The core values that you have chosen to represent your business play a vital role in almost every decision you make.
Many people fail to realize that those core values must play a large role in your marketing as well.
Because marketing isn’t just about communicating what products you offer or services you provide.
It’s also about what type of business you represent.
Trust is the foundation to any customer/business relationship.
So by displaying your core values in your marketing, you can help nurture and strengthen that relationship.
Clarity
In a way, marketing is more about distilling all the elements of your business as opposed to focusing just on the newest product your touting.
Funnel your products, services, employees, etc. into a single message that enlightens the customer on who you are, what your trying to accomplish, and why.
A perfect example of this is Visa.
At the end of every commercial, a message appears that says “It’s everywhere you want to be.”
Now, that message isn’t boasting shiny cards or the perks and rewards you may receive after signing up.
Instead, a beautifully simple slogan that conveys their most important message:
By signing up for a Visa card, you will have access to a trusted financial resource in any location and at any time you could possibly need it.
Not only that, but you have a partner that you can depend on, day in and day out.
Visa’s message says everything that you need to know about what type of company Visa is AND what type of service they offer in six short words.
Don’t Forget Humility
Let’s say you’ve decided to choose honesty and integrity as your most important core values.
And let’s also consider that you’ve made a mistake as a business owner.
Perhaps you’ve released a new product and said it was capable of one thing, while it actually did another.
Perhaps you even claimed that it did that one particular thing really well, when in fact, it was hardly functional and by no means ready for public consumption.
Unfortunately, these are common mistakes made by business owners today.
But what separates the successful business owners from those that quickly disappear is what they do next.
If you’ve decided on honesty and integrity, then your path is clear.
You must own up to your mistake and acknowledge the problem as an opportunity to learn from.
And pledge to use that experience to do better work in the future.
Even Coca-Cola is guilty of this when they introduced the disaster that was New Coke in 1985.
Microsoft released the oh-so-confusing and difficult Windows 8.
What do these companies have in common?
They’re still around!
They both understood that the core values of honesty and integrity may result in humility.
They admitted to their mistakes, apologized, and pledged to do better.
Now, more than ever, the relationship between a business and its customers is one that is forged from a strong sense of transparency.
So show your customers what type of business you are by letting those core values reflect outward with your marketing materials.
