Building your brand values & mission statement
Does anyone out there think of March as a fresh start, or just me? Here’s why I’ve felt that way for a while: the year is underway in a way that feels good and the days are starting to be longer, warmer and maybe even showing signs of new life. You’ve got experience with 2023, but you don’t have baggage. And that’s why I think it’s the perfect time to focus on your businesses’ values and mission statement.
Whether you’re just starting out or have been doing the thing for 45 years, evaluating and (re)establishing brand values and mission statement is critical. I love these two buckets because they drive what I do. You should love them because they tell customers exactly what they need to know about you and will, if done correctly, motivate you.
But just because they’re critical doesn’t mean they should be overwhelming. I like to start with just the adjectives you might use to describe your business, your impact, your tone and your clients’ after-purchase feeling. Those can feed into your brand values - short statements that describe how you achieve your mission and the culture you want for your brand. They tell people what to expect from you and what makes you different… yesss! When you communicate your brand values to your audience in a visual way that they can quickly understand and resonate with… even better! (I can help there!) I love seeing bits of brand values featured on social media and even used to drive hiring decisions.
Starting with values helps you sail right into the mission statement, which is so much about what (and not about how you do it). When it comes down to it, this is what people really need to know. Why do they need you? What problem do you solve for them? Keep it to a sentence, maybe two. Print it out and hang it on your office wall. Consider putting it on your website, too.
Let’s take a look at a quick example from my work for a client that’s got the market cornered on cute: Mini Finds, a brand that sells curated, pre-loved kids’ clothes. “Building a community of mamas and helping them get quality pieces for their minis” is one of the brand values I developed for Mini Finds. The mission ultimately turned out to be “Mini Finds brings elevated fashion to moms wanting designer label clothing without the price tag. All of our items are carefully selected based on quality and accessibility.” Take a look – Mini Finds features their values and mission across their site and has woven pieces of them into their description on social media and in occasional posts. How beautiful is that?
I believe work around values and mission statement can be overwhelming because it feels like something big and potentially uncontrollable. But you know what your business is all about, and you get to decide what happens next. When you focus in, ask the right questions and tap into your passions, goal-setting statements like these aren’t far behind.
