Every Monday night, from age 6 through age 17, you could find me at a Boy Scout meeting. Many of those Scouting values are still fresh in my mind – particularly the 12 values in the Scout Law (“A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.”)
Check out these 12 brands, each of which have implemented at least one of those values in their content marketing campaigns…
Trustworthy: The Honest Company
It’s practically in their name. The Honest Company focuses on stylish, safe, eco-friendly products for babies. I love how transparent they are on their blog and social media channels. Check out their series on chemicals, “An honest look at…” for a good example of trustworthiness.
Loyal: Amazon.com
When most people say “brand loyalty,” they’re referring to the customer’s relationship to the brand. As this relationship is on the downward slide, many companies like Amazon are increasing their loyalty to customers. As one of the top-ranked companies in customer service, Amazon goes above and beyond to show their dedication by offering tons of Prime membership benefits and the best shipping deals on the web.
Helpful: The Wild Cow
If you’re actively building your brand, then it’s essential to be actively helpful. Check out how one of my favorite local (Nashville) restaurants, The Wild Cow, does this on their Facebook page:
This isn’t an off-the-wall post for the Wild Cow either. The restaurant is always helping out in our community. How can you be helpful?
Friendly: Target
There are so many brands to pick from here, but I’ll just point you over to a recent example: Target on Twitter. Target does a great job on Twitter with their friendly voice. For such a large corporation, they certainly know how to get personal and project a friendly image.
Courteous: Chick-fil-A
Though Chick-fil-A has been on a bumpy ride for the last few months, the company constantly exhibits courtesy in serving its customers. Chick-fil-A has an online Story Archive where they feature tales about courtesy and customer service experiences. Great content marketing from a company that truly understands service!
Kind: Zappos
In researching this post, I came across a touching story about Zappos, the online shoe retailer, and kindness. To sum up the story: someone had a death in the family. While cleaning out the deceased’s home, they found unopened boxes of shoes. They called up Zappos, the company picked up all the shoes– no questions asked – and then followed up with a note and flowers the next day.
Obedient: Whole Foods
Great brands know how to obey their customers. Sure, the basic rules of economics dictate this principle, but companies like Whole Foods, which understood this principle early on, enjoy long-term success. Check out Whole Foods’ Core Values and you’ll see this idea of “obeying the customer” threaded throughout the copy.
Cheerful: Google
Google thrives on being cheerful and whimsical (as well as, you know, crazy high revenues). Google fans are head over heels for Google Doodles. How can your brand bring that same cheerfulness to your customers?
Thrifty: eBay
In the last week of April, eBay sent out an email to 40 million eBay users, asking users to petition their representatives on Capitol Hill to reject the Marketplace Fairness Act. (Read the email here.) Though eBay may have its own political/economic motivations, the email is also a nice gesture that could save some entrepreneurs and small business owners thousands.
Brave: SodaStream
In late 2012, SodaStream released a commercial advertising their product, which allows customers to make their own sodas at home. Clearcast banned the commercial from the UK, claiming, “The majority decided that the ad could be seen to tell people not to go to supermarkets and buy soft drinks, instead help to save the environment by buying a SodaStream. We thought it was denigration of the bottled drinks market.” And this is bad why? SodaStream hasn’t backed down, and continues to fight for advertising space.
(In fairness, I should mention SodaStream does not seem to uphold the other tenets…)
Clean: prAna
prAna is an athletic clothing company with a strong sustainability, eco-friendly bent. From their “Set Hemp Free” Pinterest board to their Sustainability page, prAna does a great job of building their brand with a focus on clean/eco-friendly practices.
Reverent: The One Fund
Shortly after the Boston Marathon bombings, Massachusetts Governor Patrick and (Boston) Mayor Menino set up The One Fund, which has collected nearly $30 million for victims of the April bombing. The campaign is reverent and tasteful with an encouraging live-ticker to draw in more donations. Now officials just have to figure out how to distribute the funds!
What values will you take on as you’re building your brand over the next few months and years?