Value-driven brands often use their values not just as a slogan, but as a guide and a system. They plan, design and invest around their beliefs. These convictions can influence many aspects of their operations, including how they grow.

I’ve seen how value-driven brands approach scaling. Some focus on the artistic elements of growth. Others are measured and data-driven. I find that most successful brands use a combination of the two to build trust—and expand their presence.

The Successes and Challenges of Value in a Brand

A value-driven brand is a company that anchors its strategy and operations in a clear set of values. It often incorporates these beliefs into marketing messages and storytelling opportunities, with beliefs intended to benefit customers or other parts of society.

When value sits at the heart of a business, and a founder can operate in a sustainable manner that creates profit, it helps attract customers. It infuses basic business concepts with purpose—and it may support early traction

Where things get more complicated is managing growth . Value often comes with compromises in areas like efficiency and overhead. This can differentiate a value-driven brand. They’re willing to take a stand on a set of principles that others don’t follow—usually because there is a cost involved.

If a value-driven brand is able to figure out how to operate sustainably as a start-up, it may benefit from scaling with intention. To put it another way, if you’re running a value-driven company, it often requires balancing both the art and science aspects.

The Science of Scaling Value

Scaling typically requires systems. When you have structure, it creates consistency. And that consistency? It should extend to your values, too. If you want to grow a value-driven brand, you need to regularly reiterate those core values that you hold as a company.

FARE is an example of this. The Chicago-based food brand has built its identity around a distinct set of principles: high-quality ingredients, meals made from scratch daily, cooked exclusively in olive oil and free from refined sugars. Its main niche is an offering of seasonal, home-cooked food scaled across more than eight Chicago-area locations.

As FARE continues to expand, those five core values remain consistent across locations. Ingredient transparency, scratch-made meals, olive-oil-based cooking and limited refined sugars continue to shape both the menu and the customer experience. Founder Kasia Bednarz still plays a role in maintaining those standards as the brand grows.

As in FARE’s example, value messaging doesn’t always have to be overt. But if values are core to your company’s identity, they should be baked into what you’re saying whenever possible.

If you want to scale a value-driven business, start by identifying your values. Then, work to include them consistently in as many promotional and marketing messages as possible.

When it comes to the artistic side of scaling, this involves tapping into an empathetic response from your audience—again, always in relation to your core values. We’re talking about investing in things like emotions, experience and creativity.

Brands like Bombas and Patagonia incorporate core values into their scaling efforts. The former has continued to give away apparel en masse as a humanitarian value of its business. It is a very public element, and one that the brand regularly uses to resonate with consumers and justify price points.

Patagonia is similarly creative with its infusion of values. When I visited the apparel site’s home page recently, I saw that they were selling a book on defending the right to protest. Their stories page also featured a wide range of topics that all connect to its broader identity and the interests of its audience.

Brands like these have learned how to not just embrace values, but also how to integrate them into different parts of the company. This can lead to messaging that reflects a more creative and values-oriented approach

If you want to put core values at the center of a growing company, consider how they can influence your creative process and influence your brand’s identity, too. That doesn’t just protect the values themselves. It lets them shape who you are as a business.

Putting Art and Science at the Heart of Scaling

Scaling can involve both creative and structured processes. Science and art can both play a role in the scaling process —especially when there are core values that you can focus on as key factors that your business revolves around.

If you have a value-driven business, don’t let those principles restrain how you grow. Embrace them. Use them to create consistency and identity in your marketing so your brand is more recognizable over time.