A fundamental
aspect of modern marketing
Here's
something that is fast becoming the most fundamental aspects of
marketing to get right, especially if you want to build a truly
sustainable high quality organisation (of any size) in the modern age:
Ensure the ethics and philosophy of your organisation are good
and sound. This might seem a bit tangential to marketing and business,
and rather difficult to measure, nevertheless...
Price is no longer the king, if it ever was. Value no longer rules, if
ever it did. Quality of service and product is not the deciding factor.
Today what truly matters is ethical and philosophical quality -
from the bottom to the top - in every respect - across every dimension
of the organisation.
Modern consumers, business buyers, staff and suppliers too, are today
more interested than ever before in corporate integrity, which is
defined by the organisation's ethics and philosophy.
Good sound ethics and philosophy enable and encourage people to
make 'right and good' decisions, and to do right and good things.
It's about humanity and morality; care and compassion; being good and
fair.
Profit is okay, but not greed; reward is fine, but not avarice; trade is
obviously essential, but exploitation is not.
People naturally identify and align with these philosophical values. The
best staff, suppliers, and customers naturally gravitate towards
organisations with strong philosophical qualities.
Putting a good clear ethical philosophy in place, and
communicating it wide and far lets people know that your organisation
always strives to do the right thing. It's powerful because it
appeals to people's deepest feelings. Corporate integrity, based on
right and good ethical philosophy, transcends all else.
And so, strong ethics and good philosophy are the
fundamentals on which all good organisations and businesses are now
built.
People might not ask or talk about this much: the terminology is after
all not fashionable 'marketing-speak', nor does it correlate obviously
to financial performance, but be assured; everyone is becoming more
aware of the deeper responsibilities of corporations and businesses in
relation to humanity, and morality, the natural world, the weak and the
poor, and the future of the planet.
Witness the antagonism growing towards certain multi-nationals. People
don't rail against successful corporations - they rail against
corporations which put profit ahead of people; growth ahead of of
society and communities; technology and production ahead of the natural
world; market domination ahead of compassion for humankind. None of this
is right and good, and these organisations are on borrowed time.
People increasingly prefer to buy from, deal with, and work for,
ethical, right-minded organisations. And whether an
organisation is ethical and right-minded is becoming
increasingly transparent for all to see.
So be one.
Aside from which - when you get your philosophy right, everything else
naturally anchors to it. Strategies, processes, attitudes,
relationships, trading arrangements, all sorts of difficult decisions -
even directors salaries and share options dare we suggest.
And it need not be complicated. The ultimate corporate reference point
is: "Is it right and good?... How does this (idea, initiative, decision,
etc) stack up against our ethical philosophy?"
Organisations are complex things, and they become more and more
complicated every day. A good ethical philosophy provides everyone with
a natural, reliable reference point, for the tiniest detail up to the
biggest strategic decision.
So as you start to write your marketing plan, be it for a new start-up,
a huge corporation, or a little department within one, make sure you put
a 'right and good' ethical philosophy in place before you do anything
else, and watch everything grow from there.
For the full article
click here.
Copyright Alan Chapman/Businessballs |
