Seth Godin wrote a blog recently on building a ‘trust brand’ (you can read it here)
In essence Dave Ramsey, a US financial author and speaker – who’s all about freedom from debt – sort of a bit like Sunrise’s David Koch, was telling a small business owner how he’d built his massive empire.
The business owner seemed to think of course his business worked (as opposed to most) because it was a ‘trust brand’.
What’s that you might ask? In a nutshell a trust brand is a brand that is trusted. Seems simple enough, but really what’s the difference between a trust brand and every other brand in the marketplace? Essentially none – except the work that the owner is willing to put into building it.
There are brands that stand for cheap, cheap, cheap. And whilst that might work for a while, there’s always someone cheaper to be found. So really, every brand, comes down to trust. Proving the value you provide is greater than what someone else offers and that my risk in dealing with you is minimised.
If a brand abuses that trust, then folks won’t go back to that brand again. And here’s a great example of how that works in practice.
I was the client of a growing organisation who conveniently kept ‘forgetting’ that I was in fact a client. They took my sponsorship and supplied about 1/5 of what we’d agreed to. Leaving me very significantly out of pocket.
Did I feel like a fool? Yes, I did. Was I devastated that someone I considered a friend and colleague could treat me like that – absolutely. Do I trust them or their brand any longer – sadly no.
Will I be stoopid enough to fall for it again? Not a chance.
In the end, I figure it speaks more about them and their lack of commitment to and respect for others, than it does about me. I, in fact, delivered over and above my side of the equation. But that’s what we do and generally we love doing it (until someone takes advantage).
But, from a marketing perspective (and a life perspective), what goes around comes around and sooner or later, people will figure out this is how this person rolls and the trust surrounding their brand will dissipate.
As a wise person once said, no-one can outrun their reputation.
If we can help you with your brand building strategy so your brand connects better to your clients and customers so that you can increase your know, like and trust factor, we’d be delighted to talk to you.
