Back-To-Business Basics

You don't have to be a foodie to recognize three buzzwords dominating all things food, from grocery store aisles to the hippest farm-to-table restaurant:

Organic.  Sustainable.  Local  

Pretty basic, right? Well, maybe it's the autumn nip in the air, and the back-to-school mindset that comes along with it, but I've come to notice this "back-to-basics" approach is a trend in more than just food these days. Maybe the umpteen ways to instantly and incessantly "connect" on our high-tech devices have left us all longing for the distant, vaguely familiar experience of a simple, authentic, human connection.   

Basic #1: Organic

The ingredients for a strong brand and culture are like those of an organic nutrition label: easy to pronounce and understand. Ingredients in food should include only those good and wholesome for you, without added preservatives, artificial sweeteners and pesticides. Ingredients of an organic brand include trust, compassion, authenticity. Marketing campaigns should be made without inflated exaggeration, worthless gimmicks, and constant email spamming. (Really, spam has no business in your inbox nor on grocery shelves.)  

Imagine being able to go to a website and simply find what you're looking for - without having to dodge advertisements that invade your screen and flashing calls to action that do nothing more than get in the way of what you're looking for. Imagine not having to give away your name, email address, and blood type just to continue reading an article that you soon realize has as many empty calories as a loaf of Wonder Bread.     

Basic #2: Sustainable

This word has become synonymous with "green" and "energy efficient". Appropriate, sure, but let's recall the official definition of sustainable: "able to be maintained at a certain rate or level."  

This might go without saying (but since we're getting back to basics, I'm going to say it anyway): people are what enable a business to stay in business. People not only hire your services or buy your products, but it is people who deliver the services and people who design, make and sell your products. If it were not for that latter group of people - your employees - you would be in just as much trouble as if you didn't have paying customers. Treat them right and recognize they have a life, or better yet, that they are a life. 

And on the flip side, it would be helpful for those paying customers to recognize that a business can only actually be in business if it makes a profit. Profit, like fat, is good for you - in moderation, of course. It's what keeps you going. We can't keep expecting for companies to drive prices down and then be shocked, disappointed, annoyed or infuriated when we find out they outsource jobs overseas.  

Which, of course, leads me right to...

Basic #3: Local

I love online shopping just as much as the next person. It offers significant conveniences, perks and often, cost savings. But let's not forget about our own local grocer, hardware store and bank and do our part to support and grow our own, local economies. You know, the ones that help fund our schools, repair our streets and clean our parks. The ones that create more jobs, not just here in this country, but in your state, your county, your town.  

It's elementary, my dear Watson

You might say these basics are rather, well...basic. Then again, basics usually are. We often look for complex, complicated solutions when the best ones are usually the most obvious, the most straight forward.

Imagine if we applied a "farm to table" approach for business and marketing. I think it's not only possible and necessary, but very much desired by consumers, customers, and clients who have (over)indulged on the "junkfood" which businesses have been dishing out lately. They're ready for a cleanse, a detox of sorts.  

They're ready to get back to basics.