Consumers Care About Brand Values: How To Communicate Them in a Way That Wins

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As an inclusive marketing strategist and consultant, one of the things I talk about consistently with my clients is brand values.

Many of them want to win over a bigger and more diverse customer base, but I have to make it clear that those efforts won’t be successful or sustainable if they don’t practice what they preach since brand values are now an important part of consumers’ purchase decision strategy.

In fact, HubSpot’s Consumer Trends Report found that 82% of consumers want to engage with and buy from brands that share their values. I’ve even found that I use my credit card as a form of activism and intentionally buy from brands whose values are ones I believe in and want to reward.

My hot take is that, despite its importance, most brands don’t do a very good job of showcasing their values, but those that do it well do it well. Read on to find some high-quality examples from brands that stand out.

How Smart Brands Demonstrate Their Values to Consumers

Brand values are usually developed when leaders are building a brand and determining a mission, vision, and or purpose. When I work with clients on this, we often do it in the context of revisiting and revising their mission, vision, and brand values, to make them more inclusive.

In this episode of the Inclusion & Marketing podcast, I do a deep dive of why values are so important to building an inclusive brand, but the gist is that consumers care deeply about brand values because it signals whether or not a brand cares about the same things they do.

A recent study even found that ¾ of shoppers stopped buying from a brand based upon a conflict of values.

So, given its importance, how can brands make their values clear and speak to customers that share their same beliefs?

My top tip is to show, not just tell. Consumers can read your mission, but those words are just lip service if you don’t show how those values are lived. I recommend focusing the majority of your efforts on highlighting how your brand practices its values

The brands that do this well do it with content on their websites and social media channels. Below I’ll go through some examples of brands that I think do a stellar job of making their values clear to consumers.

1. Ben & Jerry’s lives values through activism.

Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s makes it clear from first look on its website that it cares about a whole lot more than just selling ice cream. The brand leans hard into activism, and considers it core to achieving its mission of linked prosperity.

From its hero image, to the ‘Activism’ highlight on its Instagram profile and playlist on TikTok, the brand makes it clear to anyone engaging with its assets that it is very involved in the causes it cares about. It also encourages its customers to get involved in supporting those causes as well.

Ben & Jerry’s values: human rights & dignity, social and economic justice for historically marginalized communities, and environmental protection, restoration, and regeneration.

2. Patagonia lives values through large scale donations.

Since 1985, outerwear maker Patagonia has pledged to donate 1% of sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment..

In 2022, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard “gave away” the company by donating his majority stake (worth millions in profits every year) to an environmental charity, holding true to its values by touting that Planet Earth is its only shareholder.

It also features an “Activism” section in the main navigation of its website, which highlights how itgoes about achieving its mission to “Save our home planet.”

Patagonia’s core values are: quality, integrity, environmentalism, justice, and not bound by convention.

3. Seer Interactives lets consumers know they are a B Corp.

A B Corporation Certification is a designation that signifies a brand upholds standards of high social and economic performance, accountability, and transparency on important factors (like fostering an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy) related to a company’s social and environmental impact.

Seer Interactive is a marketing agency that leads with messaging around its B Corp status right in the description in search engine results.

The brand goes deeper by sharing its B Corp status with a page clearly visible in the main navigation of its “About Us” page.

The brand also highlights some of the charitable work they do as part of its values on its social channels.

Seer Interactive’s values: uplift others, pursue truth, and strive to be better than yesterday.

4. The Home Depot and Tory Burch highlight their support of communities.

Supporting the communities of the customers they serve is important to a lot of brands.

The Home Depot has a long history of investing in the Black community as part of its work to live its values. For example, its Retool Your School Program has provided grants to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) for the past 15 years.

The program is featured prominently on its brand’s website (shown above), and with content on its YouTube channel (image below).

The Home Depot’s values: creating shareholder value, entrepreneurial spirit, taking care of our people, respect for all people, doing the right thing, build strong relationships, giving back, and excellent customer service.

Fashion brand Tory Burch focuses on community and support through the Tory Burch Foundation, which has a number of programs designed to empower women entrepreneurs, including through a fellows program, providing access to capital, education, and other online resources.

On its Instagram account, you’ll find a direct link in the description to the Tory Burch Foundation account, where you’ll find lots of details about all the work the brand does.

Tory Burch’s values: empower women (expressed as the company’s purpose).

5. Warby Parker has baked its value of giving back into its business model.

If you buy a pair of glasses from Warby Parker, a pair of glasses are distributed to someone in need. Because this aspect is core to its business model, it’s something the brand doesn’t hesitate to communicate about, hence why it’s featured on its homepage.

It also clearly highlights this in its social media profiles, especially on Instagram, as shown in the image below.

Warby Parker’s values: inject fun and quirkiness into everything we do, treat others the way you want to be treated, pursue new and creative ideas, do good, take action, presume positive intent, lead with integrity, and learn, grow, and repeat.

6. Michael Graves Design has baked accessibility and inclusion into its product offerings.

Michael Graves Design is known as the most accessible design brand, with its focus on designing for all and enhancing lives, regardless of age or physical ability.

Thus the mission and purpose of the brand is fulfilled with the actual product the brand produces. As such, with every product launch, collaboration, and promotion, it showcases how it is living its values and purpose because they are intertwined.

The brand itself doesn’t necessarily talk a lot about inclusion on its website and social channels, because consumers know it because it is baked into the product. For many, that’s what attracted them to the brand in the first place.

In this interview on the Inclusion & Marketing podcast, I spoke with Ben Wintner, CEO of Michael Graves Design. During our chat, we go deeper into how the brand is meticulous about living its values.

Michael Graves Design’s values: delightful, purposeful, pioneering, and extraordinary.

Tell Your Customers How You Live Your Brand’s Values

Customers won’t know what you stand for or the good you do if you don’t. It isn’t about being performative. Rather, it’s about highlighting the positive impact you are making in a way that inspires others, and helps the customers who share your values find you.