Brand values and staff behaviour: The British Army

Hi Matthew,

Your post made me think about how differently values operate in organisations where trust isn’t optional.

One thing that stood out to me is how the Army has very little room for inconsistency. In many organisations, values can end up being aspirational statements on a website that employees rarely think about. In contrast, the Army demonstrates that values only become meaningful when they influence behaviour, especially when decisions have real consequences.

It also made me reflect on something we often discuss in marketing: employees are the brand. King (1991) argued that organisations communicate their brand as much through people’s behaviour as through advertising. The Army is a powerful example of this because every interaction a soldier has with the public contributes to how the institution is perceived. There is no separating the individual from the brand.

This something more commercial organisations could learn from. Businesses often invest heavily in external branding campaigns but sometimes spend less time ensuring employees genuinely understand and live the brand values. As consumers, we usually remember how someone made us feel far more than a slogan or logo. In that sense, every employee becomes a brand ambassador, whether they realise it or not.

The strongest brands are often built from the inside out. When values become everyday habits rather than marketing statements, people notice, and that’s when trust really starts to grow.