Success Quote by Jerry Greenfield

Greenfield’s line reads like folksy reciprocity, but it’s really a business thesis disguised as neighborly advice. “Support the community” isn’t just charity; it’s brand-building with a moral alibi. Coming from a businessman best known for turning Ben & Jerry’s into a company that sells feelings as much as ice cream, the phrasing matters: “community” is vague enough to be everyone and anyone, yet specific enough to signal local roots, social causes, and the warm glow of belonging. It’s commerce in the language of care.

The intent is practical: invest outward so loyalty flows back. The subtext is that markets are social ecosystems, not cold transactions. In an era when consumers increasingly treat purchases as endorsements of values, “support” becomes a kind of cultural currency. You’re not merely buying shelf space or ads; you’re buying trust, forgiveness, and word-of-mouth advocacy. Community support, here, is a hedge against cynicism: if people feel you’re “one of us,” they’re less likely to treat your profit motive as predatory.

The slightly off-kilter grammar (“If your support”) actually adds to the effect. It doesn’t sound like a consultant’s deck; it sounds like something said across a counter. That casualness helps sell the larger idea: that ethical posture and commercial success can be mutually reinforcing. The context is the late-20th-century rise of “conscious capitalism,” where companies learned that values aren’t just principles - they’re positioning.