In preparation for my marketing class.

Marketing Lesson: Respect Your Customers

Customers DON’T buy, they CHOOSE products and brands they TRUST. When they pay, it’s a gesture of their trust.

Trust is a function of logic. You earn it once you have fulfilled all your customers’ expectations they pictured in their brain.

In business, trust is the only currency that truly matters. If you want to profit and maintain this trust, respect your market. It is the collective agreement of the market that gives or takes away the value of your product.

In building your brand, be truthful. Avoid deceiving your customers or hyping your product with falsehoods—they’ll see through it. They’re not naive, so don’t treat them as such. Hard selling tactics are easily felt, and quick schemes for immediate returns put customers away. Manipulative tactics won’t foster loyalty.

The value of your product doesn’t rise as a result of what you say about it, but from what people say about how they experienced your product. For positive word of mouth, treat your customers with the respect they deserve.

It’s a given that in entrepreneurship, a conceived concept must be transformed into an operational business. However, what’s not obvious is the motivation behind generating ideas and diligently working towards their realization.

Motivation can stem from three factors: inspiration, aspirations, and situation.

Inspiration encompasses ideas that can deeply resonate with a person which they want to turn to reality. Aspirations involve objects of desire that individuals strive to attain, while situations—particularly unfavorable ones—act as circumstances that compel a person to break free from their current state.

To be inspired, to aspire, and to envision an improved situation, one must hold the belief that everything has the potential to surpass its current state. This notion of “better” doesn’t imply a change in inherent nature. For instance, water can never transform into a rock, but it can be bottled or combined with another element to become juice, all while maintaining its liquid form.

Faith involves believing in what is possible, in what a person hopes for. And it is the act of faith that moves people. This attribute makes every entrepreneur a person of faith, as they don’t perceive the complete picture of their destination, only fragments of clues. They rest their faith on a potential fortuitous outcome, even as they move forward with only a partial view of the road.

In entrepreneurship, the triumvirate of inspiration, aspiration, and situation serves as the lifeblood for those who, powered by faith, aspire to better horizons and take decisive steps toward them.

What is effective, what’s efficient, and what is productive are the modern man’s constant basis for his decisions. There always has to be a result. However, when the view is purely economic, the richness of the human experience risks being reduced to a mere transactional equation. While striving for outcomes is important, solely focusing on economic returns overlooks the immeasurable value of intangible connections that define our shared humanity.

It’s imperative to remember that the most profound and lasting impacts often stem from endeavors rooted in a deeper understanding of human needs, aspirations, and the collective well-being. As modern individuals, we must transcend the confines of a purely economic lens and embrace the intricate tapestry of human existence, weaving together efficiency and empathy, productivity and purpose, to craft a narrative of fulfillment that transcends numbers and ushers in a more profound era of human progress.

When discussing entrepreneurs, the initial association for most people is that they are successful individuals who amass wealth and are accountable only to themselves. Those who offer this perspective are likely drawing it from media portrayals, as this interpretation doesn’t align with the word’s dictionary definition. Dictionaries describe an entrepreneur as someone who initiates, operates, and takes on risks.

However, establishing a definition doesn’t immediately translate into understanding their societal role. Entrepreneurs may be initiators or organizers, yet simply engaging in these actions doesn’t elucidate the full impact of their endeavors. What truly matters is how their actions influence society, unveiling their role therein. The effects of their actions can be evaluated from a couple of vantage points.

One such perspective is the realm of employment. Entrepreneurs possess the ability to generate jobs and distribute wealth, thus enhancing the lives of those they employ and their extended families. Moreover, entrepreneurs devise groundbreaking products and services that offer convenience and solutions for those with unmet needs. Nonetheless, in today’s post-modern society that challenges established truths and emphasizes relativism over traditional values like family importance, the entrepreneur’s role extends beyond mere job creation and innovative solutions.

By solely considering the impacts of job creation and product innovation as the exclusive sources of an entrepreneur’s role, we inadvertently restrict their scope to the economic sphere. Consequently, entrepreneurs are pigeonholed as economic figures functioning within econometric models. However, entrepreneurs and everyone else around them are more than economic agents who are restricted by the laws of economics; they are humans with inherent value (dignity) and values (morality). Therefore, the manner in which they conduct their business should not be devoid of values.

What modern society necessitates are entrepreneurs who acknowledge the principle that both business value (money) and values (morality) can coexist harmoniously. This implies that entrepreneurs take on the role of social stewards—individuals responsible for the welfare, growth, and positive influence of society. However, this doesn’t mandate that entrepreneurs become solely focused on social matters. Instead, they leverage their unique platform to shape societal attitudes and behaviors for the better. Through their products and services, they influence consumer decisions and can champion values that align with the common good, all while maintaining profitability.

Hence, just as entrepreneurs innovate industries, products, and services, they also possess the power to disrupt detrimental patterns and ideas by championing values that yield valuable outcomes.

In conclusion, entrepreneurs advocate for values that transcend mere job creation and innovation, ultimately contributing to the creation of value in society.