WOMMA Ethics

How does one look at a list of ethical values and decide which one is the absolute most important? Every value listed is extremely important to the WOMM industry and in order to reach full potential marketers must adhere to each quality, equally.

However, pulling from my own experience I feel that Trust is where everything starts. Without the consumers trust, you have nothing, it is the absolute root of word of mouth marketing. Are you willing to take your friend's advice if you know that they have lied to you in the past about something important? Probably not. Word of mouth marketers need to consider themselves as 'friends' to the consumer; in order to achieve what they want (increased transactions, social media traffic, ratings, etc) there has to be a considerable level of trust between the consumer and themselves. This trust is earned over time by following the other listed ethical values: integrity, respect, honesty, responsibility and privacy. Once trust is shaken it almost doesn't matter how respectful, honest and responsible the marketer is, the consumer will most likely doubt their intent and actions. This can lead to decreased brand equity, poor sales and an overall dismal situation for the marketer/company. I remember when I was 5 years old and I lied to my mom about drawing on the wall with permanent marker and she told me that trust can be broken in an instant but takes a long time to build. Word of mouth marketers need to always keep this in mind and they will garner great results!