Since the global crisis of 2008 trust has moved to the top of the brand agenda. In response to the new world of economic uncertainty people are being drawn to brands that display qualities like authenticity, honesty and truth, the raw ingredients that trust is built upon.
This elevation of trust goes hand in hand with the ubiquitous mobile device. We are increasingly living an ‘always on’ life. The connected consumer sees the mobile device as an extension of their own body, providing the information and power to choose like never before.
While brands can readily engage with consumers via their mobile device, consumers get to decide which brands to allow into this most intimate part of their everyday lives. Only brands that make a truly valuable contribution to peoples’ lives — those that are transparent and can be trusted — will be granted permission to enter. As soon as a brand abuses that trust or is deemed not to be authentic or relevant it will be shut out with a single click.
In this era of the connected consumer, the status of trust as a critical brand value is underlined by the increasing trend for consumers to turn to their social network for advice and recommendations. Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Survey of more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries said that 92% of consumers around the world trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising; an increase of 18% since 2007.
If there is a single defining attribute that all truly trustworthy brands possess — regardless of their product category or where they are from — it is a strong sense of purpose. Brands must know their reason for being and make sure they deliver this truth at every point in the customer journey.
Most start-ups tend to have a strong sense of purpose but as they grow more people get involved and the founder’s vision is easily lost. A brand’s purpose cannot just be a mantra written on a boardroom wall or hidden in the confines of a corporate identity guide. A strong sense of purpose is only real if it translates as brand behaviour, something customers can feel through direct personal experience.
Brands should be warned. In the future there will only be two types of business: the trusted and the extinct.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited (EIU) or any other member of The Economist Group. The Economist Group (including the EIU) cannot accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this article or any of the information, opinions or conclusions set out in the article.
