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They say every man is born twice, the second time when he earns his reputation amongst people.
– Avatar
In personal and professional lives and also in businesses, earning the believability of others is an obvious imperative. Key businesses and business people have gone far and wide to keep earning this reputation for believability through their actions and choices, time and again.
J&J’s Tylenol fiasco was an obvious example, where the imperative for the company’s employees who made sure their commitment to ethical operations was unwavering and was not affected by any short-term repercussions on their numerical bottom line. They earned a reputation. They earned the believability of their customers, prospective customers, investors, media, government and the general public as a whole.
When one walks into any of the thousands of global branches of the McDonald’s franchise, he/she expects a certain quality of food to be served in a certain kind of environment. Ray Kroc’s commitment to living up to the Q S C V (Quality, Service, Cleanliness & Value) meant no compromises, to the effect that now they’ve developed a kind of believability amongst those that go to McDonald’s and even those that don’t.
This is not an overnight transformation, but a conscious effort at earning your share of the customer’s trust – which takes years, and sometimes generations.
LU’s Pied piper was something that stood as an image for three generations now based on the consistent delivery of their brand promise.
It’s not only about survival of the fittest. It’s about more. It’s about getting to know your customers and letting them know you. Earning believability is the second life most corporations fancy, but to live through the small moments each day to grow and nurture that believability is what most of these most would not focus on. Hence, the customer’s preferences.