For as long as I can remember, I have been told that immigrants from every country in the world have come to the shores of the United States to build a better life for themselves and their families. From nearly the moment we draw our first breath, we are told that America is the greatest nation on earth—the land of the free and the home of the brave. To live as we please and earn a decent living, and own our own home is what we’re taught is the “American Dream”. This is all reinforced in our mind by our Constitution and its Bill of Rights, which begs the question: what exactly are our “rights” as humans on this earth and who defines them? In essence, rights translate into power—the power of a person to make choices either for themselves or for others. But as the old adage goes, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Yet in the infinite wisdom of the American founders, they could not come up with a Bill of Responsibilities to counter our precious “rights”.
As I have left my formative years behind me and begin my adulthood, I have finally realized the dangers of living with defined rights but without defined responsibilities. In a free-market economy like that of the U.S., these dangers have most obviously manifested themselves in corporations where right to make profit has trumped any and all other considerations. It is quite unfortunate that the notion of American corporate responsibility is a fairly recent phenomenon. But what is most telling is that it only happened after government regulation required it—in a nation where government regulation is viewed most unfavorably by the business community.
So where, you might ask, does this become relevant for marketing? Interestingly enough, marketing could probably take much of the blame for the lack of corporate responsibility in the U.S. Marketing is, and should be, the face and the voice of the company (note that I did not say two-face). While the marketing department’s job has historically been to help raise product awareness and increase sales, it can no longer be done without conscience. We cannot continue to be mindless foghorns where the bottom line on the ledger sheet becomes THE top priority. This, of course, runs contradictory to most of the literature and teachings with which we are indoctrinated in our business classes. But if we are to tout that government intervention is impeding the economic system, we need to truly become self-policing. Just as our conscience checks our thoughts before they come out of our mouths, we as marketers must act as a conscience for the other elements of the company.
Gone are the days of traditional marketing campaigns. Today’s American consumers are much savvier than their predecessors were 50 or 100 years ago. We cannot just SAY that we are environmentally friendly—we must BE environmentally friendly. We cannot just SAY that we pay fair wages—we must actually PAY fair wages. I think you get the picture. As we push more nations to accept our way of life and to adopt free-market economies, our responsibilities will increase exponentially. It will be marketers’ job to make sure that what is being said is what is being done. But in order to sustain the American Dream (as real or as imagined as it may be), we must make sure that our companies are truly responsible, long-term citizens in the global economy.
I hate to say it, but unless and until corporate America takes responsibility for its actions, we cannot legitimately claim to be the greatest nation on earth. In fact, I would argue that the U.S. isn’t even one of the top 10 greatest nations on earth. We have a long way to go and a lot to prove but I think that our generation has the capability to transform our how we market ourselves to consumers—and the world.
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