As I gaze out of my condominium unit in KL, Malaysia. A thick haze covers the city today.
It is the annual burning of oil palm plantations by companies on the island of Sumatra that causes this annual haze. The reason they burn these oil palm plantations is to get rid of the old trees and replace them with new oil palm seedlings.
It’s a cheap and primitive way to do it, compared to using machines to cut and destroy the old trees. Of course, the rest of the people suffer: humans, animals, the environment.
Because sadly these corporations are only interested in short term profits. Despite the joint governments and local residents in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia being outraged.
Yes, there’s some really bad things that large corporations are doing, all around the world. In the name of justifying short term profits to their shareholders.
But that got me questioning myself…do we as business owners do that? Do we damage our brands in the long term in order to gain some short term profits?
If we were to do an honesty check, I’d be the first to raise my hand.
I guess I had at some stage lost sight in my previous business why I was there in the first place…I started the business to help authors realise their dreams of getting published. But at one point in time I resorted to simply sending out attractive offers on a regular basis, without bothering to build relationships or inspire my database of followers.
Sure, sales went up for a while, and I was happy. I even thought I was doing the right thing. Then after a while, sales slowed down, people were complaining our emails were spammy. In the name of short term revenue I sacrificed my long term brand.
It was a big slap on the face, but it was needed. The business had to go through some tough times in order to rebuild the relationship with customers. Fortunately, from almost going bust I managed to get things back on track, but it took us months! It was a silly mistake that I shall not want to make again.
Never to sacrifice your ‘long term’ brand for short term profits.
If you remember the parable about the goose that laid a golden egg everyday. Well the ‘Goose’ is your brand, the ‘Golden Egg’ is your profits.
If you focus on feeding and keeping your Goose happy, it will continue to lay gold eggs for your for a long time to come. Don’t be like the farmer that killed the Goose thinking there will be lots of golden eggs inside.
Similarly, cultivate your brand and make that the core of your marketing efforts. Without fail, if you have chosen the right market niche to position yourself, your brand will yield your business many golden eggs and profits in the long term.
Treat your brand as the most valuable asset in your business and you won’t go wrong.
Please share your thoughts on whether you agree!
