What Makes An Authentic Business and Why This Is Integral to Success

Victoria LaFarge
Aug 9, 2024
4 min read

By Victoria LaFarge

All businesses follow a product model one way or another, and to become successful they must make a product that sells. Yet, what draws these customers in isn't just the product, but also the values and attitude of a business. After all, a large part of product development is suiting the product for its customer and customer success. What makes a business truly valuable is the way it serves its people: employees, customers, and community. The way a business treats its customers should be based on set values; the upfront presentation of these values makes customers interested and comfortable working with a company.

Have Values The Company Sticks To

Having values for a business seems easy. We're all taught basic morals of kindness and hard-work growing up, but this becomes so much more complex, as customers have become more aware of their consumption. Customers want more truth, more integrity. They're tired of being deceived and set up for cash with a company that has underdeveloped values, or no values listed at all. Creating values that one genuinely values and being upfront about them is integral to creating better work. Being authentic is something that people have valued for centuries; it creates a more intimate relationship for customers to enjoy. It also gives a better consciousness for business, thus creating more passion and drive for one's work.

Marketing and Truth

These values are important to incorporate in marketing and public image. Gaining customers' trust from genuine and honest values not only makes customers feel comfortable but it's also enticing. Truthful businesses are decreasing and kindness is depleting. Social media is covered with coverage on contradictions between a CEO's words versus the reality of their product. Promote company values but also back them up. Own up to company mistakes truthfully and make it up to customers, continue that trust. Make that a focal point of the company image. Being upfront about policies, workplace practices, and products also builds customer trust and a strong reputation for a company. Consumers want transparency. Being honest about where the money goes and how it gets there is how one gets there.

Implementing these values comes from practicing them in one’s business but also having them everywhere a customer can see: social media, the company website, office walls, in meetings, emphasizing mantras, in greetings, etc. Integrating these into the work day enforces them into the company subconscious and makes it much more effective. Acting on these values is also integral. Posting about issues a company cares about, whether it's the employees, management, or business partners that care, it's important to voice support. Contributing to these causes also implement the values the community and company cares about into one’s work. Yet, involving a business in these issues without actual care, knowledge, or truth will always be evident. Participating just for image never works, and it's just not right, which shouldn't align with any business' practices and values.

Getting Involved in Issues and the Local Community

Getting involved in issues surrounding a business also builds customer trust beyond just implementing values into one’s work. A great way to do this is by hosting an event for a local cause the company overall cares about or running some sort of donations for a cause one cares about makes a business more authentic, and makes employees understand the value of engaging with the community, beyond the job. Utilizing a business' group to support a cause and make change is a great vessel to do good.

A great example of this is Fenway Parks' Fenway Farms, connected to Green City Growers. This garden supplies fresh produce to local Boston communities. What makes this work so well is their humbleness about their work. It's not about image, but about their genuine care for the community that strongly supports their park. Serving the people that serve you will always pay off, even if it doesn't help business in the way one expects.

Failed Examples And Cheap Shots at Money

Non-genuine care about a cause for image doesn't work. Consumers are smart, and a company should always treat them as such. A strong example of this is rainbow washing. Many brands rollout products or campaigns for pride month as a way to boost in sales, and create a certain image but don’t discuss the issues queer people face outside of pride month. Companies will change their profile pictures to a rainbow version of their logo and call it a day. Some brands make rainbow products that donate to queer causes and artists, but it is important to keep these values present all year long.

If an issue isn't something a company particularly connects with, it's important to research more about the issue and how one can contribute. Taking that time is important; being educated in our modern state will make one successful in everything one does. However, if a particular issue doesn't align, it's okay. Making an ingenuine post just to virtue signal adds nothing, if anything it makes it worse.

Owning Up to Mistakes

For many businesses, it's easy to get lost in making profit and it becomes difficult to face problematic business practices a company may ensue for said profit. Owning up to one’s mistakes with honesty and genuine emotion, implementing change, and supporting the customer accordingly is what rebuilds that trust and makes a step forward to resolving customer disagreements.

Conclusion

Creating a mission statement and having upfront values is easy, but accountability and sustaining your mission is an ongoing process that needs time and dedication. With a strong drive for profit, it’s easy to get caught up in the wrong things, so having a self reflective and values oriented company and workplace can help guide you to an honorable business. Being genuine overall, creates customer trust and bond that will sustain a business far into the future.