Brand Identity · Brand values · Component
The proof
What already demonstrates each value — a decision taken, a policy held, a way of working — gathered before the value is claimed rather than after it is questioned.
The deliverable
What it is
An outward value is a claim about the organisation, and claims about organisations are checked — by candidates, journalists, procurement teams and anyone who has dealt with the company before. What they find is either the value or its absence, and the absence is the more memorable of the two.
The useful discipline is to gather the proof first. Where a value has none, the choice is between doing the thing and dropping the word, and both are better outcomes than publishing and hoping.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
The demonstration
The concrete thing that shows the value is real.
3 attributes: Demonstration · Date · Value
LearnThe public form
Where a stranger would find it without being told.
3 attributes: Where it can be found · Reachable · Source
LearnThe unproven
The values with nothing behind them yet.
3 attributes: Value · Decision · Confidence
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Where a value has no proof, the choice is to do the thing or drop the word. Publishing and hoping is the third option and it is the one that gets found out.
The other components in brand values
The stated values
The outward set in its published wording, each with what it rules out — because a value that rules nothing out is describing the category rather than the brand.
LearnThe traceability
Which core value each outward value comes from, and what changed on the way out — the record that makes the distance between the internal and the external set visible in both directions.
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