The core values we share with *you*
Identifying what you believe in and finding clients who align on your values is the best way to ensure long-term success.
Creating purpose and alignment
One of our tried and true exercises we take clients through is identifying internal core values. These aren’t the core values that you put on a poster to adorn your company headquarters or publish on your website. (Although we’re doing that here as an example of how this strategy and concept works.) They’re values that you strive to uphold that give purpose to your organization and that must be met in order to create advocates for your brand.
Applying Maslow to brand strategy
Values are the core beliefs underpinning our worldviews. They drive our action and inaction, inform our sense of purpose, and bind together our tribes and communities. The values are hierarchical and build upon each other, like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
As a refresher, Maslow's hierarchy of needs illustrates the core idea that human beings have a range of needs that drive their behavior. These needs, starting from basic physiological necessities to self-fulfillment, are organized in a hierarchical structure. The theory suggests that individuals must satisfy lower-level needs before they can progress to higher-level needs, ultimately striving for self-actualization and personal growth.
Values are the core beliefs underpinning our worldviews. They drive our action and inaction, inform our sense of purpose, and bind together our tribes and communities.
At Moonshot, we apply that framework to companies and their markets in a three-tiered pyramid. The first level is the most fundamental value we want to reinforce with our audience. It’s essential to both pique interest and create a baseline of understanding. Next, we look to a shared value that provides meaning and connectivity to our audience that enriches their lives. The third is a transcendent value, the highest expression of what we can help our audience achieve.
Internal values for external alignment
The crucial thing to keep in mind is that these are mutually-held values between us (the company) and our target audiences (those we most need to reach). When all three are shared, we’ve discovered an ideal market, potential customer, evangelist, or advocate. The story you tell as a brand is likely to be heard, remembered, and shared.
Remember, all expressions and behaviors will be felt and understood through the lens of our values, which at times can be incredibly subtle yet powerfully influential in the decisions of our target market and core audience.
So, how does it work in practice? Below are Moonshot’s hierarchical pyramid of internal core values. We use these to keep ourselves aligned and seek partners who share the same values in order to create lasting, fulfilling partnerships.
1. Competence
We strive to have our work speak for itself as a source of pride and purpose. We’re creatively unconstrained and driven to be efficient and highly capable. Insatiable curiosity, deep listening, and a high touch approach underpin everything we do. We have no desire to be traditional. Big players are entrenched in methodology and dogma. We aim for speed and agility. In other words, we’re a dirt bike, not a motorhome.
2. Creativity
We do what we do because we’re all highly creative people at heart. This allows us to approach everything afresh and revel at a blank slate where we can unleash our talents. We transcend the traditional to bring truly unique ideas to fruition in a way that invites others fully aboard. This ability to understand and translate is why companies looking to transform humanity seek our help in finding the highest and most authentic expression of themselves.
3. Connectivity
Our creativity is in service of winning hearts and minds. We help companies carve their unique path forward and reach those they most need to connect with at a deep level to achieve success. Our ability to be high touch—we listen, translate, connect—earns the trust we need to be able to inspire others toward a new and better future. Connectivity means we can all grow together, unafraid of ambitious missions and mutually invested in progress.
Bridging the internal and the external
When you put it all together, in essence, it works like this: We demonstrate competence in order to be our best creative selves so that we can connect our clients with the people that will make their missions a success. These values are woven intrinsically into each individual at Moonshot. They’re truly who we are at our core and we keep them in mind at each step of the journey we take with everyone we serve.
Doing this thoughtfully and intentionally is an exercise that every organization should go through. It aligns your team around purpose and defines how you can serve your audience. Cultural core values posted in the office and external core values published on the website still have their place, but we believe these meta values are the foundation from which to bridge the internal and the external.
