Values: Mission Critical or Marketing Guff?
It is becoming increasingly popular for brands to publicly declare their values. Usually, this comes at the start of a new CEO’s reign following a laborious and expensive discovery project with a team of converse-wearing brand consultants. I’ve long felt that organisations waste too much money on companies who simply dip their hand into a buzzword tombola. Not because having values is inconsequential, but we have to get away from making a song and dance about their values in marketing literature, but seemingly forgetting they exist in strategic decision-making.
How many say they value respect and courtesy, yet bow down to pressure from unreasonable customers when the going gets tough? How many brands bang the drum of female empowerment and gender equality, yet offer staff maternity benefits that barely exceed statutory requirements? And how many say they value individuality, celebrate difference, and foster a culture of inclusivity, yet operate in countries where religious persecution is rife, or homosexuality is illegal?
Brands in all sectors have come under fire when consumers discover a gap between public displays of values and operational activity. Take Boohoo, following allegations of employee exploitation - which included staff being paid less than minimum wage and significant health and safety risks in factories - a review of their supply chain by a leading barrister concluded “Boohoo has not felt any real responsibility for factory workers in Leicester and the reason is a very human one: it is because they are largely invisible to them.” A quick glance at boohoo.com's recruitment website still indicates that one of their five core values is team, ‘We listen and respond to create a place where everyone's contribution is important. Building success through our people and sharing in it together. And we remember to have fun along the way.’
Examples such as this show why values can never be ‘just’ a public relations exercise, they must run through an organisation as grain meanders through oak or marble; deeply embedded into all aspects of strategy, operational planning and financial resourcing. To be clear, I’m not suggesting brands are seeking to deliberately mislead customers, far from it, their intentions are undoubtedly good. However, hollow values are destructive, resulting in disengaged employees and undermined leadership credibility. I simply ask: how can we make sure they matter?
Boohoo’s troubles could be assessed by a 46% drop in share price. The vast majority of brands aren’t publicly listed, but with increased consumer activism and - increasingly - naive marketing and comms people seeing their moment in the sun, we must ask how committed to these values are we willing to be? Would we turn down easy cash from foreign investors if their plans didn’t align with our values? Would we reshape our HR policies and staff benefits package if the need arose? Would we be willing to defend tough or controversial decisions in the press because of how they stack up against our values, regardless of how it might play?
Values matter, but if they’re just a half-baked attempt at communicating difference then they’re probably best left in the buzzword tombola.
Written by Ben Weston-Conway, April 2023.
