Eight in ten brands have values they do not say out loud
Most companies have values, but far from all have written them down. We read the values of 351 Danish brands and divided them into what the brand has formulated itself and what can only be inferred from what it does. A little over two thirds of the values are written down by the brand itself, well over eight in ten brands have at least one value they do not state themselves, and the few brands where we find no declared value at all appear to score lower overall.
A little over two thirds of the values are written down
We went through how each brand talks about its values in the material we can read, and divided them into two kinds: the values the brand has formulated or named publicly itself (the declared), and the values that can only be inferred from what it does (the implicit). A little over two thirds of the values (68 percent) are declared. On average, a brand has a little over three and a half declared values and a little over one and a half implicit ones. Only about one brand in five (19 percent) states all its values itself, and well over eight in ten (81 percent) have at least one value that can only be inferred.
Those with no declared values appear to score lower
The 33 brands (9 percent) where we cannot find a single declared value score about seven points lower on our overall scale from 0 to 100 than the brands that have three or more. The typical brand sits around 54, so if the difference is real it can move a brand a fair way up or down the field. Brands with one or two declared values fall in between, just under four points below those with three or more.
The difference holds even when we leave the sections on values and story out of the calculation (so that we do not measure the same thing twice) and account for size, segment and industry; it is then still about six points. We have also measured it another way, from the share of implicit values, and it points the same direction. The group with no declared values is small (33 brands), so the figure is less certain than the others, but the direction is the same in both measurements. Brands with very little public text also often have fewer declared values, because we cannot see more. When we account for the amount of text available, the difference is still about six points. But among the half of the brands with the most text, it is about four points, and the group there is only 14 brands, with an interval that only just stays above zero. We therefore read the difference as a tendency and not as a certain figure.
We cannot tell from the figures whether writing the values down makes the brand stronger, or whether the brands that have their brand under control also have the means to formulate it. Probably both. But it is among the cheapest things to change: it takes a day and a decision, not a new brand.
What they say and what they do
Well over eight in ten brands have at least one value they do not state themselves: it can only be inferred from what they do. Across the field, a little over two thirds of the values are declared and just under a third are implicit.
The two layers are not about the same things. What brands write down themselves is more often about innovation, sustainability and responsibility. What can only be inferred from practice is more often about the customer and about trust: customer focus is almost twice as common among the implicit values as among the declared, while innovation is half as common. One possible reading is that the values that sound good in a list of values are not always the ones customers actually meet. The figures cannot settle that, but they suggest there is something untapped in what brands already do.
What this means for your brand
Try three things. Write down your values: three to five, each with one sentence on what it means in practice. Then find the ones you already live but do not state: ask three customers what they think you stand for, and see whether it is on your website. And run the test from the article “The ten commandments of Danish business”: is there anything your neighbour could not also have written?
How we measured (method)
The figures are based on 351 brands analysed in brandvju as of October 2026, all measured with the same method. The distinction between declared and implicit values was read automatically from the analysis's own text on the brand's values, which is built on the brand's own publicly available channels. A declared value is a value the brand has formulated or named publicly itself; an implicit value can only be inferred from what the brand does. The distinction was spot-checked on 20 brands (102 values): three independent automatic readings of the analysis text all agreed with the extraction on 95 percent of the values. The groups by number of declared values are: none (33 brands), one or two (55) and three or more (263). A declared value means a value we can find in the available material; the score difference is controlled for the amount of text available (front-page and about text, and the material the analysis has read). We measure what the brand communicates, not the culture behind it. The score is the brand's overall level on the disciplines we score (0 to 100); the comparisons are made without the sections on values and story. The differences are covariation, not cause.