A value hierarchy is an ordered list of values arranged by importance. In most cases, value hierarchies are structured as pyramids. The higher up the pyramid you go, the more important the values become.
This isn’t a hard and fast rule, though. For example, in the Consumer Value Pyramid (which we’ll discuss in the next section), the values at the top of the pyramid aren’t necessarily more important, they’re just less tangible and/or achievable than the ones below.