Sandra Stewart | February 19, 2014
Can you get gullible customers to buy increasingly craptastic products based purely on a fantastic brand? The answer just in: No, according to Absolute Value, a new book by Stanford marketing professor Itamar Simonson and Emanuel Rosen. As New Yorker finance writer James Surowiecki puts it: “Brands have never been more fragile. The reason is simple: consumers are supremely well informed and far more likely to investigate the real value of products than to rely on logos.”
While it’s always gratifying to see more support for our longtime obsession with credibility, what really strikes me about Surowiecki’s column is the case this makes for sustainable business. If your business—including your marketing—is operating on the principles of transparency, accountability, community benefit and environmental care, that’s good not only for the wider world but also for long-term revenues.
It’s not that sustainable operations guarantee quality products or services (though the need to consider issues like waste and social value certainly helps), but that adhering to principles like transparency and accountability means you can’t resort to smearing lipstick on pigs. If you’re a sustainable business, you won’t claim that fat customers are the cause of yoga pants that stretch to transparency (to cite the New Yorker piece’s primary example).
Sustainable business principles pretty much demand what has always been the hallmark of durably strong brands: they’re built from the inside out. That is, the brand’s image and marketing messages express a compelling combination of personality, values and mission that’s lived within company walls. If you’re not walking the talk, no brand strategy can hide that forever.
