Involvism – Method 7: Credibility
This is the 7th method of Involvism. The entire series published to date can be found by clicking here.
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Mantra
Building an identity and nurturing the trust of others is based on solid credibility. What is valid for interpersonal relationships is valid for business to citizen relationships also. Organisations must have clear values and stick to them. They must be honest, trustworthy and genuine. They must admit when they are wrong and humble when they are right. They must ask for the help of others rather than pretend omnipotence. Credibility in business must be of the same standard as the credibility of a citizen to truly enable and create real value, efficiency, productivity, profitability and scale.
Key Actions
1. Clarify the core values you and your organisation have
2. Correspond all internal and external activity to your core values
3. Create and prepare for scenarios that would test the credibility of you and your organisation
4. Communicate, with all internal and external stakeholders, what you stand for and what that means
Involvist Viewpoint
The credibility of a brand, product, service or company is built upward from the values and behaviour shown. There is a great deal of time, energy and money spent on the elaborate creation of brand values. However, much of this effort is to guide external communications and even when the values are supposed to reflect internal procedure, work ethic and behaviour overall, some people (often in positions of power) disregard the agreed values and behaviour as ‘marketing speak’, and get on with leading in their own way.
From experience, the knock-on effect of misunderstanding values and behaving without alignment to them, is so vast that it can bring a company to its knees.
To be credible is to do what you say you will do. To deliver what you say you will deliver, and to be who you say you are. Credibility is so critical to breeding trust yet so overlooked on a list of priorities that mostly start with the word ‘revenue’ (and recently, the next words are ‘from advertising’).
Regardless of the amount of viewers, impressions, visitors, users or members, without being credible in the eyes of all stakeholders, an organisations ability to truly enable and create real value, efficiency, productivity, profitability and scale is severely limited. In a world where engagement and interaction with media is so personal and self-controlled, there is no other tangible option other than breeding human trust and respect.
Involvism suggests that being honest, trustworthy and genuine are mandatory components of business credibility although we find many companies lacking on one or more of those factors. The small print and hidden clauses of today’s world must surely be replaced with openness and transparency. The word-play and trickery used in marketing communications (like, for example, ‘free calls for life – just pay £25/month’) must surely be replaced, as citizens can increasingly see through the bullshit and talk to each other about it – all before the marketing team get to Starbucks.
One of the reasons that ‘advertising’ is seen as such a dark art is that many people realise that what is said and shown may not necessarily be linked to the truth. At the time of writing, the buzz topic is ‘mobile advertising’, and I strongly suspect that negative emotions are generated from such a phrase because, for some people, this is how it looks:
1. Mobile means me. My device where I speak to my friends in my time, about my life
2. Advertising means lies. Lies from companies who try and invade my personal space. Companies who want me to believe their lies.
If this is indeed the case, it’s easy to see the concern.
The answer will not come from finding more sneaky ways of getting ads in.
The answer will not come from ‘doing it anyway’ because ‘people don’t really mind’.
The answer will not come from anything other than gaining trust from being credible.
Transparency of offering, relevance of communication, value of incentive and ease of interaction will work as solid rules of engagement only if you are credible.
The communication ideal of increased efficiency from increased permission and increased relevance from increased understanding, will only work if you are credible.
If you must speak of whether ‘content is king’, or ‘context is king’, feel free to rightly replace such rhetoric with ‘credibility is king’. Without credibility, it doesn’t matter how great your content is or how exact the context is.
This is why Involvism suggests that the only way to succeed in such an environment of personality and opinion is to breed grass-root trust from being credible. Without credibility there is no way to truly enable and create real value, efficiency, productivity, profitability and scale.
