Marketing has an enormous capacity to influence our decisions. It helps us choose products and services, but it can also influence our habits, our preferences, and even our understanding of life.

Therefore, perhaps we should ask ourselves a more ambitious question:

Can marketing help change people’s lives?

I think so. But to achieve this, values ​​can’t just be a communication tool. They have to underpin the decisions.

As I explained in  Keys to Marketing with Values , it is a way of understanding marketing in which the objective is not only to sell, but also to generate trust, provide a real benefit to people and contribute positively to society.

Values ​​that change the way of thinking

There are values ​​that modify certain behaviors. But there are others that can change something much more important:  the way of thinking behind those behaviors .

Generosity can change our relationship with money.

Sobriety can help us discover that we need less than we think.

The service can change our question from “what can I get?” to “what can I contribute?”

Responsibility can transform the way we make decisions.

The truth can change our relationship with others.

And hope can change the way we face difficulties.

When our way of thinking changes, our habits can change. And when our habits change, our lifestyle can change.

The contribution of religious values

In this area, I find the contribution of  universal religious values ​​particularly interesting .

This is not about turning marketing into a religious issue or attributing a monopoly on values ​​to any particular religion. It is about recognizing that religious traditions have transmitted, for centuries, a profound reflection on the person, their dignity, and their relationship with others.

Values ​​such as love for one’s neighbor, solidarity, service, generosity, forgiveness, humility, justice, and hope can also be understood from a human and universal perspective.

And some of them directly question certain lifestyles.

Service is the antithesis of individualism.

Sobriety is the answer to consumerism.

Generosity is the antidote to selfishness.

In the face of resentment, forgiveness.

In the face of pessimism, hope.

These are values ​​that don’t just tell us what to do. They can help us discover  why it’s worth doing .

Marketing also conveys values

Advertising doesn’t just sell products. It can also convey ideas, behavioral models, and lifestyles.

In  Values ​​in Advertising  I already reflected on this dimension of commercial communication: advertising can become a true social agent and, therefore, demands responsibility.

But the influence of marketing can be even more profound. In  Values ​​Marketing in an Eroticized Society  , I explored how certain marketing strategies can contribute to modifying beliefs, behaviors, and lifestyles.

The question, therefore, is not whether marketing has an influence.

The question is what influence we want to exert.

Some examples

There are companies and campaigns that have understood that communicating a value can be much more than an advertising strategy.

Dove, with its  Real Beauty campaign , has challenged conventional beauty standards and focused on self-esteem, authenticity, and self-acceptance.

Patagonia, with its  “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign, went so far as to ask its customers not to buy one of its garments if they didn’t truly need it. A provocative way to advocate for more responsible consumption.

By developing the three-point seat belt and sharing the innovation with other manufacturers, Volvo prioritized protecting lives over a potential competitive advantage.

These are very different examples, but they have something in common:

A value can become a life proposition.

From consumer to person

Perhaps one of the great challenges of marketing is to stop looking at the consumer only as someone who buys and rediscover the person behind it.

A person has needs, but also convictions, relationships, responsibilities, hopes, and projects.

Therefore, truly people-oriented marketing should not only ask:

How can I get them to buy?

You should also ask yourself:

How can I help you live better?

A very simple experience can help to understand this. In  13 Inches: A Lesson in  Values-Based Marketing, I recounted how behind a situation seemingly related to a technological product, something much more important could be discovered:  a company’s ability to serve a person and their real needs .

Because therein lies one of the keys to values-based marketing: not just looking at what the person buys, but understanding what they need and how we can help them.

This issue also connects to the communication of ideas and values. As Juan Manuel Mora explains in  Keys to Communicating Ideas and Values , convictions and behaviors don’t change overnight. They require credibility, consistency, and time.

Change your life

I don’t believe that marketing alone can change people’s lives. Nor should it try to replace family, education, culture, or religion.

But it can have an influence.

It can make visible a particular way of understanding beauty.

It can promote a more responsible way of consuming.

It can promote solidarity.

It can dignify the service.

It can convey hope.

It can help us look at reality from another perspective.

And it can do so not only with campaigns, but also through  products, services, experiences, and business decisions consistent with certain values.

True values-based marketing is not about putting a value in an advertisement.

It consists of  experiencing it within the company and conveying it to people through what the company does .

Because an idea can change a decision.

One decision can change a habit.

A habit can change a lifestyle.

And a lifestyle can end up changing a life.

That is, perhaps, the true power of values-based marketing.