Culture

Spend a few minutes on LinkedIn and you'll read plenty of thought leadership pieces about corporate culture ... often from individuals who never played a role in creating corporate culture.

Enough about that.

The marketer sets the culture with the customer. The marketer is the one who speaks with the customer or prospect. You'll hear the term "relationship", but it isn't really a relationship, is it? One side has a megaphone and merchandise, the other side is silent, purchasing every 200 days if you are lucky.

What you do between purchase events is "set the culture".

Want an example?

Here is the discount level that one company communicated to me last week Monday - Friday.

• 40% Off
• 40% Off
• 40% Off
• 40% Off
• 50% Off
• 40% Off
• 40% Off
• 40% Off
• 40% Off
• 40% Off
• 40% Off
• 40% Off
• 40% Off
• 40% Off
• 40% Off
• 40% Off

That's sixteen communications in five days. They've set the culture. They have NOTHING to say. NOTHING. You're given this gift of setting the culture, and you squander it.

Do you love what you sell? The answer should be an enthusiastic YES! You'd think you couldn't help but scream about your best-selling products or your new creations.

Your customer notices. Your customer knows the culture you promote.

There are professionals who might suggest that this is your "brand". I'm not sold on that. "Brand" is bigger than culture. Culture leads to brand, yes. Amazon can have a ruthless culture and be a brand you purchase from daily.

You likely have hundreds / thousands of employees, but fewer than a dozen actually get to have a relationship with the customer ... get to set the culture with the customer. Be wise about who you assign this precious task to. And if the answer is "C-Level Executives constantly make changes and tell us what to do, that's why we are 40% off three or four times a day", then you work for a company with an intolerably poor culture.