One of the most important words in marketing is the word value. The entire relationship between brand and buyer is associated with value.
Values can be something your brand holds, your customers align with, or something you present to consumers to win their favor.
People want to feel that they are valued or are being given something of value.
You might ask yourself these questions:
- How can your brand provide value?
- What values is your brand defined by?
- Do you promote those values?
- Who aligns themselves with your brand’s values?
- Do you make your audience feel valued?
- How do you make your audience feel valued?
To answer these questions, we are going to look at the different forms of value in today’s marketplace and how they interrelate.
BRAND VALUES
Brand values are the values that make your brand what it is. Brand values are an amalgam of the values of the employees and founders of the company, combined with the objectives of the organization.
Brand values give your brand a direction other than lining your pockets. Brand values are the basis of cause marketing, which is when brands use social issues and causes to boost their marketing efforts.
Creating and agreeing upon a set of brand values means that you can win customers whose personal values align with the brand values you’ve chosen.
AUDIENCE VALUES
To find your brand values, you want to get a pulse on what your customer and audience values are as well. To get a gauge on the values of your customers ask these questions:
- Where does your audience live?
- What social media platforms do they use?
- When are they most active online?
- Where do they fall on current issues and politics?
- Do they have families?
- Do they work in a city? Do they work from home?
- How old is your audience?
- What do they think is important?
- What do they think is funny?
Answer some of these questions by digging into the demographics of your customers and audience. Learn about what is important to them socially, in their homes, and in their work lives.
VALUE ALIGNMENT
This involves finding the places where your employee value, brand value, and audience values meet.
Your audience will have some diversity but it is worthwhile to find the places where almost all of your paying customers land, then really lean into those values.
Find causes to donate to, participate in conversations along those value lines, etc.
VALUE EXCHANGES
Giving and receiving value is another way that the word value manifests in this conversation.
Value exchanges involve the brand exchanging something of value (maybe a useful tool, video, consultation, etc) in exchange for something of value from its audience. That is usually a piece of identifying information or several pieces of that information.
In a world where data is the largest and most valuable commodity, value exchanges are key. What is valuable enough to get someone to give an email or phone number? Why should they trust your brand with their contact information?
That’s what you have to think about when creating a value exchange. What makes the value exchange worthwhile?
VALUE AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Investing in customer experience is the best way to make your customers feel valued. Even if your offering solves the problem and is well-priced, a poor customer experience can ruin the entirety of it.
Was the value of the product worth the experience? Does the value of the product complement the value of the experience?
Personalized customer experiences make customers feel valued and feel that they are getting a good value for their money.
I would argue that just about everything in marketing today is related to value and customer experience. How do you make your brand have more value? How do you choose your brand’s values? How do those values align with those of your customer? How do you provide customers with value and make them feel valued? These are questions you should consider as you work on your marketing strategies for the rest of 2021.
