Truth

“Give us your money because we need it and in return we will do our best to help you solve your problem or meet your need.” That’s what every business actually wants to say. Instead they try to impress us with the size of their company, the reach of the marketing, the gloss of their marketing message and the perceived quality of their product or service. And because they sort of feel that these are workarounds to the real message they cannot put out there they also lean on gimmicks and fads like neurolinguistic programming, emotional triggers and plain old fear.

What is it that makes businesses behave like that?

Behavior is a learned response. Just like a person learns from childhood, through observation and affective regulation what is allowed and what isn’t by way of behavior in certain environments so does a business learns to behave from its competitors and other businesses like it.

But why?

Now, I know this is a complex subject whose answer needs to take into account culture and expectations, tropes and traditions, evolution and innovation. And yet, the fact that almost no business is actually transparent about its need hints at one critical element that lies at the heart of every relational exchange which, turn, is predicated on something else.

The missing element? Trust. Businesses find it difficult to trust themselves, trust their own people and then trust their customers which totally explains the merry-go-round they all engage in.

The point around which trust revolves? Vulnerability.

A business that operates with the concept of my opening line displays both. Some leading brands have taken this message to heart and have started to market themselves in this way. This is good because consumers don’t just want that, they expect it.

Many businesses however, do not work this way. And many of those who lead them do not understand the need to change.

But change is coming regardless. Those brands that fail to adapt and evolve will, ultimately, fail.