Building Brand Trust

With the economy struggling, consumers seek brands they can trust more than ever.  Can consumers trust your brand?  Do they?

Your answers to the preceding questions are very telling.  Be honest.

Even if you believe consumers trust your brand, you should imagine that they don’t.  Building brand trust is a powerful tool when all other areas of people’s lives are in a state of flux.  Let them know they can depend on your brand.

But how?

Through marketing, of course!

Marketing messages can build brand trust.  Don’t assume your consumers know they can trust your brand.  Tell them.  And then remind them again.  And again.

These days, consumers need to feel extremely confident that they’re making the right decision when they pull their hard-earned money out of their pockets and hand it over in exchange for a product or service.  The more secure they feel in making that decision, the more likely they are to actually open their wallets and make those purchases.

But not so fast!

Before you can create the marketing messages that will build brand trust, you need to find out specifically where your target audience needs and wants trust and security and how your product can fill that void.  Only then can you feel confident that you’re communicating the right messages that will actually resonate with consumers.

It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how many brand managers and marketers skip this step operating under the false assumption that they either know what their customers need already or that their customers want the same things that they do.

Bottom line, don’t assume anything except that consumers don’t trust your brand.  Then give them a reason to trust it.

Image: Flickr

Author

Susan Gunelius

Website

Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.

She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.