Brand + Business x Christine Moody*

After more than 35 years in business, I understand the value of building brand trust. Trust builds strong brands and makes strong brands even stronger.

Building brand trust takes time and effort. It also means you need to understand your brand promise and consistently deliver on that promise.

The secret to building brand trust beyond social media hype

In today’s market, it’s very easy to create hype around your brand with the increase in ‘likes’ that social media can produce. However, trust takes a lot more (and longer) to establish than hype.

In a Harvard Business Review article, ‘The one thing you must get right when building a brand’, the author talks about the rise of ‘hype’ due to social media and they point out that: “Social media makes it more urgent than ever that companies get the basics right, developing and reliably delivering on a compelling brand promise.”

Social media makes it more urgent than ever that companies get the basics right…

The article continues to outline the analysis of the strategies and performance of a diverse range of companies suggests that great brands share four fundamental qualities:

• They offer and communicate a clear, relevant customer promise.
• They build trust by delivering on that promise.
• They drive the market by continually improvingthe promise.
• They seek further advantage by innovating beyond the familiar.

These qualities reflect a company that knows and understands its brand fundamentals.

Build trust through your brand fundamentals

Your business may be an instant success on social media, have rolled out the red carpet and operate from an architecturally designed office space, but this won’t build client trust. Instead, you need to go back to basics and get your brand fundamentals right:

1. Understand the history of the brand and the values that lie behind the brand.

2. Understand the purpose of the brand and make sure that everyone in the organisation also understands the purpose.

3. Develop your brand promise—this what you are going to deliver on and the basis for building your brand trust.

4. Ensure every customer touch-point reflects and reinforces your brand as well as provides an experience that builds trust. That is, from the way a visitor is greeted to how easy the website is to navigate.

Two lessons I’ve learnt

Building trust takes time and once won, you need to work on maintaining trust. Every day, I still work on building trust with my clients as well as my family and friends.

The second important thing I have learnt about building trust is that: it isn’t what I know, but what I say and do. That is, trust is doing what you say you are going to do: always deliver on your brand promise.

How does your brand build trust with your customers?

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation. Her particular interest is personal brand audits to assist executives realise their full potential.

For more information: chris.moody@brandaudits.com.au or +61 419 888 468.