The Role Of Trust In Branding

How trust is still the most sought after attribute and how to maintain it.

Winning and maintaining trust with consumers has always been an overt aspiration of many brand owners. This desire appears to be based on sound foundations. Historically, a brand was a mark of identification and an assurance of quality, you trust the brand owner to deliver a consistent experience. As human beings, we understand the value of trust instinctively. We treat the people we trust differently we believe what they say and we are faithful to them. Conversely, we avoid those we don’t trust and are suspicious of their claims. On the face of it, it makes sense that it is hugely advantageous for a brand to be trusted in an equivalent way.

When we look at brands that are trusted, we see the apparent confirmation of this hypothesis. In all the brand equity work conducted across a wide range of industries, brand trust is highly correlated with the kind of business indicators that brand owners are really interested in purchasing, loyalty, lack of price sensitivity and other metrics that drive business success.

So it makes sense to strive to achieve a high level of brand trust, right?

Well, to a point. In fact we think that focusing too much on trust can become a trap for a brand. So here’s how what brand owners should think about trust.

Consider gaining trust as an outcome of doing the right things, not a goal itself.

Trust is not something that you can acquire independently of your actions. It is a consequence of having enduring relevance to the consumer or customer you have to be trusted for a product or service or benefit that is relevant to the categories the brand operates in. So you trust your bank to look after your money securely, you trust your supermarket to sell you good quality food, you trust your toilet cleaner to kill germs. Being the most trusted brand is not enough.

Set “maintain trust” as an objective.

Once you’ve established trust and the most trusted brands have been delivering for the customers for decades any erosion of trust should be avoided at all costs. Trust is lost much more quickly than it is gained, with a single ‘betrayal’ counteracting many years of acting with integrity. Maintaining trust means staying true to the values that have helped the brand achieve trust in the first place.

Identify the gap between trust and sales to set the agenda for the Brand.

Although over time the two will move together, brand trust and sales frequently depart over shorter term. In some cases, big brands become reliant on their high levels of trust to tide them over when their relevance declines, for example, Nokia maintains market share during periods of competitive weakness in hardware and software. Sometimes this isn’t enough, Woolworths was trusted and loved, but this did not translate into long term commercial success. Conversely, many brands have achieved success by becoming highly relevant to the consumer at a point in time but have since declined because they never achieved the ‘body of work’ necessary to become an enduringly trusted brand. If you’re selling less than your trust implies, you have an under utilized asset. If you are selling more, it may be because you are taking advantage of short term functional (great product) or commercial (great price) advantage that is difficult or costly to sustain.

Finally, make sure you always know how to stay trusted.

The drivers of trust in each category will change, as innovation and new technology changes what’s possible. If you want to stay trusted, keep ahead of the competition on the issues that really matter of them. Helping you on this topic is often the most useful role of brand equity research.

Pic:

http://www.gudangmlm.com/5-prinsip-membangun-personal-brand.html

http://www.jwt.com/#!/content/234403/jwt-brand-journalism

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/brandyou.html

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_31/b3945098.htm

http://www.slideshare.net/nickblack/peopletalk-trust-drivers