Give away the shop

Offering value freely remains the best way to earn your customers' trust.

Andrew Carrier

May 11, 2025

Read on to learn why:

① Delivering value without asking for anything in return builds trust.

② Your content marketing should be truly valuable and truly free.

③ Wealth managers won’t be out of a job anytime soon.

④ With AI, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

⑤ Top marketing roles should be clear, strategic and appealing to top talent.

⑥ Your team needs you to care, not control.

⑦ Technology gives us reason for hope.

What's new

This week, Jeremy Laight wrote a LinkedIn post about Aesop’s approach to free samples.

In short:

“Aesop leave full-sized bottles of hand wash and lotion outside their stores. No staff. No signs. No upsell. Just free use of a premium product—every day, for anyone (yes, anyone) walking by.”
“It’s not just generous. It’s strategic. Because it taps into one of the strongest principles in human psychology: reciprocity. As Robert Cialdini explains, when people receive something freely given, they’re far more likely to return, engage, and advocate.”
“And it works—not because it’s loud or clever, but because it demonstrates something most brands are afraid to show: Trust...Trust in the product. Trust in the passerby. Trust that quiet generosity builds brand equity better than gimmicks ever could.”

Why it matters

For as long as I’ve been writing this newsletter, my best friend - also a senior communications professional in the private equity space and a guy whose opinion I value highly - has derided me for “giving too much away”. As recently as a few weeks ago, a smart ex-marketing colleague of mine messaged me one Sunday: “Great newsletter this week, but stop sharing all our secrets!” She was joking. I think.

But here’s the thing, the flip side of feedback like that is that I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve met - at conferences, networking events, business meetings - who at some point in our conversation say something to the effect of ‘I enjoy your newsletter’. It often catches me by surprise, I sometimes have no idea they even knew I wrote one. But our relationship is stronger as a result and in some cases that has led to all kinds of mutually beneficial discussions. I can’t back this up with data or KPIs but I feel it - and they do too. We have a bond that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.

① So, Aesop’s free soap matters and is applicable to you in finance and technology because it demonstrates one of the most fundamental tenets of marketing: delivering value without asking for anything in return builds trust. Not instantly. But slowly, drop by drop, a rock-solid foundation is formed by consistently being the one who is happy to give without asking for anything in return.

What to do about it

Take action

② You might be wondering what any of this has to do with marketing your financial services or technology product. It has everything to do with it. Because job #1 in those sectors is earning your customers’ trust - and you do that by regularly demonstrating your expertise and ability to solve their problems, to address their preoccupations - what we marketers refer to as content marketing. Regular IMTW readers should already have marketing teams that look, think and act like media companies. This week, check that the content they’re producing really is:

Valuable: It’s all to easy to fall into the trap of talking about your product. Don’t. Content is only valuable to your customers if it speaks to their interests, their concerns, their questions. Focus on them. Focus on industry trends and insights. Focus on sharing expertise that you are uniquely positioned to have. Deliver value they can’t get elsewhere. And, then, maybe, mention how your product happens to solve the very problem they’re grappling with.
Free: Sure, you’re not charging for it. But are you making your customers jump through hoops to get to it? Do they have to surrender an email address to download your PDF? Do they have to navigate to a specific landing page to read your latest research? While those tactics are tempting - they’ll give you KPIs like new ‘leads’ and dedicated website ‘traffic’ - they’re a distraction. Give it away. Don’t ask for anything in return. The trust you’ll earn will pay off down the road.

Get help

Two ways I can help you: 1) hire me as a full-time member of your team; or 2) use InMarketing, an advisory service for senior leadership teams in finance and tech.

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Top stories

The other articles that are worthy of your time.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Amundi: retail investors engaging more with digital platforms but still value advice

③ Wealth managers won’t be out of a job anytime soon.

Europe’s leading asset manager, has published a survey assessing how digitally engaged retail investors are:

“77% of respondents invest at least some of their portfolio on a digital platform or app. The study proves that digital investment is not limited to the younger demographics, with 68% of those over 50 globally holding digital investments. This number grows for younger investors, so we can expect the number of investors with digital holdings to grow as younger generations age.”
“Nearly three-in-four retail investors globally (73%) source investment information or advice through digital means; this figure is lower in Europe (69%) and higher in Asia (76%). 38% of respondents favour media influencers from TV, radio, podcasts, online blogs and social media for investment guidance, whereas 31% prefer to go direct to the investment provider’s website. When it comes to specific social media platforms, YouTube is the most influential amongst retail investors (72%), followed by Instagram (49%) and Facebook (46%).”
“Those receiving professional advice (digitally or in person) are almost three times more likely to have a plan than those not receiving advice – indicating the important role advice plays in its many forms. Digital only investors (19%), though, are far less likely to access professional advice (whether in-person or digitally), meaning they are less confident about their investment decisions (62% vs 69%) and less confident about achieving their investment goals.”

TECHNOLOGY

AI avatar of CEO delivers annual results in first for London Stock Exchange

④ With AI, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

“The AI avatar of an AIM-listed firm’s chief executive has delivered the company’s full-year results in a first for the London Stock Exchange.
“CT Automotive boss Simon Philips outlined the car interior firm’s higher profit, alongside the impact of recent US tariffs, in a short interview on RNS on Wednesday. But the video of Philips was actually an avatar created by AI, which CT claim is a first for RNS, the UK’s service for regulatory announcements.”
“The company, which supplies interior parts to the likes of Lamborghini, Bentley and Lotus, said AI had proven a key profit driver last year.”

MEDIA & MARKETING

Does the Chief Marketing Officer role need an update?

⑤ Top marketing roles should be clear, strategic and appealing to top talent.

Source: Harvard Business Review, 5 May 2025

“While the CMO title remains well recognised and respected—and the role’s objective of growing the business with existing and new customers has remained the same—its expanded responsibilities and a lack of shared understanding of the marketing function raise the question of whether the title is outdated. […] Today, CEOs’ top priorities for their CMOs are increasingly focused on driving the top line. Activities like demand generation, customer acquisition, and growth rank ahead of customer experience, talent development, and brand building, according to our research. Digital tech—including AI, platforms, and data—is supporting these marketing priorities but requires deeper expertise in a range of specialised areas including strategy, tech, finance, and analytics.”
“A new title can signal updated strategic priorities and approaches, also addressing marketing’s marketing problem: It’s often not well understood internally and can appear like a black box. This can hinder marketing leaders’ collaboration with C-suite colleagues, other departments, and even external partners; their strategic influence; and ultimately their business impact.”
“As CEOs and boards consider their organisational needs when it comes to leading the marketing function and making it appealing to (potential) heads of marketing, they should consider the following:
- There is no one-fits-all title
- Have a single C-level executive responsible for marketing and growth—or clearly name and define different marketing-related roles.
- Make the title descriptive and easy to understand with the areas of responsibilities indicated in the title.
- Make the top marketer’s title a recruiting tool.”

WILDCARD

The workplace psychological contract is broken. Here’s how to fix it.

⑥ Your team needs you to care, not control.

Source: Harvard Business Review, 6 May 2025

“The outrage over workplace policies reflects a larger breakdown in the unspoken psychological contract employees thought they had with their organisation—and specifically a growing divergence between employers and employees in their understanding of what is fair. To close this gap, employers need to move away from establishing formal workplace policies based on what’s called the ethics of justice—a rational and one-size-fits-all way of thinking about fairness—to a more flexible, personalised approach based on the ethics of care.”
“The concept is rooted in the assumption that humans are fundamentally relational and interdependent. Second, context matters. Unlike the ethics of justice and its abstract and universal principles, the ethics of care values unique and individualised attention and response. It requires being attentive to and understanding each other’s specific experience, including each person’s relative power and relationships. Third, emotions play a positive role in creating empathic relationships, which are essential for caring actions.”
“Creating a culture of care can be challenging for organisations because it’s based in effectiveness, not efficiency. This notion is anathema to most executives and often leads companies to outsource or delegate care work by sending their managers to customised executive retreats, coaching programs, or special curated events. These efforts are usually self-defeating, however—on a day-to-day basis, employees can easily see what the company really cares about. The ethics of care can bridge this disconnect. When organisations focus on what is right, what works, and what matters when setting policy—and consider relational proximity, transparent principles, and attentive adaptability when putting it into practice—they can reset the psychological contract they have with their employees. That’s hard to hurry, but worth the investment.”

Off cuts

The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter.

The last word

⑦ Bill Gates on applying technology to alleviate the effects of poverty:

Bill Gates. Source: The New York Times Magazine, 8 May 2025

“The way to think of AI is that it’s essentially free intelligence, and in no sense does that mean it will naturally be made available to people in poor countries. It helps rich people - that’s where the market will take it. And that’s why having a big nonmarket actor like us who’s sophisticated about AI is so important. It’s incredible what we will be able to do. And so you can accuse me of being by nature an optimistic person. But I just think I’m being realistic. I think it’s objective to say to you that things will be better in the next 20 years.”

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Wishing you an innovative week,

P.S. If you’re a Gen Xer as I am, do not - I repeat, do not - click here.