Let's demand it. From ourselves, the companies we do business with, our elected officials, and each other. Downturns in the economy are cyclical and we may have had one right now anyway but would it have deepened into the chaotic mess we see before us had we exercised a bit more integrity in our business dealings over the last 20 years?

Late Friday day night I was cold called by a salesman from the Better Business Bureau. We were in the midst of preliminary staging steps for a furniture delivery on Monday and I, the business owner, was left unguarded for the smallest of moments. His pitch, successful businesses, like presumably the one we have, should join the BBB so that other businesses seeking partners with integrity can find us.

We had moved all of our furniture out pending delivery of new office furniture. I was sitting at a card table. The place couldn't have looked more like a sweatshop if we were one. All day I kept remarking to the rest of the company that I felt like I should be calling people at home selling magazine subscriptions. Into this hovel walks the dapper salesman from the BBB. He had called on us once before. I recognized his face but wasn't confident enough to answer correctly when he asked if I remembered him. He launched immediately into his pitch. No questions, no confirmation that he knew what we did, no inquires as to our business philosophies, despite the aforementioned sweatshop appearance.  He wants me to join the BBB because they need companies like us. Does he know what we do? Does he know we are honest? Does he know that we have integrity? He does not. Had I signed up for the less than $400 per year, DIG would be able to proudly wear the colors of the Better Business Bureau whether we deserved to or not.

If Buick’s goal was to increase awareness, decrease the average age of its buyers and increase sales outside the US, they would have been successful with their $7M spend for Tiger. The actual ROI would be complicated and have to look at the profit on the cars they sold and the propensity to buy again Buick owners display since the lowering of the average age extends the potential lifetime value of the buyer compared with not only the Tiger spend but all of their other advertising spend.