotten and turn them into regular talking points.

Next, assign a few people to talk about how they lived the brand that month. Or saw someone else in the company live the brand. It could be in a simple sales transaction, a giving back initiative, or in a new policy they created for HR. If one of your brand values is how you go the extra mile, tell a story about a client who got top-notch service. If a brand value is a high-quality product, tell a story about R&D improving a product feature.

Keep track of the stories and consider small rewards for the best ones of the year. Soon, your team will be trying to outdo each other with the best examples. And this means a better experience for your customers. If your team finds it hard to come up with any examples, your brand platform may not match reality. It might be time for a review.

The process of telling these stories will connect your team to one another, encourage them to find ways their personal values connect with the organization’s values, and make your brand story unforgettable.