TRUST: A BUSINESS IMPERATIVE FOR MEASURING BRAND HEALTH

Businesses and organizations all face tremendous pressure to evolve their brands in the face of change. Smart leaders and decision-makers know that growth opportunities exist when they successfully identify and act on emerging trends, marketplace disruptions, and socio-cultural shifts in consumer behaviors.

For many leaders, measuring brand sentiment and reputation can serve as an overall brand health indicator. However, when organizations develop a strategic view of how they are perceived, an ongoing measurement of trust is often missing.

Trust makes a unique contribution to assessing company and brand health. If brands fail to measure trust, they are leaving valuable data and insights that can unlock future growth potential. Measuring sentiment and reputation alone is no longer enough.

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DIMENSIONS OF BRAND HEALTH

Unlocking growth opportunities requires a look at a new brand health metric: Trust

Although correlated, sentiment, reputation and trust are not interchangeable and can indicate or predict differing outcomes.

Identifies an individual's feelings toward a brand or company at specific moments-in-time or across one or multiple touch points in the customer experience journey.

Identifies shared, collective perceptions a group of individuals have toward a brand or company regardless of their personal experience with the brand.

Identifies a deeply held core belief, conviction or affinity an individual with a personal relationship with the brand had regarding that brand or company.

TRUST. THE NEW BRAND EQUITY.

Drive innovation, deliver impact, insulate from crisis.

Understanding the full power and value of trust can help leaders transform their business models, elevate brand value, and capitalize on new categories or markets. Measuring trust can unleash the full potential of brands and serve as a powerful performance indicator for overall brand growth and health.

Trust & Reputation

Reputation fades in importance if personal experience is discordant with a brand’s reputation. The reason for this is that trust is an individual belief and therefore, the strongest and most entrenched anchor in one’s decision-making processes.

Trust & Purchase Intent

The decision to make a purchase is made by weighing the perception of risk, and trust mediates that perception. This is because Trust, more so than reputation, directly reduces consumers’ risk perceptions and thereby their reluctance to purchase.

Trust & Brand Health

It is difficult for a brand to maintain a good reputation over the long haul if it is not effective at building trust. As trust dwindles, a brand’s reputation will eventually descend into ignominy, but often as a lagging indicator of its overall health.

While correlated, sentiment, reputation and trust are not interchangeable. Nor do they indicate or predict the same outcomes.
Below is a graph that illustrates ways in which trust, reputation and sentiment differ.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SENTIMENT, REPUTATION AND TRUST

TRUST AS A MULTIPLIER.

A compelling value for the impact of trust on business.

Trusted brands are seven times more likely to command a premium price.

Trusted brands benefit from six times the consumer loyalty.

Trusted brands are eight times more resilient.

Edelman Trust Barometer 2021

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Our trusted data scientists have been studying trust for over 20 years. Read the latest whitepaper on why leaders and brands should be measuring trust to unlock growth potential.

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Relevant Statistics

Our Trust Barometer respondents are telling us that trust is more important to them today than it has been in the past when it comes to the brands they buy (68%).
In addition, they are saying that they not only need to trust the brand, but also the company behind the brand. In fact, 40% of consumers report having given up brands they love because they did not trust the companies that owned the brand (2021 Trust Barometer).
Trusted brands are 7x more likely to command a premium price.
Garner 14% greater purchasing propensity.
Benefit from 6x the consumer loyalty.
8x more resilient.
7x more likely to get consumers to share their personal data with them.
Have stock that outperforms its sectors by up to 11x in times of crisis.

Source: 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer Report

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