Trust is thus the goal of marketing. Long-term relationships are much more beneficial for *both* parties than a transaction is.
So what’s the best way to build trust with potential customers?
Instead of promoting yourself, teach your readers.
Being able to altruistically (e.g. without soliciting) teach, help or show people things that benefit them is a sure-fire way to build trust.
I know it's a little late for New Year's Resolutions, but here I go nonetheless.
I first fell in love with Starbucks when I was about 16 years old. I lived in Duncan ('nuff said). My mom and I went into the new coffee shop in town, and I had my very first Coffee Frappuccino. My mom ordered an iced hazelnut latte. It's now 13 years later, and I can still remember my very first time. Over the years, coffee addict that I am, there probably aren't enough manuscripts in the world to fill the number of times I visited Starbucks. During some of my contracts (I think specifically of a 6-month stint writing code on some miserable Oracle-Java thing that I forget the name of), I would frequent the local Starbucks as often as 4 times per day just to stay sane. There were times over the past 13 years when I would joyfully spend $200 / month of my hard-earned contracting cash at my beloved coffee establishment. And Starbucks grew and grew. They replaced people who are passionate about coffee with a system of employee-cogs who could press buttons on now-automated espresso machines capable of producing one thing, and one thing only: mediocrity. My last visit to Starbucks was the location in Sapperton at 411 East Columbia Street. I have nothing against that particular location, it just happens to be the last one I visited. My wife and I each ordered a tall Americano Misto. Usually, I'm the last person who would ever bring a drink back to the counter with a complaint about anything - even if it was the wrong drink entirely. But this coffee was so bad that it tasted like boiled water with a few coffee grounds thrown into it, topped off with a bit of milk. I wish I could say it was the first time I'd had coffee that bad at Starbucks: it wasn't. It was so bad, as a matter of fact that I brought both of them back up to the counter, and simply asked the gentleman if he would mind replacing them with their drip coffee. Even if the drip coffee did taste like it had sat for several hours in a carafe that has never been cleaned, it would still taste more like coffee than the rubbish I held in my hands. The cashier/clerk/barista/cog obliged me, and took my $3.00 coffees away, replacing them with $1.75 drip coffees without complaint. Also without so much as an apology or an offer to remake them. And thus, my 13 years of being a dedicated Starbucks patron comes to an end with a resolution that I will not make a single purchase from Starbucks for the entire year of 2010, and likely longer.So long, Starbucks, and thanks for all the Frappucino's. They used to be delicious. I'd love to come back and try one in 2011, but I have my doubts that you'll make a choice to get off the mediocrity train anytime soon. If you do, please give me a call, I'll be happy to give you my money.
Brain scans by neuroscientists confirm that altruism carries its own rewards. A team including Dr. Jorge Moll of the National Institutes of Health found that when a research subject was encouraged to think of giving money to a charity, parts of the brain lit up that are normally associated with selfish pleasures like eating or sex.
The implication is that we are hard-wired to be altruistic. To put it another way, it’s difficult for humans to be truly selfless, for generosity feels so good.
