Guide
What are brand values?
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Brand values are the core beliefs that a company uses to inform their decision-making and company culture, and how they interact with customers, their community, and the world at large.
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What are brand values?
Brand values are the core beliefs that a company uses to inform their decision-making and company culture, and how they interact with customers, their community, and the world at large. These brand values define a company’s identity, what they stand for, and how they forge connections with employees and consumers, internally and externally.
Why are brand values important?
Brand values are important because they establish a company’s point of view and guide everything from product development to marketing campaigns. Brand values are also important to fostering a relationship between both employees and consumers. According to the 2023 Amazon Ads Higher Impact study, 81% of global consumers say they are more likely to purchase products or services from brands whose values align with their own.
How do you define core brand values?
Brand values will be different for everyone and will be unique to the industry, product or service, leadership, customers, and employees of the company. It’s important for brands to establish their core values early and use these as the north star for their decision making and marketing.
Keep in mind when defining these brand values to be authentic to your own beliefs, understand the views of your customers and your employees, and do outreach to know how your business interacts with the community and world at large. According to the 2024 From Ads to Zeitgeist research, more than half of global consumers say that brands can help raise awareness of issues and topics. Given the reach and platform that both large and small brands have, it’s important to establish clear values and to understand the wider message that your brand is sharing with customers across the globe.
How do you communicate brand values?
Brands can communicate their values through how they design and manufacture products—for example, they can focus on using more-sustainable materials or design products with accessibility in mind. Everything a brand does, from product development to marketing to hiring and operations can be informed by their values. Beyond the products or services they provide, brands can always communicate their values through advertising.
According to the From Ads to Zeitgeist research, 72% of surveyed consumers say advertising is an important way for brands to communicate their values. Whether it’s through video, social media, influencer marketing, email, or traditional display advertising, brands have an opportunity to share their values through all communications with customers.
Benefits of brand values
Building a sense of community and togetherness
By taking part in culture, rather than responding to it, brands can communicate authentically with consumers and demonstrate their values through the relationships they forge. According to the From Ads to Zeitgeist research, 66% of consumers say they want to feel a greater sense of belonging and community and 6 in 10 consumers agree that brands create communities and bring people together. Brands have the opportunity to establish authentic connections and help create culture through the values that they communicate.
Fostering trust with consumers
Because consumers want to make a statement with their purchases, it’s important for brands to pay attention to what their customers care deeply about, especially as they are more closely monitoring their spending. According to the Higher Impact study, 70% of global consumers believe they can vote with their money and look to support brands that are good citizens. As consumers take action to support brands that align with their values and support causes that matter to them, they recognize that these brands are earning their trust.
Examples of brand values
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To inspire creativity among adult Gen Z audiences, The Sims launched the “Not Creative” campaign: a documentary-style content series following Amanda, a young creator searching for her spark. Working with Amazon Ads, the three-episode docuseries invited talented creators and makers who found their creative spark through the game—including an interior designer, a musician, and a graphic artist—to mentor Amanda through one-on-one interviews, hands-on activities, and The Sims gameplay. By tapping into Fire TV, Twitch, Alexa, and more, the campaign helped The Sims reach audiences in original ways while elevating the brand’s core message of unlocking creativity through play, and showcasing the magic that happens when brands and creators work together. Working with Amazon Ads, the three-episode docuseries invited talented creators and makers who found their creative spark through the game.
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With a commitment to being climate positive by 2030, Logitech works to innovate with sustainability in mind while being transparent with their consumers about sustainability through advertising and messaging.
About 1 in 3 Logitech products are made with second-life materials—a figure that continues to increase. Along with the Next Life Plastics program, which produces products with recycled plastic, Logitech remains focused on designing out carbon with recycled or more efficient materials in products and packaging. The brand also has a Carbon Clarity program through which they commit to carbon labeling on all of their products in order to be held accountable and provide transparency for consumers.
To support these efforts, Logitech uses their Brand Store on Amazon and their Amazon Ads campaigns. The Climate Pledge Friendly program, which highlights products with first- and third-party sustainability certifications, features Logitech products that meet sustainability standards, supports Amazon’s commitment to help preserve the natural world, and recognizes products with improvements in at least one aspect of sustainability. SCS Global Services has recognized Logitech products with their Carbon Neutral Certification, meaning the product’s carbon emissions have been measured and reduced, with any remaining emissions offset.
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In 2023, the Ad Council and the Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab (BIL) designed the audio marketing campaign, “Sound It Out: When You Can’t Say It, Play It,” which set out to help families break the ice through the power of music. The campaign includes a first-of-its-kind digital tool that is accessible on Amazon.com/SoundItOut and invites parents and caregivers to type in an emotion like “happy,” “angry,” or “sad.” It then leverages the Amazon Music library of over 100 million songs to serve up a list of curated tracks that reflect the requested feeling. Parents can ask Alexa to share one of the songs with their teen. BIL leveraged Amazon Music’s mood etymology—the system used to classify songs by emotion—to power a search tool that enables parents and teens to discover a song, simply by entering a feeling. Then, BIL coupled that with Alexa’s song-sharing tech, which enables parents to easily send a song as a way to check in with their teen through any Alexa-enabled device.
To promote the bilingual digital experience, BIL produced Muchas Flores, a slice-of-life film directed by award-winning duo Novemba. The spot drops viewers into the tension and awkwardness of a mother and daughter’s attempt at connection. Through small gestures and body language, the film acknowledges how challenging it can be for parents and caregivers to not only initiate the conversation, but also keep it going. As shown in the film, by sharing songs like Ambar Lucid’s “A Letter to My Younger Self,” parents can connect with their teens through the art of music and open up avenues to deeper connection.
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During Earth Month in 2023, General Mills worked with Amazon Ads and Fire TV to help support the National Park Foundation (NPF) through the Stream It Forward program. Through this Fire TV cause-marketing initiative, audiences were incentivized to stream video content to help raise money for the NPF, an organization that protects and enhances America’s more than 400 national parks for present and future generations. During the “Press Play for Nature” campaign, which ran from April 1 to April 26, Amazon donated $1 for every hour of select nature content streamed on Fire TV.
General Mills and Fire TV worked with Prime Video to select nine nature titles that would educate and inspire viewers during Earth Month. Their selections included Wildest Places, a 2019 nature docuseries showcasing extraordinary natural habitats, and The Pollinators, a documentary about beekeepers. Throughout the campaign, these titles saw a 30% increase in streaming, and Stream It Forward reached its goal of raising $100,000 for the NPF, with General Mills matching that donation.
