Brand trust is a crucial ingredient in word-of-mouth recommendations. According to research by Morning Consult, 90% of consumers are “likely to recommend a brand they trust to friends and family.”
Similarly, if you’ve been recommended a product by someone in your network, sharing its values and ethics can influence your decision to buy it. Clutch found that 75% of people are “likely to start shopping at a company that chooses to support an issue they agree with.” So an ethical brand increases the chances that people will want to recommend your brand to their friends, and that people will act on those recommendations.
Make it easier to find and recruit new employees
An ethical brand doesn’t just help you appeal to potential customers. It also enables you to connect with potential employees. Ethical brands are likely to be more attractive to job-seekers — particularly millennials and Gen-Z employees, who often look for employers that align with their beliefs and values.
Ethical brands are often vocal and transparent about the causes and values that are most important to them. This can help you develop a recognizable employer brand, making your company more appealing to people with similar values, interests, and priorities.
Brand values also heavily influence your decision-making around growing and investing in the business. By sticking to your ethics as the business grows, you develop a reputation as an authentic, values-driven company, which can set you apart from other companies in your industry.
Improve employee retention
If you can maintain your position as an ethical brand and continue operating based on your original values, then what first attracted employees to your company will help retain them over time.
Research by Gallup found that only 40% of employees agree that “the mission or purpose of their organization makes them feel their job is important.” Ethical brands communicate and live by their stated values, so they’re likely to have a higher percentage of employees who believe that.
Having a shared set of values makes employees more likely to stay at your organization because they connect with your brand’s mission and purpose. Their work is more than “just a job” to them.
On the other hand, not upholding your brand ethics can damage your employer brand and make employees more likely to leave. CareerArc found that 53% of employees have left jobs because of a “poor or diminishing” employer brand.
The most important part of ethical branding: authenticity
Authenticity is the most important part of your brand’s ethics. On our podcast, Stridbeck explained, “We strive to build authentic, genuine, trustworthy brands — these are buzzwords everyone uses, but they are so important... You need to stand up for something and be authentic about it.”
Consumers are increasingly savvy, and inauthentic values can damage your brand’s reputation. It may be tempting to come up with a set of aspirational company values that sound good and look good on paper. But if you don’t live by them at all levels of the business, they’re little more than a marketing angle.
Learn more about brand authenticity: Why brands need to get real
