Warning: Your strategy can instead become a reputational risk
Egypt’s pharaoh faced 10 plagues, but refused to change. Each warning hardened his heart until destruction followed.
Our modern plagues are not locusts or rivers of blood, but corruption, greed and apathy—forces that destroy trust.
For brands and organizations alike, repeated neglect erodes credibility and loyalty.
False idols we serve today include:
- Greed: Profits over people. A company chasing short-term gains risks alienating customers and employees.
- Image: Perception over truth. Brands that focus only on PR spin lose authenticity.
- Power: Self-interest over service. Leaders or brands that prioritize authority, ego or personal gain over purpose lose loyalty and credibility.
- Apathy: “That’s just how things are.” Ignoring feedback or trends erodes relevance.
Organizations that worship these idols gradually lose accountability and audience trust.
Blame: The real plague in marketing and management
In marketing, when customers lose trust, brands don’t survive by blaming suppliers, competitors or market conditions. They apologize, take responsibility and repair the relationship.
The same applies to leadership. Yet too often, executives and public leaders deflect blame. Refusing to own mistakes is costly: trust evaporates, morale suffers and brand reputation weakens.
Humility is not optional. In both business and governance, admitting errors is the first step toward rebuilding credibility.
Repentance as a strategy
Repentance may sound religious, but in strategy, it is simple: admit when a path no longer works and choose a better one.
In marketing, this means owning mistakes. When a product fails or a service disappoints, brands that acknowledge the error and outline corrective measures recover faster than those that deny responsibility.
From Singapore Airlines compensating passengers when service falls short, to car companies issuing transparent recalls, the principle is universal: ownership restores trust.
Repentance fosters transparency, bridging loob (humility, cultural literacy, empathy) and labas (authenticity, consistency, accountability), embedding values into ways of working and turning those ways into enduring brand trust.
In marketing terms, it shifts interactions from transactions to meaningful, trust-based relationships.
Purpose over power in branding
I often tell entrepreneurs, “The goal is not to be the biggest, but to be the most trusted.”
Power without service is not leadership; it is branding without substance.
Similarly, size without trust is hollow growth. Healing comes not from slogans or flashy campaigns, but from restitution: fixing mistakes, listening to feedback and leading with humility.
In marketing, this principle applies to everything from customer service to executive communication. The brands that endure are those that value trust above ego.
3 marketing lessons for leaders this Christmas
1. Listen early. Every crisis, such as product failure, service gap or public backlash, is feedback that something must change.
2. Choose humility. Customers and employees don’t expect perfection; they expect honesty and accountability.
3. Serve, don’t rule. Influence exists to uplift stakeholders, not just the bottom line.
These principles are universal. Ignoring them risks not only reputation but long-term survival.
The cost of inaction
Every unresolved crisis exposes what organizations truly prioritize. When leaders prioritize profit, position or image over people and purpose, damage compounds. Corruption siphons resources. Apathy leaves customers and employees unserved. Moral decay spreads quietly but deeply.
Leadership is tested most when action is hardest. Pride may feel safer than apology, but defensiveness costs trust, loyalty and ultimately, growth.
A hopeful ending: Trust as the ultimate marketing asset
The exodus story ends in freedom, but only after surrender. Perhaps this Christmas calls us to the same: to let go of pride, greed and indifference and to lead with conscience again.
When strategy loses compassion, it becomes a plague. When conscience shapes strategy, it becomes a blessing. Leadership and marketing begin not with pride but with the humility to change.
In marketing, brands survive because they repair broken trust. In governance and business, nations and organizations thrive for the same reason: honesty, accountability and service.
This season, may leaders, business and political alike, choose repentance as a strategy. Not as ritual, but as reform. Not for show, but for lasting credibility.
Because strategy without conscience harms. A strategy guided by conscience builds trust. And trust, once lost, cannot be bought. It must be earned, nurtured and preserved.
Josiah Go is a three-time record-breaking, bestselling author of 20 books on marketing and entrepreneurship, all written within the Philippine setting.
