This document discusses how trust is essential for markets to function and outlines three ways to build trust: through legislation, social capital, or brands. It argues that brands are well-suited to deliver trust by providing a recognizable, consistent set of attributes that allow consumers to rely on them. A brand can build trust through certainty, identity, belonging, and care. To gain the highest levels of trust, brands need to actively care for their communities and customers. The document concludes that prioritizing trust will lead brands to develop authentic attributes that customers will identify with and want to be part of, leading to success.

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Trust & Brands
Why being trusted should be your #1 guiding principle

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Here’s what I’ve learnt
about ‘Trust in Markets?’
from a lecture by
Professor the Lord Plant,
for Gresham College

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You need to get through
10 slides now on
economics, markets and
trust – it’ll be a doddle…

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In order to trade we need to be able to trust
one another. We have to trust at a very
basic level to be able to participate in the
buying and selling ‘contract’.
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These days trust is especially important
because most goods are credence goods (we
have to take it on trust that they are OK...
thanks to complex supply chains, among
other things).
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As the market develops and consumer choice
widens, the buying and selling relationship
becomes more complex and it is harder to
trust what we are buying.
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What’s more, in modern society, relationships
are also becoming more impersonal and less
‘bonded’. The shared norms and values of
small social groups are no longer feasible, so
it’s harder to trust who we buy from.
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So, the argument goes that within the
market there is an inherent tension between
proliferation of choice and a lessening of
trust...
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Trust is a requirement of the market, but
also weakened by it.
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So what to do? Economists offer three
options to solve the problem of needing more
trust, but having less…
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1. Legislate, but hmmm that’s not easy (and
requires lots of trust anyway)
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2. Develop new ways to share norms and
values via social capital (it’s why ideas like
The Big Society are out there)
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3. Let the market find its own way to
deliver trust…via brands
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Phew! You made it.
So brands are one way to
deliver trust…
The rest of the slideshow
is my take on how brands
can deliver trust and why
trust should be a brand
manager’s #1 priority

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So how can brands deliver trust?
By delivering a recognisable and
consistent set of product or service
attributes that consumers can get to
know – thereby delivering a
‘credence’ short-cut.
(Remember our brains love short-
cuts to decision making)

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What’s more, brands can deliver trust on a
number of different levels…
Certainty
Identity
Belonging
Care

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So starting from the bottom…

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We feel unsafe in a complex and unfamiliar
world, so a brand’s starting point can be to
give the customer certainty by being reliable
and consistent – this delivers trust in its
most basic form.
Certainty

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Delivering reliability & consistency is a
massive ‘ask’ – it means the customer
needs to have the same experience of the
brand every time, or that when a brand
changes, it does so within the framework
of very established norms and values...
(This is the basis for ‘authenticity’)
Certainty

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Within NPD it means delivering innovation
to the same standard as existing products. It
means that you can’t simply switch up to be
part of a new trend, your brand has to
develop in its own way.
Certainty

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(Unpalatable) implications for brand managers:
1. Don’t innovate unless you can replicate
your brand values
2. Being old fashioned can be better than
being inconsistent and unfamiliar
3. New brands have a better shot at
innovation
Certainty

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A brand can build even stronger bonds of
trust when consumers start to identify
with its values. By having a unique
identity, consumers can more easily align
themselves with (or against) a brand. We
trust what we identify with, we trust
similarity (to us) more than difference
(from us).
Certainty
Identity

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(Difficult) implications for brand managers:
1. Brands need to appeal to some people and
not to other (for stronger levels of trust)
2. You have to choose what you stand for
and then keep on standing
Certainty
Identity

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If a brand can build a community – help
people to belong to one another - then
trust will be even stronger because what
others do, say and think matters massively
to us as social animals
Certainty
Identity
Belonging

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(Exciting) implications for brand managers:
1. The internet & social media (in particular)
give you a really strong chance at creating
a community around your brand – and
social influence delivers more profound
trust
Certainty
Identity
Belonging

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(Realistic) implications for brand
managers:
1. You should always deliver certainty and a strong
identity as start points for trust
2. And...you can only create a sense of community
around the brand if your product is relevant for
this – acknowledge how much passion people can
realistically feel for your brand...
Certainty
Identity
Belonging

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Certainty
Identity
Belonging
Care
And what if a brand actively took care of
its community too? Trust is strongest in
those we are closest to, our care-givers
(like family), so won’t a brand gain ultimate
trust if it takes care of us?

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(Costly) Implications for Brands...
1. To gain highest levels of trust you need
to look after your customer – actively
2. Ultimately brands need to give back to
the community
3. That requires time and investment...
Certainty
Identity
Belonging
Care

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So why should being trusted
be your #1 priority?
Because if you obsess about
your customer trusting you,
you will develop an authentic
set of attributes and values
that your customers will
identify with and want to be
part of.
And that will lead to success.

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Credit
This thinking was inspired by Mark Earls
(Herd); David Brookes (The Social Animal);
Seth Godwin (The Purple Cow); lots of
Behavioural Economics and reading on Social
Psychology.
All views are my own.
If you’d like me to help you think about how
to make your brands more trusted, I’d be
delighted!

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Free Thinking
kath@qual-street.co.uk
Tel: 01904 819140
Mob: 07738 180529