How do you build trust?

The marketer’s guide to building trust.

I watched a very interesting short video that was sent to me by our digital media strategist, Misha. It makes you think about the future of how we build trust in brands.

The concept of the story is that trust, so important to buying, is not as believable coming from brands as it once was. Sanjay Nazerali, CSO of Carat Global, says that the way trust is earned has changed among consumers.

He suggests that a hundred years ago, trust came from beliefs based on faith and the stories that we found in books. Then consumerism in the likes of Coca-Cola and other age-old brands took the stories successfully into advertising and television and built trust there. Now, he says, we no longer trust the stories put out by brands and look to our social networks for what we need to hear or see to trust in a brand.

An example he uses is one we all can all relate to – you see a great ad for crisp new sheets plus a better experience at a hotel but find on Trip Advisor that 200 people just like me say the experience was not so great. Peer-to-peer experiences and social media are becoming the avenue to trust by consumers.

The video starts with the idea that “ad-blocking” technologies mean something is wrong, that we’re not doing it right.

Check the 5+ minute clip here.

18+ minute version with Robert De Nero here.