NASCAR’s Darryl Waltrip was caught cheating in a recent race through the addition of fuel additives to his system, clearly a violation of NASCAR rules. Yet is it so uncommon that cheaters try every trick in the book in a cat and mouse game? What I’ve found is that really depends on yourself, the brand you are creating, and the manner in which you look yourself in the mirror.
The fact is that such cheating occurs across all walks of life. We’ve seen it in solar power when several brands simply don’t output their real ratings to an unsuspecting public and across several other instances where manufacturers push the envelope (and often break it) in the name of showing higher capacities or ratings.
Does the radio maker tell you that the 200RMS per channel that is labelled is impossible to listen to due to the THD (total harmonic distortion)? Nope. Do you care? Nope. All you want is clean, loud music, and you use the wattage rating as a relative measure because you’ve never yourself measured it no matter what sound system you bought.
Same goes for solar power. Same goes for car racing. In the end however, it is those who stand out through a consistent, ethical approach to their business that will have long term brand value gains and long term loyalty from customers. At points of sale or viewership, we may not distinguish today. Yet one day, when we least expect it, someone will catch the thief..and that will be the day of the debt repayment.
Live it straight. Live it good. Your reward will come in ways you cannot predict today.
Sass