Ethics relates to a set of moral principles reaffirming a group. Building a brand based on solid moral principles and then following through via actions — from how you handle a new customer to how you treat the most junior member on your team — should be the foundational stone of everything your business seeks to do in this world. Branding is about the trust built between the customer and the company.
Company Authenticity
When customers buy your product, they are adding both an abstract and a concrete deposit into your firm. It’s abstract due to the trust in your firm or a product to do as you promised, and it’s concrete in the monetary deposit. Relationships matter. If the leadership of a firm seeks to solidify its brand in the market and internally doesn’t apply its moral principles, it can build a brand on half-truths. Customers may still buy but have lost trust in the brand if their interactions prove to be less than what was expected.
Trust Breeds Loyalty
Trust is the belief and ability of someone or something regarding reliability and truth. Can both potential and current customers trust that your firm or brand will be ethical in its actions and deliver as promised? Can they trust you to do the right thing if your product or service is not what is expected or flawed on delivery? What will your brand be known for when things don’t go as planned and you, your team or company as a whole is put in a position to show the true nature of its ethics?
When your customers can trust you to do the right thing, there is a better chance your brand will reach further and ward off competitors that based their actions on making a sale and not seeking to establish long-term customers. You should treat every person well who walks through your doors, whether they come as an employee, customer, vendor or inquiring patron. If your brand was listed with your competitors and current and potential customers were asked which one they would trust the most or consider to be the most ethical, would your firm be the top or in the top three? If not, then seeking to make your actions and motives engrained as a culture should be a top priority.
Being an ethical firm because that is who your firm is at its core can bring out the best in those who work for the firm and those who buy from it. Additionally, acting in an ethical manner because it is the right thing to do can bring the best out in all of us. It breeds a deep loyalty that the biggest clients could not buy because the loyalty will be based on something perhaps more authentic than other companies. These bigger clients bring loyalty as well, and by the time you secure one, ethical behavior should have long been the foundation for your actions to make your brand a name worth knowing — not only a business with a quality offering but also one that abides by high moral standards. This will make this world a much better place to live and do business in.
