We know from past experience that customers buy things based more on emotion than logic. This actually makes marketing and advertising easier because the advertising and marketing messages can be tailored to a wide range of customers. But times have changed.

While the old style of selling benefits not features is still in place, how and where that message appears has changed drastically.

Price, Value And Quality
Many shoppers used to base their purchasing on those three words. Will they get the quality and value for the price asked? But there is another element that is slowly making its way into the buying decision. And that element is the ethics and philosophy of the business.

When people talk about your business, what do they say? Do they talk about the brand of motor oil they bought from you or what it was like doing business with you? Right now Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, DiggIt, and Google connect over a billion people all over the planet.


Word-of-mouth has taken on a whole new meaning. Seventy-eight percent of all computer users are on social media. And one of the biggest topics on social media is how businesses treat their customers.

Reviews on Yelp can direct customers to you or deflect them to your competitors and you have no real retaliation about what’s written about you. Social media is redefining small and big business. It’s fine to make a profit if you’re not greedy about it. Servicing the customer is preferable to exploiting them. But bad news travels faster, and in more places, than ever before.

Do The Right Thing
Business is getting a bad rap these days as our politicians talk about corporate greed and sky-high profits. News feeds are full of stories about corporations putting profits ahead of people, and growth ahead of the damage that growth might do to society. Bad businesses get the bulk of the press and as a result you are guilty by association.

That’s the reason your business ethics and philosophy need to be an integral part of your marketing and advertising plan. Using this technique trigger’s the emotional consideration of your product and reinforces that you are the company that should supply the product or service to the customer.

It’s more powerful than features and benefits alone. And even more importantly it increases the buffer between you and your competitors. When push comes to shove people want to deal with businesses they perceive as ethical even if they might pay a slightly higher price.

Some Final Thoughts
There is little difference between customers and employees when it comes to company ethics and doing the right thing. Employees have to talk about work outside of work and they are much more comfortable talking about working for an ethical company than the alternative.

If the employee is positive about the company, that philosophy filters down to any potential customers they might come in contact with.

So be ethical with employees and customers alike. It will set you apart from the herd. It’s the new “old” way of marketing. It’s how companies used to operate.