The Marketing Funnel is Failing You: Growth is a Flywheel
The marketing funnel is pervasive. This framework—the dominant mindset among marketing professionals, whether B2B or B2C—is built on a series of assumptions:
The marketing funnel is pervasive. This framework—the dominant mindset among marketing professionals, whether B2B or B2C—is built on a series of assumptions:
First, we need to make people aware.
Then, a subset of those people become familiar with what we offer and consider purchasing.
Even fewer purchase.
If we’re lucky, we have a small sliver of buyers who advocate on our behalf.
We lose people at every stage. It seems like an unavoidable reality.
But what if this mindset is all wrong?
This innocent enough triangle forces us to accept systemic loss. There’s no momentum. There’s no feedback loop. There’s no priority on reducing friction. There’s no relationship between advocacy and awareness.
As a result, we pour money into the top and hope that what comes out on the bottom is enough to meet our business objectives.
This framework isn't just inefficient—it's increasingly out of step with how modern businesses, especially purpose-driven ones, create sustainable growth. The funnel's emphasis on volume over value, and transactions over relationships, limits its effectiveness in today's market where trust and authenticity fuel business success. We burn bridges spamming thousands of people with ads and emails they don’t want, not considering the cost to our brand.
Enter the growth flywheel.
The flywheel concept was originally conceived by Jim Collins. This iteration of the growth flywheel originated in the B2B tech world, and surprisingly has not permeated the rest of business. Applying this tool represents a huge opportunity for any business (even non-profits) to accelerate growth.
The growth flywheel can and should forever replace the marketing funnel.
Understanding your flywheel isn’t just about mapping the customer journey—it’s about identifying what’s holding back your momentum at each stage. Just as friction points limit a physical flywheel's speed, specific constraints at each phase limit your business growth. Identifying and addressing these constraints is critical to accelerating growth.
I’ve made a few modifications to the common tech flywheels so that it’s broadly applicable to all businesses. Let's examine each phase, considering both our goals and the typical constraints that might be limiting progress. (Note: I’m starting at the top, but you can start anywhere on the flywheel.)
Ideal Customer
At the center of the flywheel is the ideal customer. Your flywheel strategy must target customers where you have a clear right to win and who have sufficient market potential to achieve your business goals.
Customers → Delight
Our goal is to ensure customers fully appreciate the value of our product or service. I intentionally put delighting customers on top, rather than building awareness. We first must ensure a quality product before we invest behind building awareness. While one enter the flywheel from any point, focusing on delighting customers as the first step toward awareness building is an important mindset shift.
At this stage, limiting constraints often center on product quality, experience or service delivery. Even great products can be undermined by poor onboarding, insufficient customer support, or unrealistic expectations of performance. If you’re not delighting your customers, you have no hope of a sustainable business.
Advocates → Enable
Our goal is to make it easy and natural for delighted customers to spread the word, creating a virtuous cycle that attracts new strangers to your business.
The limiting constraint here is almost always a lack of infrastructure that makes advocacy easy and rewarding. Traditional tech growth flywheels often lack and explicit “enable” strategy. Brands can delight without creating advocates, so you need an intentional strategy to turn happy customers into brand promoters.
Strangers → Attract
Our goal is not just to build awareness, but to attract the right people to our business. We need to reach the right people where they’re naturally receptive to our value proposition.
The common limiting constraint here? Often it’s not how many people have heard of our brand, but whether we have identified, reached, and resonated with the right audience, especially given increasingly crowded channels and categories saturated with options.
Prospects → Engage
Our goal is to turn interest into action by engaging prospects meaningfully. This requires understanding their needs and making our offering and information clear, relevant, and helpful.
The limiting factor is often the capacity and capability to engage prospects effectively—whether that’s sales expertise or systems and content for nurturing relationships.
In a recent interview, Sean Ellis, author of Hacking Growth, says that he never puts significant resources into building awareness until he fully optimizes the flywheel. That is, he makes sure he reduces loss and friction as much as possible before investing to build awareness to scale. I see so many companies focus on awareness, customer acquisition or lead generation before they have solid engagement, product performance or advocacy strategies in place.
For example, Zoom didn’t enter the video-conferencing market with massive marketing campaigns. In fact they had no marketing team for two years. Instead, they recognized that their key limiting constraint was product experience. As such, leaders focused relentlessly on creating a solution that would delight users and spark natural advocacy. Their “freemium” model led to fast adoption and word of mouth advocacy that spread organically.
Four Ways the Flywheel Transforms Growth
1) It expects continuity over loss.
A funnel expects drop-off from one stage to the next. A flywheel is only operating efficiently when there is minimal loss. While traditional marketing accepts waste as inevitable, the flywheel pushes us to address the limiting constraints at each stage. This creates a more efficient and sustainable system that prioritizes genuine value creation over volume-based marketing tactics.
2) You can activate the flywheel from any starting point.
If you have a killer product, begin with enabling more advocates. If the flywheel is already humming, put more effort into building awareness to attract potential customers. If sales is your growth engine, optimize your sales process to close any leaky buckets, converting more prospects into customers. Unlike traditional push marketing, this flexibility allows you to lead with your strongest value proposition.
3) It integrates and values each of the core growth functions.
Marketing, sales, product/service, and customer success are the core growth engines of a business. The flywheel shows the unique and essential role each plays in delivering growth. Just like any athletic team, each function must play their position with excellence, otherwise everyone loses. The flywheel promotes building lasting customer relationships rather than just driving transactions.
4) It turns customers into awareness generators.
A funnel considers advocates “nice to have,” not core awareness generators for the business. And yet, most people prefer and trust word-of-mouth recommendations over ads or content coming from the business itself. This is especially true for purpose-driven brands, where authentic customer advocacy carries both the product value proposition and the brand's broader mission. When we enable our customers to advocate on behalf of our business, we activate a powerful engine for trusted (and low cost!) awareness building.
A Case Study: Allbirds
When Allbirds entered the footwear market, they chose an unconventional path to growth. They attracted attention through material innovation (notably wool) that connected to their point of difference on comfort, combined with an extensive focus on sustainability, including carbon footprint labeling.
• Delight: Since inception, Allbirds has delighted customers with a focus on comfort, supported by their choice of sustainable materials. Their retail staff, customer service, and impact initiatives like "ReRun" resale program keep customers engaged beyond the first purchase.
• Enable: A sophisticated advocacy program combines micro-influencers, user-generated content (#weareallbirds), and shareable sustainability metrics, making it easy for both casual fans and committed environmentalists to spread the word and attract new customers.
• Attract: Allbirds builds awareness through a powerful mix of word of mouth referrals who are activated through their ambassador program, social advertising, sustainability leadership (carbon labeling), and selective retail locations that let customers experience their materials firsthand.
• Engage: They convert interest through simplified shopping experiences (limited styles, clear pricing), risk-free trials, and targeted messaging that spans both lifestyle benefits (comfort, design) and environmental impact ("Flight Status" scores).
How to Measure Flywheel Effectiveness
The following relevant metrics will prove your growth flywheel is working.
1) Conversion rates from one stage to the next: These should increase over time, including the percentage of customers who advocate.
2) Increasing word-of-mouth attribution: As advocates build awareness, higher volumes of new customers will materialize.
3) Customer acquisition costs decline: If the flywheel is operating efficiently (all else being equal), the cost to acquire new customers should go down.
The Future of Growth is Circular, Not Linear
The funnel served its purpose to help brands understand how business and marketing objectives change throughout the customer journey. However, this model is not helpful to deliver real value to customers. Exclusively relying on paid mass awareness building is inefficient, expensive and increasingly ineffective. The flywheel model doesn’t just drive more efficient growth; it creates the conditions for long term sustainability by aligning business objectives with customer value. When we shift from thinking about marketing as a linear process of loss to a circular system of momentum, we unlock the potential for both profit and positive impact.
What limiting constraints will you address first to get your flywheel spinning?
The Brain’s Guide to Building a Brand
You only need to look at a fraction of one of these logos, and your brain fills with images and experiences.
You only need to look at a fraction of one of these logos, and your brain fills with images and experiences.
The Nike logo reminds me of an ad I saw over 20 years ago, featuring a montage of athletes in the moments before their competitions begin. Right when the whistle or gun was about to sound, the screen turned black. “Just do it” appeared. I still get chills thinking about that ad and the anticipation I feel competing.
Most people think about branding backward. Conventional marketing says companies create brands.
Not so.
Our brains create brands.
Companies can influence how a brand is perceived but do not control it.
To help create a strong brand we must begin with the brain and how it processes brands.
What is a Brand?
Let’s use Starbucks to illustrate the concept of a brand.
When driving on the highway, you pass a sign for Starbucks at the upcoming exit. It instantly triggers neurons in your brain to fire, activating memories and experiences associated with Starbucks:
You think of your favorite drink order and the relaxation you feel when you take your first sip.
You picture the smile of the barista, the dim lighting, and the earthy, comfy furniture in the stores.
You think of the ridiculous price tag and the painfully long line in the airport Starbucks as you fear missing your flight (just me??).
All of this is triggered nearly instantaneously by a company name with a color, font, and picture you recognize.
A brand exists when you experience repeated associations with a company that activates multiple parts of your brain to give you an impression of a company. A combination of sensory, emotional, visual, auditory, and conceptual experiences form memories and strengthen the neural networks surrounding the brand. When we say a company has a “strong brand,” we mean that a company or product activates a set of consistent, positive associations in the brain.
Neurons that Fire Together Wire Together
The neurons in your brain form complex networks of connections. When signals are repeatedly transmitted along certain routes, they form connections called neural pathways, which are like roads. Some roads are dirt paths, some are two-lane residential streets, and some are eight-lane highways. When one neuron repeatedly stimulates another, the strength of the signal between the two increases.
The more frequently neurons fire together (say, the mermaid logo and the delicious smell of coffee), the more pavement gets laid down on that road, making it faster to travel from one association to another. The stronger the associations between attributes and a brand (i.e., the bigger the roads), the quicker the brain activates all other associated attributes.
At a market level, “brand” is a culmination of the dominant attributes most people associate with your product or company.
That is, a brand is what other people perceive about you, not what you say about yourself.
Product Category is Your Brand’s Foundation
The product category is your brain’s most important association with a product or business. This association allows your brain to classify your brand within a familiar structure.
Let’s test this. What brand do you think of when reading these words?
Low cost
Friendly service
No frills
Colorful
Quirky
Having trouble? It’s probably difficult to think of a specific brand because you don’t have any context for these descriptions. What if we add the word “airline”? Now, what brand comes to mind?
If you didn’t guess Southwest, you likely narrowed it down to a few options. The category gave you context for these descriptions.
The category is a brand’s foundation. Associations and differentiation are nearly always built on top of the category.
This is why building a brand for a new category can be so difficult. Our brains don’t yet know how to process the category. The brand’s associations are essentially in limbo until we connect them to something familiar. A useful tactic for new categories is to borrow a familiar concept. Consider the common use of a cross-category metaphor: “Uber for groceries” (Instacart).
Category familiarity also explains why it can be challenging to brand services or concepts such as “cloud computing” or “mortgage-backed securities.” Unless the audience understands the category, any hope of brand-building is moot. If you sell water bottles, establishing your category can take milliseconds with a simple photo of a water bottle. IT consulting services may require more explanation to ensure your audience understands what exactly it is that you do.
Marketing doesn’t own the brand
Marketing is often thought of as the “owner” of a brand, but this mindset can be deceiving. While marketing typically sets brand strategy—such as positioning, messaging, color, and tone of voice—brand cohesiveness must be a multi-functional effort. The product experience, customer service, retail experience, sales, and marketing all influence the brand impression. The departments with the greatest influence on brand perception are those that have the most frequent interactions with the customer.
Consider a B2B software provider whose brand identity is more strongly influenced by frequent product usage, interactions with the sales rep, and annual conferences rather than advertising. The teams most accountable for the brand impression would be the sales, engineering, and events teams.
Compare this to a product such as toothpaste, whose brand touchpoints are dominated by product usage and advertising—the innovation and marketing teams would have the most influence over how the brand is perceived.
3 Principles for Building a Strong Brand
So, how do we apply this information to our daily work? Here are three simple principles to integrate into your strategies, practices, and reviews to help create a strong, brain-based framework for building a brand. Though simple on the surface, they are hard to execute.
1) Consistency:
Regular, reliable, and repeated exposure to the same brand elements creates stronger brand associations in the brain. This requires a consistent overall message, tone of voice, color, logo, and general brand experience. Messages can be slightly modified to fit the context, but aim for as much consistency as possible. Repeated exposure to the same elements will strengthen the neural networks.
Common Consistency Mistakes:
Product launches that seem totally from one another, as though they are come from different companies
Different messages in different channels
Changing brand assets too frequently (such as positioning, packaging, tagline
2) Congruency:
The entire brand experience must be cohesive. If advertising promises one thing and the product doesn’t deliver, customers experience dissonance. For example, an airline can’t boast about on-time flights when customers are frequently delayed.
Common Congruency Mistakes:
Messaging overpromises what the product delivers
Customer service or sales interactions don’t have the same tone of voice or vibe as marketing
Actions go against the company’s stated mission
A company promotes sustainability or social-impact efforts in one domain but is silent on a vulnerable issue for that category
3) Connection:
Connection in branding is about creating positive neural associations in your customers' minds. Aim to deeply understand your customer and demonstrate genuine empathy for their needs and challenges. By aligning your brand with their values, using storytelling to relate to their experiences, and building personal relationships, you create meaningful connections.
Common Connection Mistakes:
Evoking emotion without a purpose, such as creating tear-jerking content or humor without relating it to the brand or products
Trying too hard to appear “relatable” or “authentic”
Eliciting fear, guilt, or insecurity to try to sell more product
My hope is that you have shifted your thinking from brand as your asset to brand as your customer’s perception. Your role is to influence the desired impression you want your customers to have about you. The more intentional we are with consistency, congruency, and connection, the stronger our brand will be.
The Power of Positive Intent: Building Customer Trust
Imagine you’re in the airport, famished, waiting for a flight. You buy an enormous, puffed-up bag of potato chips. You tear into the bag, relishing the idea of stuffing yourself with salty, greasy goodness.
Imagine you’re in the airport, famished, waiting for a flight. You buy an enormous, puffed-up bag of potato chips.
You tear into the bag, relishing the idea of stuffing yourself with salty, greasy goodness.
It’s one-fourth full.
What??!!! You think to yourself, This bag is practically empty!
You unconsciously make assumptions, questioning the intent of the company. Here are two possible interpretations:
They are trying to make the bag look big and scamming me out of chips.
The added air in the bag protects the chips during transport.
The output is the same – a puffy, less-filled bag—but the thinking and motivation behind that business decision may vary. Customers make assumptions of intent based on past experiences and brand trust.
Positive intent, transparently communicated, builds trust and ultimately leads to loyal customers. We need to be conscious of the intent behind our business decisions, incorporate our customers’ interests (if not already considered), and understand how our intent may be perceived so that we can communicate effectively.
Business Has an Intent Problem
This potato chip example is a recent theme, dubbed “shrinkflation”—the practice of downsizing products while maintaining the original price. Some companies claim this is done to accommodate a higher cost of goods, and they may or may not intentionally hide the size reduction.
Most consumers, however, assume a negative intent. For perspective, the shrinkflation community has 135K followers on Reddit, and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown has introduced the “Shrinkflation Prevention Act” to “crack down on this greedy practice.”
Perceived negative intent exists whenever we hear or say, “That company is just trying to sell me something.” Frequent criticism of businesses reflects an inherent distrust of motives. Consider that someone rarely says, “That farmer is just trying to get me to buy their tomatoes,” or “That musician is just trying to get me to go to their concert,” or “That artist is just trying to get me to buy their painting.”
And yet, in each of these professions, the provider earns income based on a transaction. Here, the perceived intent is positive. We give the seller the benefit of the doubt, assuming we benefit from the purchase just as they do.
Since the 1970s, the business world has been dominated by the era of "shareholder primacy," with an near-exclusive focus on performance. This shift has bred widespread distrust in businesses, as consumers increasingly assume that most companies prioritize sales and profits over customer well-being.
Many of us have personal experiences that validate this skepticism. Perhaps you've bought a product that failed to live up to its promises, leaving you frustrated and disillusioned. On a larger scale, corporate scandals like Wells Fargo's deceptive practices—driven by misaligned incentives for sales and profit growth—have further eroded public trust.
The disconnect between a company's stated intent and its actions can be glaring. Take Facebook, for instance: while its purported purpose is to connect people, the platform faces widespread criticism for spreading misinformation and negatively impacting mental health.
Why Does Intent Matter?
As Simon Sinek famously said, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Simply put, intent influences sales. Intent is the foundation of trust.
Trusting customers share more positive news, spread less negative news, and remain loyal if they assume positive intent. If customers know—or believe—a brand doesn’t have their interest at heart, they will walk. Here are a few stats to support the importance of perceived positive intent:
Purchase Consideration: 81% of consumers say a significant purchase consideration is “I must be able to trust the brand to do what is right” (Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2019)
Pricing: 86% of consumers “are willing to pay more for a great customer experience” (Source: SuperOffice) and customers who enjoy a positive experience are likely to spend 140% more than those reporting negative experiences (Source: Deloitte)
Advocacy: On average, customers tell nine people about a positive experience with a brand, but share a negative experience with 16 people (Source: Deloitte)
The holy grail is to create a win-win. In this mutually beneficial arrangement, the company considers and elevates the customer’s interest. And in return, the customer rewards the company with payment for delivering value to their life. We can’t sacrifice one for the other.
How to Identify Your Intent
In business, we must first understand and declare our intent to understand how we will be perceived. When making any decision, the starting point is often business-centric—grow revenue, acquire new customers, or increase profitably. Sometimes, we lose sight of the customer during the course of these decision processes. Therefore, a more specific analysis of intent is necessary.
To align our business goals with customer priorities, we can reflect on these questions:
What is our goal?
Would our customers distrust us if we told them our motivation?
What are the expected and unintended consequences of our actions on our customers?
Would our customers perceive those consequences to be in their best interest?
How can we incorporate our customer interests into this decision?
When intent and interest equate, it’s our responsibility—and opportunity—to communicate effectively.
Case Study: Compacted Laundry Detergent
Consider a laundry brand that concentrated its detergent to reduce its environmental footprint and cut costs. The new formula meant less volume for the same number of washes. However, when the smaller product hit the shelves, consumers perceived it as fewer doses, and sales declined. The brand reverted to the original height and width to address this value-perception issue but made the package thinner.
The company’s intent was to offer the same dosage at the same price in a more compact, environmentally friendly form. While making the package thinner could be seen as manipulative, consumers actually received the same value as before and arguably more, given the lighter product and reduced environmental impact. If communicated effectively, most customers would likely appreciate this positive intent.
Contrast this with a detergent brand launching a thinner package containing fewer washes. Here, the consumer receives less value, and the company appears to be cutting costs without increasing value to the consumer. If discovered, this practice would likely erode consumer trust.
How to Balance Customer and Company Interests:
Ultimately, we need to avoid situations where we put company interest ahead of customer interest. This does not mean jeopardizing the financial well-being of the company, rather it means finding ways to create a mutually beneficial understanding about what it takes to create value. Following these principles can help you articulate positive intent and reduce the chance of being misunderstood:
Transparency: Provide context and clear explanations
Proactiveness: Give notice and plenty of time to adjust and adapt before it’s found out
Sacrifice: People believe you when it costs you something
Congruency: All actions of the company need to match communication
Shifting from Negative to Positive Intent: Practical Scenarios
Below are some common scenarios where we may be tempted to put the business interests ahead of the customer interests. In each example, I identify the negative practice and offer an alternative that incorporates customer interests.
Many of these examples extend beyond marketing and branding, but anything that creates distrust inevitably reflects on the brand. At its core, communicating intent is about managing expectations. Even potentially controversial decisions can foster brand loyalty when done clearly, transparently, and with empathy.
Customers understand that businesses must be profitable to survive and that external factors, like rising material costs, may impact pricing. However, they also expect fair treatment, respect, and good value. Above all, customers appreciate being informed and included in the conversation. Aligning company interests with customer needs is more than just ethical—it’s essential for long-term success. This alignment doesn't mean sacrificing profitability; it involves creating mutual value through transparent, customer-centric practices.
Longevity: The Undervalued Brand Growth Strategy
This is my Coach purse. It recently caught my eye in a photo taken 13 years ago when I noticed it hanging over my shoulder. I had purchased it years before that and have used it nearly every day since
This is my Coach purse.
It recently caught my eye in a photo taken 13 years ago when I noticed it hanging over my shoulder. I had purchased it years before that and have used it nearly every day since. Thankfully, I’m no fashion maven and care little about style trends, so using one purse for 15-plus years has not cramped my “image” (as much as it pains my girlfriends).
A little worn, with some loose threads and tarnished metal, it has held up well. Beyond well. It’s what I would call durable, which is somewhat remarkable for a product designed in an industry where disposable is dictated by style rather than deterioration.
It’s comforting, refreshing, even shocking to have some goods last so long. A 15-year-old purse is an anomaly. A few other products I own have also stood the test of time. They work reliably, perform their role, year after year. And through those years they’ve build memories, yes, even the vacuum.
My 19-year-old Toyota.
My 14-year-old Timberland hiking boots.
My 20-year-old Specialized road bike.
My 13-year-old Dyson. (Perhaps we should use this one more frequently …)
It was pretty darn hard to come up with a list of items that have lasted more than 10 years. Heck, I’ll even put my 3-year-old Peloton on the list of products I’m surprised haven’t broken yet. We are used to buying new. Most of us don’t even know how to fix things anymore. The cost of replacement is often far less than the time and monetary expense for repair.
We’ve all heard our parents or grandparents remark “things just aren’t made like they use to be.” And it’s true. My kids still play with my husband’s Fisher Price trucks from the 1980s and they show no signs of wear. Many of today’s brands don’t stand a chance in 40 years.
Short-Lived is Short-Sighted Business
Purposefully producing goods with a limited shelf life or at a lower quality is called many things: planned obsolescence, perceived obsolescence, value engineering, or simply the latest style or trend. Companies that utilize this business strategy believe in the rewards of cutting costs by removing value from the product and planning frequent updates or new launches despite minimal real innovation.
The rewards do seem appealing. This business model supposedly assures a steady stream of customers, guaranteeing more consistent revenue with lower costs and, therefore, higher margins.
But this approach is bad for the environment, bad for the customer, and, I argue, bad for your brand.
Great marketing needs to be built on top of a great product.
Continuing to erode the longevity and quality of one’s product may appear to yield short-term benefits, but it comes with long-term consequences.
Part of the problem is simply our expectations about product lifespan. A classification used in industry analysis and financial reporting is “consumer non-durables,” which includes products expected to be used or replaced within three years, such as clothing, beauty products, and food. This language reinforces short-term thinking in product development and marketing, encouraging a disposable, “single-use” mindset rather than repairability and longevity.
The Relationship Between Long-Lasting and Business Growth
When I purchased my Toyota, I originally planned to buy a used one. I shopped the used lots and realized cars five to 10 years old cost only a few thousand dollars less than a brand new one. Instead, I bought new, confident that it would last and trusting the value would remain if I wanted to sell in the future. Rather than going to an intermediary, Toyota received my full margin.
What if we thought about how to put more value into our products? Make them last longer? Create longer cycles between repeat purchases? What if we designed our products to be so durable that we worried about whether our customers would need to buy again? Would we lose money? Call me naïve, but I think we’d build a reputation for longevity. The reward of that reputation? A strong, enduring brand and the ability to price much higher in the market.
Tiffany & Co. and Patagonia are just a couple of iconic brands known for durable, stylish products that have experienced sustainable growth over the past few decades. Tiffany & Co., which has focused messaging on quality, premium craftsmanship and timeless style, has grown steadily since the 1990s before being acquired by LVMH in 2021. Patagonia, with an emphasis on repair, returns, and durable materials, quadrupled its sales in the past decade. A Time reporter covering Patagonia who had a hole in his Patagonia fleece was told by then-CEO, Rose Marcario, that he didn’t need a new one. “You can just patch it,” she said.
Why Longevity Builds Purpose-Driven Brands
Creating durable or longer-lasting products can be a meaningful differentiator in a competitive landscape saturated with lower-quality offerings. Focusing on longevity is a powerful strategy for purpose-driven companies to build a trusted, enduring brand. Doing so:
Elevates Brand Value:
Durable products fulfill or exceed customer expectations, reinforcing quality and reliability as core brand attributes. An extended product lifespan keeps customers engaged with the brand longer, fostering trust, loyalty, and a higher likelihood for repeat purchase. These brands often generate strong secondary market value, which further reinforces the brand reputation.
Commands Substantial Price Premiums:
Products known for longevity can significantly outprice competitors. Customers willingly pay more, viewing durable goods as investments rather than expenses. Brands like Rolex, Tumi, and All-Clad leverage their reputation for lasting quality to charge multiples of standard market rates, boosting profitability and perceived value.
Promotes Word-of-Mouth Referrals (and therefore lower marketing costs):
Durable products earn advocates who talk on your behalf. For example, the “Buy It For Life” movement (#BIFL) on Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook has become a thriving community of word-of-mouth marketing and endorsement for products that last.
Focuses Resources on True, Meaningful Innovation
When a brand identifies durability as a differentiator, innovation resources are spent on substantial improvements versus superficial product launches for the sake of news. With these brands, customers come to know that any product advertised as “new” truly means “better.” Marketing campaigns rooted in substantive improvements often generate more significant visibility, media and retailer interest than those with slight changes.
Reduces Environmental Impact
The most sustainable product is often the one already in use. When products last longer, they require less frequent replacement, resulting in fewer materials, less energy and water during manufacture, and less waste. Efforts to reuse and repair extend product lifecycles, further reducing the environmental impact. For brands seeking to attract sustainability-minded consumers, durable products are a natural fit and are easy to communicate environmental benefits.
6 Longevity Strategies from Long-Lasting Brands
So, how do you integrate durability into your business and marketing strategy? Here are some specific examples:
1) Osprey: Lifetime Guarantees Via a Generous Return Program
Osprey offers lifetime guarantees on almost all its products. If they can’t repair the product, they will replace it. Generous return and repair programs create loyal customers. For brands with a shorter shelf life, such as food and beverage, this can include a “guaranteed fresh” promise.
2) Miele: Testing for Durability and Innovating to Improve Longevity
Durability doesn’t just happen; it requires rigorous testing and innovation. German appliance brand Miele tests its appliances for the equivalent of 20 years of use. These stress and durability tests identify the parts that don’t hold up and then improve them for longer-lasting performance.
3) 80 Acres Farms: Redefine Category Lifespans
Longevity doesn’t just apply to durable products but consumables too. One of my clients is 80 Acres Farms, a vertical farm that sells lettuce, salad kits, and other vegetables. 80 Acres produce lasts 2+ weeks in the fridge, allowing the brand to make a differentiated “fresher longer” claim on-pack. This benefit delights customers who throw out spoiled lettuce less frequently and saves time with fewer store trips because lettuce can be purchased in one weekly visit.
4) Le Creuset: Generational Heirlooms as a Messaging Strategy
When products last, they can become family heirlooms. Cookware brand Le Creuset is explicit about this concept. Headlines on its website include “Heirlooms-in-the Making” and “Generations of flavor.” Durability is built into the brand’s equity.
5) Waterford: Timeless Fashion and Style
Irish glassware brand Waterford is known for its timeless elegance. Discontinued patterns are considered a desired vintage collectible versus being seen as out-of-date. Waterford’s Lismore pattern has been the No. 1 selling crystal stemware pattern for more than 60 years. Many home décor trends come and go, but this brand remains consistent while maintaining an enduring style.
6) Fairphone: Designing for Repair and Modularity
When products are designed to be repaired versus replaced, the entire approach to design changes. Parts can be separated and replaced without requiring an entirely new item. Smartphone brand Fairphone creates designs with modular components that can be easily replaced or upgraded.
We, along with consumers, have the mistaken belief that new equals better, or faster consumption equals more sales. These mindsets drive a myriad set of behaviors, product launches, and marketing focused on constant acquisition and replacement. Creating products that are long-lasting and/or timeless can replace this mindset with quality and value for your customers, resulting in increased revenue and profitability for businesses.
So I ask, what does long-lasting look like in your business?
Introducing the Marketing Hippocratic Oath: Redefining Industry Practices
First, do no harm. This is a central theme of the modern Hippocratic Oath, a set of principles governing patient care that most medical schools administer to their students. Most, if not all professions, have some form of a code of ethics that outlines behavioral expectations, and marketing is no exception.
First, do no harm.
This is a central theme of the modern Hippocratic Oath, a set of principles governing patient care that most medical schools administer to their students. Most, if not all professions, have some form of a code of ethics that outlines behavioral expectations, and marketing is no exception. However, the American Marketing Association (AMA) code of conduct, and most other marketing codes of ethics, falls short because it fails to address the specific ways that marketing causes harm. To rectify this oversight, I propose a voluntary code of conduct specifically for marketing—call it a Marketing Hippocratic Oath.
What Marketing is Missing
AMA’s Statement of Ethics begins with the following principles.
As Marketers, we must:
Do no harm. This means not only consciously avoiding harmful actions or omissions but also striving to benefit all stakeholders and society at large. We must embody high ethical standards and, at a minimum, adhere to all applicable laws and regulations in the choices we make.
Foster and maintain integrity. This means striving for transparency and fairness in all aspects of the marketing ecosystem.
Embrace ethical values. This means building relationships and enhancing stakeholder confidence by affirming these core values: honesty, responsibility, equity, transparency, and citizenship.
Three things stand out to me regarding AMA’s statement: First, almost none of these general statements are uniquely applicable to marketing. The principles would be almost entirely applicable if someone were to substitute the word “marketing” for any other profession. Secondly, there is virtually no mention of acting in the best interest of the customer. Lastly, while AMA begins its statement with “Do no harm,” there is a surprising lack of specificity or any real examination of what “harm” may be intentionally or unintentionally created by marketing.
An Asymmetry of Power and Information
In some professions, those who benefit from services require specific, critical protections. As a result, providers must be licensed with renewals based on continuing education and meeting certain standards.
Let’s look at a few examples beyond medicine. Each has not just a code of ethics but also a governing idea(s) that protect the beneficiary.
LAW: Rules of Professional Conduct, which vary slightly by state, specify the professional requirements and obligations to ensure attorneys act in the best interests of their clients, including fiduciary duty and attorney-client privilege.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT: Financial management professionals have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of their clients.
TEACHING: The Duty of Care is a legal and moral obligation to ensure the safety and well-being of students.
What’s common among these professions is an asymmetry of power and/or information. The institutions that accredit these individuals understand the necessity of protecting the beneficiaries of their care and services. While all these professionals earn a profit, and in some cases, they are extremely well paid (lawyers, doctors, financial management professionals), they have agreed to serve their client or patient first.
An asymmetry of power and information also exists within marketing and sales. Here are just a few ways in which we, as marketers and business leaders, have more information or power than current or prospective customers:
Product Knowledge: We know far more about our products than our customers, including benefits and drawbacks. This allows us to highlight benefits and hide negatives.
Persuasive Techniques: Because we know how to craft messages that influence buyers based on principles such as scarcity, reciprocity, framing, price anchoring and more, it can be easy to exploit consumer psychology.
Customer Data: Modern-day technology gives us tremendous knowledge and power about people’s shopping habits, preferences, and behavior, which allows us to segment and target customers within very specific groups. This is information that needs to be protected.
Regulatory Knowledge: While marketing has strict laws and regulations, loopholes exist. And importantly, consumers do not always understand their protections.
Possessing the above knowledge is not inherently bad, but with this power comes responsibility, just as in law or medicine, to use this information to better the customer.
If Not a License, How About A Voluntary Oath?
Imagine if, like many professions, marketing required a license. And what if that license required ethical training on what one can and can’t say, and the specific stipulations for putting the customer first? What’s more, what if you had to regularly renew your license with updated training on ethics surrounding the latest marketing platforms and tactics?
I recognize the many challenges that come with a license requirement, particularly when anyone can be a business owner, influencer or content creator. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to require anyone selling anything to be certified. But we, as brand leaders, could voluntarily train and agree to principles by which we will operate—a voluntary oath. Most companies have an employee code of conduct, but I have never seen one that also governs how that company expects its employees to market and sell to their customers.
A voluntary oath is not a new idea. The MBA Oath was written in 2009 by a group of Harvard Business School students who felt the need for a code of conduct to hold the business profession to a higher standard. Now in its 15th year, the oath has been signed by more than 15,000 students at 100 schools, “creating a community of MBAs with a shared standard for ethical and professional behavior”.
The Marketing Hippocratic Oath
I propose a voluntary code of conduct specifically for marketing—the Marketing Hippocratic Oath. These statements are identified based on the specific and current ways in which we, as marketers, advertisers, and brand leaders can do harm. As the profession evolves, so too must this oath.
I will put my customers' interests above my own. I will not profit at their expense or exploit them for financial gain.
I will do my best to create real value for my customers while ensuring that I protect the rights and interests of the community and our planet.
I will treat all those my marketing may reach as people, recognizing their emotional, social, and physical health.
I will seek to understand and uphold both the letter and spirit of the law.
I will protect my audience’s personal information in accordance with the law as well as their expectations.
I will not use my power, resources, or knowledge to manipulate, pressure, or encourage anyone to make a decision that is knowingly against his or her best interest.
I will tell the truth and will not lie, exaggerate, withhold information, or use communications to mislead or create unrealistic expectations for my audiences.
I will respect people’s lives, minimizing interruption, disruption, and unwanted invasion of privacy from my marketing activities.
I will work to reduce the way marketing contributes to consumerism and overconsumption.
I will respect all people through my communications. I will not divide, perpetuate stereotypes, reinforce negative perceptions, or manufacture fear, and I will instead use my communications to unite, educate, and inspire for the betterment of those who encounter my messages.
I will be transparent when I use artificial intelligence, and I will take accountability for its impact.
4 Ways to Implement a Marketing Oath
So now what? This all sounds great on paper, but how do we implement it? How do we ensure that we are living, day to day, according to these commitments?
Here are a few specific opportunities. Some require more systemic interventions, while others a single individual can undertake:
1) Character Interview Questions: In law, most states require passing a Character and Fitness Interview. The interview evaluates the individual’s competence and suitability to practice law based on their personal conduct and character traits. While many businesses evaluate a candidate’s values during the interview process, few likely ask character or judgment questions regarding marketing practices. Here are a few examples of questions to incorporate:
Tell me about a time when you did not pursue a marketing idea or tactic because you thought it was unethical.
Can you give an example of a brand that you think puts the company’s interest ahead of the customer?
Did you ever participate in a program when you felt pressured to communicate something in a way that exaggerated the benefit or value? How did you handle that situation?
Please share your understanding of the laws or ethical principles on X topic (e.g. privacy, influencers, advertising, etc).
2) Company Code of Conduct: Your team or business can update its code of ethics or conduct to reflect the specific ways you expect your marketing, sales, and communications teams to operate.
3) Voluntary Oath: Marketers can, individually or as a team, take an oath to follow these principles or to draft their own and review it as part of a personal mission, values, or professional development exercise. Teams can collectively review the circumstances when this oath was difficult to follow and identify potential interventions for future scenarios.
4) Teaching and Training: Academic institutions can include, and ideally require, marketing ethics courses to get a degree in marketing. Marketing associations, like the AMA, as well as other marketing events and conferences can incorporate these principles in their event and digital content through training, speaking panels, articles, and case studies.
I invite those in the marketing and branding profession and the business leaders who oversee or approve the work of marketing teams to voluntarily pledge the above marketing oath alongside me. I have posted it to my website here, and I encourage you to adopt a similar oath, using these ideas for implementation. But like harmful marketing, these can’t just be visionary, inflated words—they have to be lived actions, promises kept.
Stop Selling, Start Dating: All Marketing is Matchmaking
Picture this: You’re at a speed dating event and notice that many of your dates fall into one of three personality types.
Picture this: You’re at a speed dating event and notice that many of your dates fall into one of three personality types.
The Desperate Chameleon:
“Tell me all about you! What do you enjoy? I’m super flexible, so I’ll do whatever. I always try the hottest new thing because I don’t want to miss out—I like to feel part of “what’s happening.” I don’t really know what I’m looking for in a partner, but I like being liked.”
The Arrogant Persuader:
“It’s harder than ever to find marriage material, but luckily you met me because I’m extremely intelligent, very attractive, and earn a ton of money. I only participate in the most exhilarating, memorable hobbies which is why I love skydiving. If you haven’t tried it yet, I promise you, your life will change forever! You’ll finally feel alive and fulfilled, and you’ll realize how boring your current hobbies are.”
The Confident Learner:
“I am an introvert, but I’m looking for an outgoing partner who can carry a conversation. Painting brings me joy because of the creativity and the precision required. What do you think of painting? I love my work and put in tons of hours, but I’m open to working less as long as it’s fulfilling. Is work-life balance important to you? What are you looking for in a partner?”
So what does this have to do with marketing? All marketing is matchmaking. When dating, no one is looking for just any partner, they are looking for the right partner. Everyone knows that investing time, money, and emotional bandwidth in someone who’s not a good fit comes with a huge cost. In marketing, both parties – businesses and customers – have needs and interests (just like people do). Customers have desires, along with problems, pains, and challenges they want solved. Businesses have products and services that create value, improve outcomes, increase satisfaction, and save time.
The Desperate Chameleon and Arrogant Persuader both try to sell something to everyone, either by constantly transforming themselves to be relevant to the majority or by insisting their audience has a need and that they are the only one who can meet it. Approaching marketing—and dating—as a Confident Learner is key to a successful partnership.
Let’s look at the brand behaviors of each of these profiles:
Desperate Chameleons
Brands that are Desperate Chameleons don’t stand for anything. They cater endlessly to what their customers want. Without a solid identity of who they are and what they stand for, they constantly seek to mold their image, services, and marketing channels to the masses.
Practically this looks like:
Product innovation that expands too broadly because customers always want “more”
Marketing to everyone vs. a niche segment that most values the products or services
Trying every new trending channel
Mimicking successful competition
While some of these behaviors are warranted with a thoughtful, strategic approach, in many cases, they are entirely reactive to external circumstances.
I recently heard a story of an executive coach for Burger King’s C-Suite. The team was debating its strategy for a chicken sandwich, and the coach invited the entire team on a walk outside. He led them to the front of the building and pointed at a sign. “What does that say?” he asked. “Burger King,” they replied in unison. “Exactly,” he said. “Why are you all arguing about a chicken sandwich? Focus on the burger.”
In the early stages of business, brands fear being too narrow and not having a broad enough customer base, so they try to appeal to everyone. As brands mature and growth pressures compound, they risk becoming chameleons as they expand into more categories, attempting to generate mass reach and appeal. Stay narrow and focused. Be consistent in what you stand for. If you are everything to everyone, you are nothing to anybody.
Arrogant Persuaders
Brands that are Arrogant Persuaders have a me-first mentality. They prioritize their own agenda and business objectives over customer interests, adopting a “must-sell” mindset. Fundamentally, Arrogant Persuaders try to fit the market to their solution rather than their solution to the market. This approach requires brands to convince their audience that it has a specific need and that their solution is the only superior option, which typically require “pushy” tactics.
Practically this looks like:
Inflated claims
Creating an artificial sense of scarcity or exclusivity
Exaggerating the problem or creating a sense of fear
Bad customer service due to an inability to stand by what was promised
Much of the parenting literature I’ve read falls in this category. The books begin with the same formula: “If you don’t fix your kid now, they’re going to make you even more miserable, and he or she might become a failure in life. All those other parenting tactics don’t work. Here’s why my approach is best. Plus, you’ll see changes immediately!”
Some wellness brands overpromise results in ways that are not backed up by science. Diet brand Sensa settled false advertising charges by the FTC for $26.5 million for promising weight loss without dieting or exercise, while POM owner Wonderful Company was sued by the FTC and required to stop all ads that weren’t supported by a randomized, well-controlled human clinical trial. Luxury fashion brands create artificial scarcity to drive demand through a sense of exclusivity. Insurance companies often guarantee dire circumstances without their product. In all these examples, brands that are Arrogant Persuaders aren’t focused on finding the “right” match; rather, they try to force a match by creating demand through pressure and fear.
Source: Ad Age
To avoid being an Arrogant Persuader, you must shift to a customer-first lens. Inform, but don’t exaggerate. Provoke curiosity, but don’t mislead. Ensure that you deliver on whatever value you promise. Create interest by reminding people of their pain points without introducing new fears or insecurities that didn’t previously exist.
Confident Learners
Brands that are Confident Learners know what they stand for. They know who they are – and are not. They’re not trying to be all things to all people. Instead, they know the value they create for a specific audience. They stay in their lane. They are humble, yet self-assured. And yet they are also always curious, continually seeking to understand their audience, evaluating whether and how to adapt and modify while staying true to their core.
Practically this looks like:
Staying focused on a specific audience target
Innovation that builds on expertise and competencies
Using channels and capitalizing on trends relevant to an audience vs. generic popularity
Taking risks to be original and creative vs. following the pack
HubSpot embodies the Confident Learner. Founded in 2006, this Customer Relationship Management (CRM) SaaS business is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of inbound marketing, which focuses on creating content and experiences to attract or “pull” in potential customers vs. “pushing” promotional messages. Driven by an intimate understanding of its audience’s needs and a self-declared principle of “create 10X the value vs. competition,” HubSpot frequently launches products and services that deliver meaningful value to customers. To stay ahead of competitors, HubSpot aggressively experiments with AI and continually innovates content strategies, such as the HubSpot Podcast Network.
The HubSpot Academy offers free courses on marketing and sales topics, one of many resources to equip current customers and attract prospects.
Confident Learners need to strike a balance between being who they are and simultaneously adapting to customer desires in an evolving external market. There is a constant push/pull between the brand and the customer. Your core must be unshakable, and yet you must also have the humility to learn, try new things, and improve.
Don’t Sell. Date.
Ultimately, the job of marketers (and sales) isn’t to push or sell. It’s to find the right match. Some people or companies have needs, whether they are conscious or unconscious. Our job is to identify the audience that possesses the specific needs or desires we address and inform or educate how we can help.
We sometimes forget that what we do is in service of the customer rather than the company. We act as though when we promote the company’s interests, the customer will benefit. In reality, if we match well, the company will benefit.
When I first started my business, I was terrified of sales. As marketers, we often aren’t privy to our customers’ immediate reactions to our messages. Seeing potential clients face-to-face forced me to observe their immediate reactions to my pitch. During initial meetings, I felt like I was either asking for a favor, “Will you go out of your way to help me by giving me business?” or trying to convince people why they needed what I offered. But through that process, I realized I was not asking for help, nor was I convincing anyone. Some individuals had marketing and branding needs; others did not. When I could help a company solve its communication and growth challenges, they were grateful, and both parties benefited –they received a solution to grow their business, while I earned revenue and used my expertise to help others. In other words, we matched. Business development became a process of uncovering needs rather than selling a service.
How to Date Your Customer
1) Know your type. Avoid being the brand that is continually seeking out the wrong person. Sales has a process of “disqualifying” leads. So too should marketing. Ask yourself who is not a fit, and stop pursuing them.
2) Listen more than you talk. As marketers, this may sound counterintuitive, but listening and seeking feedback must be ingrained Talk to customers regularly, respond to complaints, read comments, and build in feedback mechanisms to ensure “selling more” doesn’t get prioritized over “meeting needs.”
3) Be yourself. Don’t manufacture an inauthentic image or tone, or overpromise something you don’t have experience delivering. Stay true to what your brand stands for and what makes you different.
4) Build a relationship. View your customers as actua people you can help versus transactions that can better your bottom line. Not every interaction has to be profitable, but in the long run, sacrifice builds trust and loyalty.
By thinking of marketing as finding the right match vs. selling, you are reminded of what you and your customers want. You ditch the “sell at all costs” mentality and stop “doing whatever the customer wants.” Dating your customers forces focus, intentionality, and matching with ideal customers who appreciate you, speak positively about you, and support you.
As anyone in a long-term relationship knows, the dating process never really stops. Even after finding a great match, there’s always more to learn as each person changes and grows. To preserve a fulfilling relationship, just as with humans, brands can never afford to stop dating their customers.
4 Reasons Your Company's "Good" Should be Part of Your Core Business
Frederick Buechner asked: “At what points do my talents and deep gladness meet the world’s deep need?” This is a great question to pose when searching for personal purpose, but it also applies to brands and companies.
Frederick Buechner asked: “At what points do my talents and deep gladness meet the world’s deep need?” This is a great question to pose when searching for personal purpose, but it also applies to brands and companies. Said another way from a business lens:
“At what points do our core competencies meet the world’s deep need?”
There is growing pressure on businesses to have a positive social and environmental impact. Consumers are voting with their wallets and their employment decisions for companies that serve society in addition to the bottom line. Governments continue to legislate on issues such as the environment, privacy, ingredients, and worker rights.
A common approach to address this call for action is to continue business as usual, and identify a separate set of social responsibility or environmental programs, establish a charitable giving program, or advocate for popular political point of view. While these approaches have merit in certain circumstances, they often ignore the most significant contribution a company can make to society—through its core business.
While it may seem obvious that the positive social and environmental impact a company has should be connected to its core business, I have seen many companies and brands invest in efforts that are not strategically tied to their products or operations. This Colbert Report clip (starting at 1:15) parodies the causes corporations support that seem disconnected from their business. At best it’s a missed opportunity for social and business impact, at worst it invites criticism of hypocrisy and growing backlash.
Here are 4 reasons we should focus a company’s “doing good” on the core business:
1) It’s Authentic
In an age of corporate distrust, where some consumers expect that companies are trying to get a quick win through a “do good” gimmick, helping through your core business is an intuitive fit. UPS donates shipping and logistics expertise during natural disasters. PetSmart promotes adoption of pets. Marriott trains employees to watch for signs of human trafficking in their hotel rooms.
Everlane, an e-commerce fashion brand, has made “ethical sourcing” part of its tagline. In an industry known for sourcing low wage labor in developing countries, Everlane shares the factory name where each item is produced, with extensive information and photos on each facility.
[Image source: Everlane.com]
On the flip side, many brands “go pink” during October in support of Breast Cancer. While raising money to support research for this disease is a noble cause, it’s easy to question brands’ motivations that have nothing to do with women or health.
Many companies are also taking political stances that don’t have a clear connection to their business. While leadership might feel they have a moral obligation to support a particular issue, I wonder if their voice is best used in that way or could rather advocate for needed change in their own industry.
2) It Motivates Employees
Much research has been done on the best ways to motivate employees, with growing evidence showing that the external motivators of bonuses and perks can be short-lived. Daniel Pink argues in his book Drive that the three most important motivators are autonomy, mastery, and purpose. He defines purpose as, “the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.”
In order to successfully give employees a sense of purpose, it has to be about their core work. An annual employee volunteering day or the existence of a separate corporate foundation run by a handful of employees will not suffice. Each employee must understand how their daily work helps contribute to something meaningful and valuable.
A simple way companies can elevate the value of their core business with employees is through skills-based volunteering. Many firms such as IBM, Fidelity, and Deloitte, donate technology expertise and consulting services to nonprofits or communities who could never otherwise afford them. One of the biggest reasons these organizations continue such programs is not the social impact, it’s the leadership development the programs create for employees who participate.
[Image Source: IBM Service Corps]
Creative agencies often take pro bono work for nonprofits to help with issue advocacy and fundraising. When employees are doing their primary job in service of an under-resourced population, it creates a greater sense of purpose for their work. In turn, companies see higher employee satisfaction and higher retention. A friend who owns a small business told me he has approximately 2X longer employee retention because of his skills-based pro bono program. It works for the community and for his business.
3) It Builds Reputation and Loyalty Among Customers
Any buyer of TOMS shoes or Warby Parker eyewear knows that part of their purchase helps provide footwear and eyeglasses, respectively, to people in developing countries. These brands have been built around a business model that provides the same benefit to paying customers as those in need.
For 30 years, Annie’s has sold organic food, backed by a company mission of helping grow the volume of organic crops farmed nationally. Patagonia, a brand that stands for experiencing the rugged outdoors, has innovated with more responsible sourcing for over two decades, and products today are produced from nearly 70% recycled or renewable fiber. For four years, REI has shut its doors on Black Friday to give employees and customers a chance to #optoutside.
[Image Source: REI.com]
Each of these brands have a devoted following because they have remained committed to their core mission. Importantly, the brands’ product offerings and company actions seamlessly integrate product benefits with “doing good,” making the two inseparable.
According to the 2018 Edelman Earned Brand study, 64% of consumers self-report as “belief-driven” buyers, expressing both hope and confidence that brands can address society’s social ills. But the brands that do this most effectively are those that integrate their beliefs and social good into the core strategy and identity of the brand.
4) It Does the Greatest Good
While the prior three reasons might seem to serve the company’s self-interest, the final one is about social interest. Companies are uniquely positioned to use their own innovation and expertise to solve social problems that only they or their industry can address. I would argue the pharmaceutical industry’s greatest contribution to society’s challenges isn't what their cash can do, it’s their drugs to populations that can’t afford them.
P&G, Nestlé, Unilever, Pepsi partnered on Loop, an e-commerce delivery service with reusable packaging, demonstrating a significant effort to address the massive issue of single-use plastic waste around the world. These are problems that the industry itself played a large part in creating. Many would say that they have a responsibility to solve, but they also might be the best ones to help solve.
[Image Source: Greenbiz]
There are many companies making important progress in integrating social impact into their core business strategy. However, even the prevailing concept of “giving back” assumes that business has “taken” something. My hope is that we continue turn our efforts of giving back to our core business, so that eventually business itself can be seen as “giving” through its primary goods, services and operations.
Importantly, this is not a selfless exercise on behalf of companies. What works for society also must work for business, as they too must benefit from their efforts. The exciting part is that GOOD business is also good BUSINESS.
One of my favorite positioning examples is Ben & Jerry’s.