When building a brand, it’s not enough to create a great product or service and call it a day. If you want your brand to have any sort of longevity, you need to build strong relationships with people—and that requires something more: transparency. People want to see your brand as a whole entity. They want to know not only what you do but what your brand values and believes in.
Specifically, they want to know your Brand Heart. This includes your:
- Purpose: Why do you exist?
- Vision: What future do you want to help create?
- Mission: How do you create that future?
- Values: Who are you? How do you work?
Articulating these ideals (and making them easy to access) is crucial. Unfortunately, many brands have trouble doing this well—if they do it at all. They either have a droll mission buried somewhere on their site. Or they have an easy-to-access About page, but it doesn’t give you a sense of their history, personality, or passion. This is a missed opportunity that hurts both the brand and the potential customer.
Luckily, there are many brands that do a great job of expressing their ideals in an inspiring, engaging, and enticing way.
How 10 Smart Brands Promote Their Brand Values
Whether it’s a simple blurb on a homepage or a multi-media journey through an About page, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite examples of brands that showcase their brand values with clarity and creativity. If you’re looking ways to share your beliefs and cultivate stronger connections with people, these brands may be the inspiration you’re looking for.
1) Everlane
This clothing company aimed to disrupt the fast-fashion industry through “radical transparency.” Their About page is a great example of that mission at work. First, they achieve the difficult feat of distilling their core beliefs into simple, powerful language (16 words to be exact). 
Next, they offer a deeper dive into each value, showing how they apply their beliefs to their manufacturing process. They also put a literal face to the product and their manufacturing practices.
Best of all, they end the page with an infographic breakdown of their pricing model, which shows how the company turns a profit while keeping prices reasonable. It’s transparency from start to finish, proving that Everlane walks the walk in every aspect of their business.
2) Hims
A good About page isn’t necessarily about bells and whistles. Sometimes it’s the simple, earnest approach that makes an impact. Take the Hims About page. The brand provides men with treatments for things like erectile dysfunction and hair loss—very sensitive issues. As such, the brand shares their purpose through a simple letter from the founder, speaking directly to the man who comes across their site.
It’s written in plain English and uses empathetic language, taking the straightforward approach—just like their products. It also includes the founder’s photo (not a stuffy head shot), a nice touch that shows visitors that the brand is run by real people who have also dealt with their issues.
3) Swell
Swell wastes no time in telling people who they are and what they stand for.
Through a letter from the founder, an informative video, and a visual guide to their products, they tell you everything, from why Swell was created (to rid the world of plastic water bottles) to their philosophy for product design (beautiful, charitable, sustainable).
Visitors get a sense of the brand’s journey (now the fastest-growing female-owned company), as well as the important work they’re doing with charities like UNICEF USA, BCRF, and (RED). It’s the perfect snapshot of everything you want to know.
4) Kashi
What does Kashi believe? They put it front and center with a visual and interactive About page. The page features a simple story told via parallax scroll.
In addition to their brand values and mission, the brand adds extra interactive features, offering tidbits about their ingredients as well as a timeline of products that showcases the brand’s evolution. Little details like hand-drawn illustrations give you the sense that there are real humans behind the brand, helping emphasize their mission of creating cereal with real ingredients.
5) Sonos
Sonos has embraced brand storytelling in an impressive way. Their About page is a beautiful scrolling story featuring people-heavy video, motion graphics, and more. For a brand that offers high-quality audio speakers, the page absolutely reflects that hip, modern edge.
They’re highly economical with their words, telling the story through simple blurbs that cover everything from their mission to their ongoing innovation (they have 500 patents and counting!). It’s a creative approach that really brings the brand to life.
6) Virgin Media
For huge corporations like Virgin, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of boring and generic mission statements. But Virgin is known for its bold and edgy branding, as is evidenced by the colorful depictions of their six values.
In classic Virgin style, their values are short, poppy phrases (e.g., “Red Hot” and “Straight Up”), which builds just enough intrigue to make you want to click on each.
7) WeWork
WeWork’s mission statement is pretty damn irresistible: “Create a world where people work to make a life, not just a living.”
As such, the coworking space puts the spotlight on their people and brand values: the founders, story, and team. While the page is fairly simple, it’s the transparency that matters most, particularly in regards to their values. They offer their specific definitions for each value, making sure everyone knows exactly what they mean—and how to keep them accountable.
8) Zenefits
HR is all about humans, and for HR platform Zenefits, humans are always at the forefront. Their About page features staff photos, company milestones, video, and values.
We’re especially fond of their brand values, intentionally written in simple, direct language. Even their bright, bold brand colors bring a lively energy to the page (which could easily be a dull corporate stock page).
9) NerdWallet
NerdWallet is the website full of helpful financial advice for everyday people, and their About page is just another example of how they bring levity and energy to financial information.
Their values are accompanied by clever animations (pigs flying, anyone?) that bring their brand personality to life in an entertaining way. This is definitely not your dad’s financial planning resource.
10) Ben & Jerry’s
Ben & Jerry’s isn’t just concerned with making delicious ice cream; they care about doing business in a way that benefits everyone from their suppliers to their neighbors.
And as we see in their values page, they’re hyper-transparent about the way they do that business, as well as the causes they support. They provide all the info you’d ever want to know, from videos about their supply chain to spotlights on their ingredients, welcoming any visitor to explore more.
How to Share Your Brand Values
Content marketing is one of the most powerful ways to connect with people. But how do you tell your brand story in a way that makes people want to learn more (and eventually buy) from you? By creating compelling content that is interesting and engaging and makes them feel like they know you. Sharing your brand values through content is the shortcut to that connection.
If you’re just starting to tell your brand story through content, or looking for creative ways to share your values effectively, here are some of our best tips to get started.
- Know your own Brand Heart. Download our free workbook template below to identify your brand’s core principles (again, that’s your purpose, vision, mission, and values).
- Consider your website. In the digital world, your website (and social presence) is your first impression. Spotlight your brand values where you can, whether it’s in product copy or on your About page.
- Spotlight your people. Showcase the people behind your brand in unique and creative ways. Whether it’s an employee feature on social, or a bio on your site, put a face (or many faces) to your brand.
- Provide transparency into your process. Your brand values should be evident in every aspect of your business, from the way you treat your employees to your manufacturing processes. Look for ways to tell the story of your brand—at every level.
- Turn your culture into content. The way you do things behind the scenes says everything about who you are and how you walk your talk. Check out our Culture Marketing 101 guide to find out how culture can inspire your next content idea.
- Refine your brand messaging. Use our free brand messaging template to make sure your tagline, value prop, and messaging pillars are all aligned to your Brand Heart.
- Tell a consistent, cohesive brand story. Learn about the keys to a compelling brand story to capture people’s attention from the jump.
- Get inspired by other brands. Take a look at how these 7 brands tell their brand story through content.
- Refine your brand strategy. Your brand strategy helps you align every aspect of your brand from the top down. Download our free Brand Toolkit below to complete your strategy (if you haven’t done one before).
Above all, remember that content marketing is a practice. The more you do it, the better you become, and the more you learn. That said, it’s not always easy to get everything done yourself. If you need a partner to help you keep your sanity, reach out. We’d love to help you tell your brand story in any way possible.
