Branding, Marketing, and Community 103–Brand Values

Build upon your mission statement

Versatile, powerful, concise, the mission statement is a foundation for your brand. Done correctly, it resonates throughout your work… but it’s only the first step. Now that it’s ready, what’s next? Let’s branch out from the base and identify brand values. This will further shape the details of your brand and influence how your customers perceive, respond, and engage with your work.

Bring the work you did on your mission statement (it all applies here), we’re gonna use the concepts and results you discovered and expand on it by selecting 3–5 bullet points that describe your personality, style, and tone (playful, serious, professional, etc.) and describe your vision. Take into account your long-term goals and what things you will never compromise on. Align all this with your personal values and business goals, this enhances your unique identity and reputation in the market and naturally differentiates your work from competitors.

Take Your Research From Crafting a Mission Statement and Select 3 to 5 Themes, Thoughts, or Bullet Points. Take Into Special Account-

What do you want to be known for?

What is at the core of your identity?

How do you want people to feel about your work?

I used this method to create a mission statement and brand values for the Grumpy Cantina Wine Club, a wine-centric NFT project. The full breakdown can be found here — The Grumpy Cantina Wine Club: An Introduction and displays the completely polished mission statement and brand values. Special thanks to the founder, Grumpy Sommelier, for allowing me to get into the delicious details of the work we did, as a real world example, I’ll be talking about the marketing and branding from GCWC more as we go along, but for now, the TLDR version of the mission statement and values are-

Grumpy Cantina Wine Club Mission Statement —

To Passionately Pair Web2 and Web3 with Integrity, Quality, and Camaraderie

…and the brand values…

Be Real

Celebrate Each Other

Quality Pairing Makes Everything Better

For some more perspective, I invite you to do a values thought experiment… So, shoe companies, they all sell …well… shoes. Things you cover your feet with… but within that framework there is a cornucopia of values and approaches. When you see these brands, what are the first 3 things that come to mind? What do you perceive their values to be? Brand is not only what the business intends you to think and feel, but also how you actually perceive it. Sometimes it’s the same, sometimes it isn’t…

Crocs

Doc Martens

Nike

Gucci

You can gain a lot of insight by merely observing how brands and businesses do things. Most successful companies spend time on the details, focusing their message according to their brand values.

And finally, it’s useful to repost the “quick hits” from the last article as they apply here as well. Most of the dirty work for your brand values was done building the mission statement.

QUICK HITS

1. There is a magical balance between being descriptive and being concise, seek it out.
2. The thesaurus is your friend, one word change can make a huge difference and unlock mind treasure.
3. Share your ideas with people that will give you HONEST feedback. Constructive criticism is good and will only make your mission statement stronger.
4. Take a break from your research and ideas, put it down for a day, clear your mind and come back with fresh eyes.
5. Don’t rush it, you will likely do 3, 4, 5, or more drafts that will improve each time. Quickly created brand values are generally weak.

Values are an expansion of your mission statement. Keep it consistent for focused messaging and results will come. Consider your values in all aspects of your branding, from your website to your social media profiles to your marketing materials. They should be reflected in your action plans, initiative, hires, ad campaigns, marketing, collaboration partners, tone in social media posts, and all decisions you make. If you don’t want to or find it hard to use your values in this way, then it’s time to revisit and rewrite them. Keep it tight and aligned for maximum effectiveness.

Note: This is the 3rd article in the series, links to the rest can be found here 👇

101–19% of success is showing up

102–Crafting a Mission Statement

103–This Article

104–Build Awareness

or take a look at — Marketing Case Study — Women’s Razors

BanAnakin [Champ] brings real world experience to Web3 with branding, marketing, and community management. His work with 10k PFP and 1/1 art has contributed to 1000+ Eth in sales volume