Ethics for profit

I heard an interested speech last night at the Monash University Student Marketing Awards. It was from Clive Hamilton, Australia Institute Director, on the need for young marketers to remember their ethics as they went out into the workforce.

He had a go at several public marketers about their ethics - and had a dig at Brandchild author Martin Lindstrom, who was quoted as saying that in marketing to "tweens", good ethics is good business. Dr Hamilton suggested that Lindstrom had the wrong end of the stick and had lost the ethical plot - but let's face it, if you're in business, profitability and longevity are key goals. So I'm all for ethics in business, but the fact it's also good for business these days can't be a bad thing.

You see, being ethical, focusing on the "triple bottom line", having a focus on sustainability - these are all attractive to the market. So you can do the RIGHT thing, but also benefit from it.

In marketing your business, is there something you can change - or start talking about - that improves your corporate citizenship performance and thus improves the market's perception of you? Doing the right thing could be that point of difference you've been looking for! Just ask The Body Shop.