Build the Brand on What Matters Most to Your Customers

If your positioning statement is the what, your value pillars are the why.
Each value pillar represents a key benefit or belief that supports your brand’s promise. Together, they provide a framework for consistent messaging, product focus, and storytelling across every touchpoint.

Why it's Important

Give clarity on what your brand stands for and delivers
Guide marketing and product messaging across channels
Help differentiate you from competitors with similar features
Provide structure for pitches, ads, website copy, and onboarding
Create consistency as your team and product scale

How to Implement

Start with your positioning statement—what promise are you making?
Identify 3 to 5 key truths or benefits your product consistently delivers
For each pillar, define:
A short phrase or headline (e.g., “Speed,” “Trust,” “Creative Freedom”)
A one-sentence explanation of what it means
Real product features, proof points, or behaviors that support it
Use language your customers would understand and repeat
Validate pillars with internal teams and actual customers
Prioritize clarity over creativity—these are internal tools first
Build messaging, campaigns, and onboarding content around the pillars
Revisit and evolve them as your product or brand positioning shifts

How You Know You Got It Right

Your product, design, and marketing teams use the same core concepts
Messaging across channels consistently ties back to the same ideas
Prospects describe your brand using similar words to your pillars
Your team can explain the pillars without looking them up
Product features map cleanly to one or more pillars
Internal stakeholders use them to prioritize decisions
The brand feels more consistent, even as it scales

Real-World Examples

Notion

Flexibility: One tool, endless workflows

Clarity: Organize your thoughts and work in one place

Collaboration: Built for teams, not just individuals

Figma

Real-Time Collaboration: Work together without friction

Design Access for All: Bridge the gap between designers and developers

Cloud-First Speed: No downloads, always up to date

Superhuman

Speed: The fastest email experience ever made

Delight: Beautiful, minimal, and intentional design

Focus: Tools to cut through the noise

Make It Better

Tie each pillar to real product proof and user stories
Use pillars to evaluate marketing ideas and feature releases
Create a slide or doc that lives in every internal onboarding flow
Reuse pillars as anchors in investor decks or press materials
Include emotional and functional dimensions in each pillar

Don't Make These Mistakes

Choosing abstract terms like “Innovation” or “Excellence” with no proof
Creating too many to remember or apply consistently
Using different language in different parts of the org
Failing to connect pillars to product features or brand experience
Treating pillars as static instead of evolving with your product