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When Organizations Give Thanks

11/20/2022

17 Comments

 
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by David Hagenbuch - professor of marketing at Messiah University -
​author of 
Honorable Influence - founder of Mindful Marketing 

At Thanksgiving, individuals often express gratitude for what they’re personally appreciative, e.g., family, friends, health.  It’s less common to hear of organizations’ gratitude, but if they were to count their blessings, what would they be?  Answers to that question could provide each of us with valuable perspective and perhaps help recalibrate our own thoughts of thankfulness.
 
These have been tough times for organizations in most industries.  Factors such as inflation, natural disasters, health/safety concerns, and supply chain setbacks have made it very difficult to succeed, and in some cases to survive, let alone to give thanks, for instance:
  • A chip shortage has plagued tech firms and many other manufacturers. 
  • Shipping companies have had to navigate record-high fuel prices.  
  • In the first half of 2022, natural disasters led to insurance losses of $39 billion – 18% higher than average. 
  • The slowdown in the housing market, an industry that impacts many others, shows no signs of subsiding.
 
This isn’t the kind of news most companies care to celebrate, nor should they.  Yet, even under dark clouds, strong organizations see silver linings and reasons to be thankful.  Although organizations can’t speak, their leaders have unique vantage points from which they can identify and express genuine collective gratitude.
 
I recently reached out to colleagues/friends in several industries who lead for-profit and nonprofit organizations, asking each to share something for which their organization is thankful.  Their following five responses have enlightened and encouraged this marketer and hopefully will do the same for anyone who looks to see the good in business and other enterprise.
 
1) Messiah University: I begin with my own organization and employer whose president, Dr. Kim Phipps, reflects, “At Messiah University, we are grateful for increased enrollment, financial stability and a cohort of new innovative partnerships that broaden our institutional scope and impact.”
 
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No organization exists without demand for its products and services.  For more than a decade, demand for higher education has declined throughout much of the nation, mainly because of demographic trends.  I know many at Messiah echo President Phipps’ deep appreciation for our students as well as other institutional partners who embrace the University’s mission and invite opportunities to extend it.

2) West Shore Chamber of Commerce: The leader of the second organization, another nonprofit, expresses similar gratitude for continued demand for its services.  As the president of West Shore Chamber of Commerce (WSCC), based near Harrisburg, PA, George Book, Jr. articulates his organization’s appreciation:
 
“At the West Shore Chamber of Commerce, we are thankful for our members, first and foremost.  We are also thankful for the communities we serve.  We have the privilege of being located in South Central PA, which is a very diverse economic region that allows us to reach and help many different types of businesses.  I am thankful for the grit and determination of our business leaders to keep our region strong and work together to positively impact our businesses and communities.”
 
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Few organizations were hit as hard by the pandemic as WSCC since the services of most chambers of commerce rely heavily on in person events, which COVID 19 largely cancelled.  So, when Book speaks of the dedication and resilience of his Chamber’s members and their communities, he speaks from heartfelt experience and is understandably eager for opportunities that lie ahead.
 
3) Pierson Computing Connection, Inc.: The first for-profit company of the set is thankful for a different but equally important stakeholder group.  Deb Pierson serves as president and CEO of Pierson Computing Connection, which she founded in 1993.  She says, “We are primarily grateful for our people.  We have a great team that values deep relationships and embraces our core values.  Without our people, Pierson wouldn’t be growing and thriving.”
 
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Some may find it ironic that the leader of a company that supplies technological solutions places greatest importance on its people.  However, Pierson rightly recognizes that it takes dedicated and gifted people to manage software, install hardware, and train others who will use them.  Great technology doesn’t matter much without great employees who are highly skilled in its use.
 
4) LINKBANK: When people of a certain age think of banks, they likely envision people – tellers, loan officers, etc.  When Brent Smith, president of LINKBANK, considers his bank’s people, he sees much more than the roles they fill:
 
“We are grateful at LINKBANK to have deeply committed staff members who are passionate about our clients, communities, and each other.  We are also very appreciative of all the employees’ families and the ongoing support they give, allowing each of us to pursue our passions in the workplace.”
 
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Good leaders know that their staff members are also spouses, mothers, fathers, daughters, etc., with responsibilities outside the workplace.  Leaders like Smith also are very grateful for the support that these family members graciously give and, in that way, also help to fulfill their firms’ purposes.
 
5) Ten Thousand Villages:  Finding people who will work for pay and effectively support a nonprofit organization’s mission can be difficult.  Identifying dedicated volunteers who will do so can be extremely challenging.  The realization of both of these goals has led Dan Alonso, the CEO of Ten Thousand Villages to share:
 
“We are thankful for the passionate people who are part of the greater Ten Thousand Villages family/network and who go above and beyond to support our mission, often with no direct connection to the organization itself.  We also have a core of devoted staff members who want to make a difference and who continue to do so on a daily basis, despite the challenges of being the rare combination of a mission-based nonprofit and a successful retail organization.”
 
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As is the case for many nonprofit organizations aiming to fulfill their unique missions, creating fair trade market opportunities for artisans around the world requires a special combination of devoted staff members and faithful volunteers.
 
A university, a chamber of commerce, an IT company, a bank, and a fair-trade retailer:  One might guess that they would be thankful for very different things, but ultimately the gratitude of each reflects the same priority – people.
 
Although it should happen each day of the year, in this season of Thanksgiving it is particularly fitting for every marketer and other organizational member to renew their appreciation for the individuals who purchase their products, provide their services, and in other ways partner to help fulfill their missions.
 
Thankfulness can be a recalibrating factor and a grounding force for each of us.  It’s also an important prerequisite for “Mindful Marketing.”
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17 Comments

Marketing Must Fight Fakes

11/6/2022

6 Comments

 
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by David Hagenbuch - professor of marketing at Messiah University -
​author of 
Honorable Influence - founder of Mindful Marketing 

I recently received LinkedIn connection invitations from two different recruiters – It’s nice to be wanted; although, it’s nicer when the people pursuing you actually exist, which I’m certain wasn’t the case for either.  As rapidly advancing technology helps blur lines between fact and fiction, does marketing have any obligation to stand for truth?
 
Deception has been part of human history since the serpent misled Adam and Eve.  Over millennia, certain marketers have misguided consumers, whether they were ancient merchants using rigged weights and measures, snake oil salesmen pawning impotent elixirs, or auto dealers turning back odometers.
 
In recent years, the growth of social media and advances in digital technology have helped deception proliferate like never before, both in volume and sophistication.  Most of us are all too familiar with fake news, clickbait, and other forms of deceptive communication that cross our paths dozens of times a day.
 
The two LinkedIn invitations from imaginary people I mentioned above are cases in point; I’ve received many more, as others reading this piece probably have also.  Some telltale signs of the fakes are the model-worthy headshots, scarce background info, few existing contacts, and no recent posts.
 
These forgeries are fairly easy to spot, but others can be much more challenging.  Really good photoshopping can be completely undetectable.  Although someone occasionally sees and points out part of an image that was secretly altered, such as a celebrity’s unusual narrow waistline, these detected cases are only a fraction of those in which pictures are materially changed and which sometimes deceives others.
 
As a user of graphic design software since the mid-90s, I know these techniques firsthand.  One of my earliest photoshops involved our family’s promotional products business, which was based in a century-old Victorian house.  Unfortunately, a large telephone pole with wires projecting in four different directions made it impossible to get a clean picture of the building, so I used Photoshop’s clone stamp tool to make the pole and wires magically disappear.
 
While digital manipulations of static images have some potential to portray alternate realities, they pale in comparison to what deepfake video can do.  Driven by “deep learning,” a form of artificial intelligence (AI), and using face-swapping autoencoders, these extremely realistic videos can make their subjects seem to say and do things they’ve never done or said, which might be completely out of their character.
 
Most of us have seen lifelike deepfakes, which are easy to find on the web, but the most eerily realistic ones likely have been created by the Belgian company Metaphysic, whose viral videos employing American actor Miles Fisher to deepfake Tom Cruise were highlighted in an illuminating NBC Today segment about the technology.
 
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In the segment, NBC reporter Jacob Soboroff asks Fisher about the ethics of deepfake video and whether it could be a threat to democracy.  Fisher replies that the technology is “morally neutral,” adding, “as it develops, the positive output will so far outweigh the negative nefarious uses.”
 
Fisher’s response is reassuring, but how believable is it given that he does deepfakes to advance his career, and he has a business relationship with a firm that’s monetizing the trend?
 
As Business Insider has reported, others are also rightly questioning the potential repercussions of deepfakes:

“Many experts believe that, in the future, deepfakes will become far more sophisticated as technology further develops and might introduce more serious threats to the public, relating to election interference, political tension, and additional criminal activity.”
 
A recent New York Times article shared similar social and political concerns about deepfakes specific to their unsettling spread on TikTok.  Times reporter Tiffany Hsu also suggested another very important reason for pumping the brakes on deepfakes:
 
“But more than any single post, the danger of manipulated media lies in the way it risks further damaging the ability of many social media users to depend on concepts like truth and proof.”
 
It sounds cliché, but honesty is a foundation of every strong relationship and of every highly functioning society.  Productive interactions become impossible when people are unsure who’s lying and who’s telling the truth.
 
While it’s true that any individual can potentially get ahead by lying, no one gets ahead if everyone lies.  As purveyors of what might be the world’s most pervasive communication, marketers should understand the magnitude of their influence and be resolute guardians of truth, for their own livelihoods as well as for the preservation of society. 
 
Here are three ways marketing should fight falsity:
 
1.  Ensure no harm:  Not all digitally altered content is created equal.  Some is much more likely to significantly change people’s beliefs and actions, often in undesirable ways, while other tactics are more benign.  My analysis is biased, but I would put my telephone pole removal example in the harmless category.  It’s doubtful that anyone saw the building photo without the wires and developed a significantly different impression of the business.
 
2.  Reveal the truth:  If there’s a compelling reason to alter reality, let people know what’s been done.  In cases like the Tom Cruise deepfakes that are so good they fool most people, there should be clear disclaimers, e.g., “This is a deepfake.”  In other instances, the unrealistic or playful nature of the altered content is enough of a signal.  For instance, this past July I wrote an article titled “Cultures of Corruption” for which I photoshopped a winking/smiling Ben Franklin on the front of a $100 bill.  It’s doubtful that anyone believed the comical counterfeit.
 
3.  Avoid a deception arms race:  Unfortunately, marketing often involves one-upmanship, e.g., if one advertiser employs sexually provocative content that’s effective in attracting attention, other advertisers will insert even more explicit elements in their ads.  Meanwhile consumers’ thresholds of tolerance get pushed higher and higher.  There’s a real danger of the same kind of advance occurring with deepfakes unless firms follow the previous two prescriptions and refrain from pushing the envelope on realism past the point of easy recognition.
 
Fortunately, I’m still able to tell when a LinkedIn invitation is a fake.  Regrettably, I shouldn’t have to.  Organizations that resort to any form of deception in order to change people’s beliefs or cause them to take actions they wouldn’t otherwise choose are truly practicing “Single-Minded Marketing.” 
​
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