Author: Shel Horowitz—Green/Ethical Business Expert

A lifelong activist, profitability and marketing specialist Shel Horowitz’s mission is to fix crises like hunger, poverty, racism, war, and catastrophic climate change—by showing the business world how fixing them can make a profit. An author, international speaker, and TEDx Talker, his award-winning 10th book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World, lays out a blueprint for creating and MARKETING those profitable change-making products and services. He is happy to help you craft your messaging and develop profit strategies. Learn more (and download excerpts from the book) at http://goingbeyondsustainability.com

By Posted on Posted in Ethics in Government

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4562664

Going a bit off the topic of ethical marketing here, but this is important.

In the schoolyard, if a bully didn’t get his way (usually it was a boy, back then), he would “take his toys and go home,” ending the game.

Rep. Steve King apparently wants to do the same, only his “toys” are the pillars of American democracy. Threatening to defund the entire court system because you don’t like their decisions is schoolboy bullying taken to extreme, and with dire consequences for the careful and elegant system of checks and balances created over 200 years ago. They already have the Executive and Legislative branches, and a big part of the Judiciary, and have had the luxury of a consolidated media empire that has largely forgotten that its role is to question. But apparently, that is not enough for these unpatriotic extremists who would dismantle democracy.

I believe that ethics and integrity and fair play still mean something; in fact, I’m organizing a grassroots international movement to take a stand for ethics in business (at www.principledprofits.com ). And I believe this attempt to undermine one of the three pillars of the federal government utterly fails the sniff test.

I am old enough to remember when Barry Goldwater, who would be decried as a weak and moderate liberal in today’s climate, was called an extremist. Rep. King’s plan is an attack on the fundamentals of our government, and must not be allowed to proceed.

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By Posted on Posted in General Commentary, Marketing Trends/News

https://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0503150209mar15,1,3440153,print.story?coll=chi-leisuretempo-hed&ctrack=2&cset=true

Heidi Stevens, of the Chicago Tribune, kept a diary of the”incidental ads”–that is, excluding the persistent barrage of ads where we expect to find them, such as in TV, radio, newspaper and magazines, store signage, and so forth she encountered in one workday. In a 14-hour stretch, there are dozens–and only an hour of TV in the batch. She finds them in public transit, on the backs of supermarket receipts, even attached to a chain-link fence. In other words, marketing messages are creeping in to ever more parts of our lives.

My guess is that her count, if anything, is low. Ads blast at us in elevators, over in-store sound systems, and on and on. Even in toilet stalls.

It seems some marketers believe that the more competition for mindshare, the louder and more obnoxious and more in-your-face they need to be.

Sorry, folks, but this is a failed strategy. When we deliberately or subconsciously tune you out, you don’t make any friends by turning up the “botheration quotient.” You just get filed in people’s mental spam-blocking filters and crossed off the good list.

Advertising has its place, of course–but that place is not every last surface or sound available. Visual and noise pollution do not lead to a long-term happy customer relationship.

I discuss this trend in my latest book, as well as a number of better alternatives; real branding is about relationships, not intrusion. However, I’m not going to name the book, because I don’t want you to think this is one of those hidden ads. It’s not–it’s just a rant.

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By Posted on Posted in Ethics in Government, Media Ethics

https://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ethics12mar12,1,4171595.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

“If you aren’t going to create an ethics committee right, don’t create it at all,” says Rep. Alan B. Mollohan of West Virginia. “Otherwise, it is a great farce on the body, not to mention the American people.”

Mollohan’s concern is that the US House of Representatives has eviscerated its own ethics rules. While I usually write about ethics in the business sphere, and it seems to me that business has been cleaning up its act, the political dirty tricks seem to get worse and worse with time. We thought Nixon’s people were the masters of political dirty tricks–but we hadn’t met the late Lee Atwater or Karl Rove, who have “elevated it to a high art”–which is to say, debased themselves to the point where one wonders how they can sleep at night. And the Democrats are not so clean-handed either, as witness some of the dirty pool regarding Nader’s presence on the ballot or their lack of willingness to face protestors at the convention (that particular spinelessness extended to both major parties).

This particular chorus of “I didn’t do it, or at least you didn’t catch me” seems largely to benefit House honcho Tom DeLay, who was up to his ears in ethics problems last year. So now the Committee wants to procedurally sandbag any investigation just by stalling for 45 days. Yuck! DeLay’s ethics problems are so widespread that a search for [ethics rules “tom delay” “house of representatives”] (without the square brackets) brings up 12,400 hits on Google, many from within the last few days that the House has been discussing this.

Well, some of us are watching, and we are not pleased.

2. https://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-050604ruhllecture_lat.story

Lecture by John S. Carroll, Editor of the Los Angeles Times: A remarkably candid, if somewhat rambly, look at journalistic ethics, the importance of disclosing a financial relationship, and the monster Orson Welles created by inventing pseudojournalism with his famous War of the
Worlds broadcast.

I happened to notice this as I was clicking on the above story, and went back to have a look afterwards. I liked it enough that I’m going to ask for permission to put it up on my Ethics Articles page at https://www.principledprofits.com — but whether or not I get permission, you can follow the link. (You may have to be registered.)

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By Posted on Posted in Ethics in Government, Media Ethics

https://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/03/02/media/index_np.html

Is it a coincidence that so much of the real discourse in the last election took place not in magazines, not in newspapers, but in books? Michael Moore on the Left and the Swift Boaters on the Right were the most visible, though far from the only. There were dozens of books from all over the spectrum on the charts, and they were selling.

This article gives some insight into why so many newspapers and magazines were conspicuously irrelevant. Oh, for the glory days of the 70s when newspapers actually took the idea of news seriously!

Among the most disturbing parts of the article:

[quote begins here] Suskind quotes a senior Bush advisor who dismissed reporters for living in the “the reality-based community.” The advisor said, “That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”

Separately, discussing the role of journalists, White House chief of staff Andy Card famously told the New Yorker in a Jan. 20, 2004, article, “They don’t represent the public any more than other people do. In our democracy, the people who represent the public stood for election. I don’t believe you have a check-and-balance function.” At the time, Card’s blunt assessment was seen as a justification of the Bush administration’s policy of keeping the press at arm’s length. (Bush held the fewest first-term press conferences in modern presidential history.) It’s now clear that while most mainstream reporters were getting stiffed, members of the administration were simultaneously setting up propaganda projects by lavishing the Ketchum public relations firm with nearly $100 million in contracts to “communicate” White House initiatives — by hiring Williams, shipping out bogus video news releases, and other sleazy schemes — and waving into the White House an amateur journalist using an alias and working for a fake news outlet. (The bogus video news releases were subsequently slapped down as an illegal use of public funds by the General Accounting Office.) end of quote]

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By Posted on Posted in Media Ethics

https://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=53&aid=79271

Fascinating–a look at what a reporter knew that her public didn’t know, and whether withholding the story was appropriate. Of course, every journalist makes choices about what to include and what to leave out in a story–legitimate journalistic choices. A major purpose of journalism is to filter a large quantity of raw information into a coherent and digestible story. When I work as a journalist, I usually have far more information than I can include in (for instance) a 500-word story. But when the choice is not to do the story in the first place, or to do it and leave key information out of the discourse, many ethics questions come into play. Especially if a government or corporate source wants the material held or permanently suppressed.

One of the things I found especially useful in this article is author Kelly McBride’s list of six criteria for when to hold and when to divulge, at the very end of the piece.

Criterion #1:
“First figure out where the information came from. Anything that can be found in a public record, anything that is voluntarily revealed by witnesses or is observed first-hand by a journalist should be considered fair game.”

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By Posted on Posted in Business Ethics, Marketing Trends/News

https://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5582792.html

“When Web surfers install the [Google] toolbar…and click the AutoLink button, Web pages with street addresses suddenly sprout links to Google’s map service by default. Book publishers’ ISBN numbers trigger links to Amazon.com… Vehicle ID licenses spawn links to Carfax.com, while package tracking numbers connect automatically to shippers’ Web sites.”

Here we go again. First it was Gator, then Microsoft, and now Google. While I do understand that in many ways this could be an enhancement of the user experience, I have serious problems with the idea of a third party replacing content on a website it didn’t create and doesn’t own, without permission and with potentially disastrous consequences for the creator of the content.

And I can see this closing the big swinging door in Cyberspace that lets ordinary Joes and Janes compete as equals among the giants…because on the Web, so far, if you create a useful, well-designed site with good information, and you position the site to be found by search engines and other ways to generate traffic, the prospect can choose to patronize a part-time business working from home, that spent a hundred bucks to put up terrific content, as easily as a Fortune 100 corporation that spent millions. It’s one of the few things left for the little guy in this world of increasing conglomoratization and centralization–and the implications are not pretty:

# The site that generated the content has some kind of revenue plan–perhaps direct sales, perhaps advertising on the found page and other pages the visitor might follow, perhaps commissions from affiliate links. By redirecting the visitor to its own chosen vendors, Google is essentially stealing that revenue. Seems to me the person who created the content should be allowed to monetize it. If the creator of the content wants to send people to Amazon to buy, that should be his or her choice, and accompanied with the correct affiliate link.

# Inevitably, traffic redirection will favor the biggest, best-established, most successful companies–because that’s what visitors have heard of, and Google has stated it will reward the most popular sites. This further centralizes the economic engine in the hands of a lucky few, and marginalizes those with innovative products and approaches, but small budgets.

So, for both economic and ethical reasons, I’d urge Google to re-examine this idea. There may be ways to implement it that address these and other concerns, but until I see them, I will oppose it.

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By Posted on Posted in General Commentary, Marketing Trends/News, Shel's Personal Life

A newsletter editor asked for favorite business books. And having created the list for him, I decided to share it with you. Listing my own two most recent books first is not a matter of ego; I actually do believe they’re the best out there in their respective subject areas (note that my other four books don’t make the list)–in part because my research and writing incorporated much of the best wisdom I found elsewhere (and I’m a voracious reader). I’ve written longer reviews of several of these (and others), one per issue in my monthly newsletter, Positive Power of Principled Profit. Archives are posted at https://www.principledprofits.com/subscribe-positive-power.html (scroll down about two screens)

1. Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First
By Shel Horowitz
Numerous examples of the crucial importance of real, meaningful customer service–the dollar impact of doing it right–or wrong. Much practical advice.

2. Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World
By Shel Horowitz
One-volume course in every aspect of low-cost, high-impact marketing: copywriting, media relations, Internet, personal banding, and more.

3. Love Is the Killer App : How to Win Business and Influence Friends
by Tim Sanders

Helping others–embracing the abundance principle–is a powerful way to grow your own brand–by a (young) senior Yahoo exec

4. Hug Your Customers : The Proven Way to Personalize Sales and Achieve Astounding Results
by Jack Mitchell (Hardcover)

A business owner who’ll do anything for his customers–even fly across the world to deliver a suit! He turns clothing shopping from commodity to magical experience–and he is very well-compensated.

5. The Soul in the Computer: The Story of a Corporate Revolutionary
by Barbara Waugh, Margot Silk Forrest

Barbara Waugh kept standing up for what’s right in her job at HP–and kept getting promoted! Shows how to be very ethical *and * make a difference in the world from within a major corporation.

6. Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul : A Woman’s Guide to Promoting Herself, Her Business, Her Product, or Her Cause with Integrity and Spirit
by Susan Harrow

Excellent practical advice for dealing with the media without falling in any snakepits

7. Winning Without Intimidation : How to Master the Art of Positive Persuasion in Today’s Real World in Order to Get What You Want, When You Want It
by Bob Burg, Bob Berg

A gazillion awesome strategies for de-escalating and turning conflict into agreement. Bob Burg has changed my life!

8. The Book of Agreement: 10 Essential Elements for Getting the Results You Want
by Stewart Levine

A very successful lawyer explains why collaboration is better than confrontation in the legal system

9. Co-Opetition: A Revolution Mindset That Combines Competition and Cooperation : The Game Theory Strategy That’s Changing the Game of Business
by Adam M. Brandenburger, Barry J. Nalebuff

The paradigm that the same businesses are sometimes competitors, sometimes co-operators, sometimes suppliers/customers, and sometimes complementors is extremely helpful in crafting an ethical approach to business.

10. Cash Copy: How to Offer Your Products and Services So Your Prospects Buy Them
By Jeffrey Lant

Not necessarily the definitive book on copywriting, but the first I happened to read that explained why most copywriting fails, and how to create copy that works. (I’ve since read many others, including excellent ones by Joe Vitale, Ted Nicholas, Claude Hopkins, John Caples, David Ogilvy, and many more, but this one completely changed the way I approach client work. I read it about 15 years ago, and without it, I doubt I’d have a copywriting business today.)

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By Posted on Posted in Business Ethics

When Business Ethics magazine shows that socially responsible investments perform better, the world might say, well, of course *you* would say that!

But now, a study from well-rated mainstream consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, in partnership with the Aspen Institute:

“Among financial leaders – public companies that outperform their industry averages – 98% include ethical behavior/integrity in their values statements, compared with 88% for other public companies. Far more of these financial leaders include commitment to employees (88% vs. 68%), honesty/openness (85% vs. 47%) and drive to succeed (68% vs. 29%). Forty-two percent of the financial leaders emphasize adaptability in their values statements, compared with a mere 9% for other public companies.”

I love this, because it gives hard numbers from the core of the business community that validate my claim in Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First that businesses with high ethical standards can be more profitable. this is not a fringe phenomenon, in other words, but a core principle of business success. Thanks, folks!

The study press release is at https://www.csrwire.com/print.cgi?sfArticleId=3511 and contains several more passages of interest.

I also followed a link from the press release to the Aspen Institute and was delighted to discover the many streams of fascinating work they’re involved in. Too few of these brilliant initiatives make the news.

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By Posted on Posted in Marketing Trends/News

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=501842&page=1

I’m old enough to remember when TV ads were nearly entirely populated with white people. Now, according to this longish Associated Press story, TV is where many Americans actually “meet” people of different colors and ethnicities. Now, according tot he article, it’s Society that lags behind Television.

Well, it may be true in some sectors.

But I grew up in New York City and still visit there frequently. Riding the subway or living in the city’s diverse neighborhoods, the reality of our multicultural country is all around you (unlike Los Angeles, where my perception is that almost the only people who take the subway are people of color–whites must drive, I guess). I think there’s been a huge shift to explore other cultures–maybe not in ways that are all that meaningful, but the isolation breaks down at least a little bit even every time a person from the majority culture eats at an authentic ethnic restaurant–which, in my childhood, usually meant Chinese, and now might be Mexican, Afghani, Indian, Thai, Arabic… That we rub shoulders across cultures at universities, in the workplace, in hospital waiting rooms…and of course, on the Internet.

Yes, there is a class of people who is wealthy and uses their wealth to isolate themselves from the hoi polloi–but that’s nothing new–look at the royal courts of Europe in, say, the 17th century.

Oddly enough, I now live in a village with almost no ethnic or racial diversity: Hockanum Village, a small hamlet of about 200 people, nearly all of them descended from Britishers who settled here between 1743 and 1850. As a Jew, I’m exotic here. And though the village name comes from a Native American tongue, I know of no neighbors who claim that ancestry. It is the most welcoming place I’ve ever lived.

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By Posted on Posted in Business Ethics, General Commentary, Shel's Personal Life

Last summer, I launched an international grassroots campaign to prevent future Enron scandals by creating a mass movement toward ethical business practices. My goal: 25,000 business leaders signing an ethics pledge, and each agreeing to contact at least 100 others. (Bless their hearts, some signers have e-mail lists of many thousand, and have run notices about the campaign.) Together, we could create the “tipping point” to make business slime as socially unacceptable as slavery. Knowing that it took the Quakers 100 years from the time they began their campaign against slavery until slavery was eliminated in the US–and they had very little training in community organizing and, of course, no access to modern communication tools–I set myself a timeframe of ten years. As a volunteer, I’m doing this on essentially zero budget, other than paying for occasional bits of my assistant’s time to set up web pages, and a few dollars here and there for press release distribution. But then again, I’ve been writing about (and practicing) low-cost marketing for over 20 years, so that oughtn’t to be difficult, right?

I knew this would be good for the world. And I also knew it would be good for the people signing, who could use the Pledge in their own marketing.

What’s been pleasantly surprising is how in just these first few months, it’s already started changing the shape of my own business, and not in ways I’d have predicted.

I did think the pledge would make it easier to get speaking engagements; so far, that hasn’t been true.

But…

* I’m in dialog with a very prestigious magazine in the ethical business sphere, which has contracted for an article. If they like my work, they’ll have me do that department every issue. While I won’t be writing about the pledge, my blurb will identify me as the author of Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First and the founder of the Business Ethics Pledge movement.

* Several new clients and prospects have approached me, specifically citing my stand on ethics, and usually telling me they found me through a link about the campaign. At least two of these will be long-term clients who will generate substantial revenue in copywriting and strategic marketing planning projects.

* I got an inquiry all the way from the Philippines about buying 500 copies of my book. Once again, the ethics campaign was a factor.

So apparently, it really is true: follow your dreams, your loves, your passions–and our abundant universe provides for you.

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