Your personal success is not a joke, and it is not something that should be taken lightly or be left to chance. Success fills your private and professional life with joy and happiness if you stay motivated and remain accountable for it.
As you gain experience in your profession and in your life, over time you’ll come to understand and know what it is that you should do. But the hard thing is to actually get yourself to do it. Raise your standards and live up to those standards to grow into a powerful marketer in your own merit. And part of living up to those standards is to accept the 10 Ethical Principles of Powerful Marketers. This is what we discussed on our last week’s live Powerful Marketer Talks webinar – find the full recording at the end of the post!
The Social Model of Marketing
As human beings we’re all part of social systems: we are family members, representatives of a profession, consumers, citizens, etc. You as a marketer are also a part of the whole system of marketing and business. But this system is bigger than marketers usually see. It goes deeper than meets the eye, and it includes many aspects of your skills in your job and in your personal life. The Social Model Of Marketing illustrates the relationships between the different levels and influences in marketing, taking into account the big, general, outside factors that affect you and your clients, and those inner factors that are particular to each individual.
The reality we live in is a huge, overwhelming complex with several layers, and it’s simply impossible to only excel in one of these levels and then remain successful forever. Things change all the time, and new factors come into play. Understanding all of the layers, at least on a basic level, is essential for long-term success. Change is the only constant in life and it happens at every level of your life and work, at all times. You need to be prepared for it, and you need to be able to adapt. Never assume that just because you know a lot about one area in your life, the conditions will always remain the same.
Empowering yourself as a whole-rounded person will help you to see the challenges in life as opportunities of growth! Understand the different levels in the Social Model of Marketing:
- Core level: your product or service that you represent as a marketer.
- Micro level: this expands to include your employees, clients and partners.
- Meso level: the organizational level, consisting of company culture, target audiences, and the company’s expectations towards employees, clients and partners.
- Exosystem: the societal level, which expands outside of the organization. This is about your country or state’s general level of industry; social systems such as clubs, communities and associations; mass media; different networks; and also the general state and legalities concerning marketing and sales; etc.
- Macro level: the biggest level concerns the general culture, atmosphere and attitude of the people; as well as their historical background; general political ideology; the current political order, and so forth.
Acknowledge your role in this complex system, and remain ethical in every level. Be a powerful person and a successful marketer by always adhering to the ethical principles!
Ethical Principles of Powerful Marketers
- I respect and adhere to the marketing laws and regulations of my country.
- I respect myself, and I am constantly prioritizing my own development and well-being first. I am well aware that I am the most important person in my life. I prioritize MIP (most-important-person) meetings ahead of everything else.
- I respect the integrity of the individual, and I display an open-minded, empathetic and respectful attitude toward people of all sorts, regardless of their background, including origin, health, education, age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, race, religion, political observation, job, income level, position in society, and personality type.
- I am constantly following the Fundamental Principles of Marketing by:
- Refusing to play the blaming game. Avoiding looking for who is at fault, but rather trying to understand the context and purpose, and to focus on solutions.
- Taking responsibility for more than just advertising. Ensuring good communication and preventing my company and its customers from being harmed by my actions — or lack thereof.
- I speak up clearly to everyone and always work on my communication skills. When speaking out in different contexts I clarify whether what I’m saying is a personal opinion or the standpoint of my institution or organization.
- I express any criticism in a positive, professional, argumentative, solution-oriented, non-judgmental way.
- I respect the etiquette of customer relationships, including courtesy, cleanliness, correctness, proper clothing and hairstyle, maintaining my own and the company’s standards.
- I am committed to self-improvement and education, both general education, professional education, and crisis management education, as well as sharing new information when and wherever possible, with the purpose of increasing my expertise in professional areas as well as crisis counseling activities.
- I take care of my own personal psychological hygiene by taking great care of my mindset, physiology, and psychology.
- I am committed to training others to achieve more, and better. My goal is to be a better leader and to create great leaders around me.
Print out these 10 ethical principles, put them somewhere visible in your home or in the office, and really commit to them on a daily basis. This will be the beginning of a huge transformation for you, both as a powerful marketer, but also as a powerful person!
For a more detailed overview of this important subject, watch the full webinar recording below!
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