Truth is a company’s best asset

Mike Edmonds is on a mission to put the truth out there and has written a book to prove it.

The tell-all is not a scandal about his life but a how-to guide to marketing a business based on its ‘authentic’ foundations.

Despite spending 40 years in the advertising industry, he’s rebelling against the calls to ‘create an image for us’ by releasing his own philosophy in Truth. Growth. Repeat.

He will outline some of the ways that finding the true purpose of the business – which usually means looking back to why it started – can lead to commercial gain at the CCI-Boffins Books business book club event on March 2.

Edmonds is the co-founder of creative business solutions company Meerkats and was one the brains behind the iinet nerd campaign, which helped successfully launch the company in the eastern states by going back to founder Michael Malone’s intention of liberating the internet from phone companies.

While the company was also buying out other companies at the time, the marketing campaign played a key role in its success when rolled out in 2007.

“All the marketing, the way the company named its products; the way it trained its salesforce and spoke to you on the phone; the way it handled your packages was evidence of this truth that there was a better way.”

“That was very rewarding because it was on a grand scale that we were able to show and prove that that truth has commercial value and is not just a way to sleep at night and get into heaven but smart business.”

Brownes dairy is one of his favourite examples.

“As soon as you say to Brownes ‘why don’t you try and embrace the fact that you guys are passionate about milk and you are good at making dairy products that people want to buy every day’, that’s what mums want,” he says.

“So, there’s the commercial viability, the potential to then win customers with that attitude. It’s massive.

“People are looking for authentic motives. They don’t necessarily want to buy from a brand or company that is doing good in the world and that is what is being misunderstood about organisational purpose.

“What people want to know is when you say ‘we love milk’ or ‘we feel kids need milk’ that you are telling the truth, that you are genuine. If you can do that, it has massive commercial potential.”

Truth. Growth. Repeat is published by Wrightbooks and is available from Boffins Books at 88 William Street, Perth and retails for $29.99.