To Expand Your Reach, Adjust Your 'tude
"The opportunity for brotherhood presents itself every time you meet a human being." -Jane Wyman
Will Americans ever find common ground, cross bridges, and learn to honor thy neighbor? Yes, is the short answer. My confidence is based on our ability to adapt, combined with the fact that we need one another to create a more perfect union.
I read an important piece by Gene Marks in The Guardian that addresses this need to come together, right now.
…if you run a small business. You are definitely buying products, partnering, and trading with other small business owners who voted for Donald Trump. Your customers are likely to include many Donald Trump voters. Your employees may be … gasp … Republicans!
Are these bad people? Racists? Liars? Imbeciles? You tell me. You know them. You sell to them. You buy from them. You employ them. Here’s what I’ve learned.
I’ve learned that people have their reasons for voting for Trump and it’s not up to me to judge them. It’s my responsibility to better understand them, to learn from them, to empathize with their points of view. I can disagree with them. But that shouldn’t stop me from liking them, working with them, and doing business with them.
Marks Group provides technology and financial management services to SMBs in the US and abroad. I appreciate his sentiments. Don’t we have enough enemies and enough problems to go around? How about we learn to like and respect one another again (or for the first time)?
We seem to believe much more in our polar positions and in the enforced distance between us than we do in America or one another. It’s pathetic. We speak the same language, live in the same cities, go to the same churches, schools, stores, etc. We can choose to put the dividers down. We can choose to heal and become stronger, better people.
Faith Eroded
Who do you trust? From a civics perspective, the findings in the graph below are painful.
From a brand communications perspective, there is an incredible opportunity for companies to lead, tell the truth, and fill in the critical gaps for their customers—also known as the American people. When our most basic needs are not being met by the government, by the media, or by Wall Street, smart brands step into the vacuum.
Businesses Run on Trust
What is the anatomy of trust? “Trust is choosing to make something important to you vulnerable to the actions of someone else.”
Digital Lagniappe
Mutual of Omaha updated its logo. The lion roars!
Would you like to chat with Dan Goldgeier and me on the next episode of AdChatter, the new podcast from Adpulp.com? Speak up.
Here’s a chart that shows the percentage of American small businesses (in leisure and hospitality) that are closed as of September 2020. It’s not pretty.
Introducing gluten-free Oreo Cookies.
Adpulp and Bonehook were recently featured along with our design intern, Yuhang Wang, in Franklin & Marshall College’s alumni news.
Say Hello
My email is david@davidburn.com. My homepage is DavidBurn.com. My ad industry site is Adpulp.com. My marketing services site is Bonehook.com.
Thanks for being here now.