The distance between brands and consumers has shifted since the dawn of social media; gone are the days when successful brands could survive on a diet of clever wordplay and culturally accepted trickery. For better or worse, we’re closer now. This new proximity we share is shifting the ways brands must think about authority, reputation and trust.
Brands are more than the sum of the products and services they share. When a friend tells us about a new restaurant, we expect to find an easily accessible menu on their website and previews of their dishes splattered across a stylish Instagram. We look for signs that their space is clean and that the smiles of their staff and customers are genuine. Even when we don’t look for their online presence, we expect it to be there; findable at a moment’s notice and stocked with all the reassurance we need to book a table. Consciously or not, we are constantly searching for the promises brands make as they interface with the world.
Brand promises can be explicit or implicit, ranging from the boldest slogans (we all know who the fresh food people are) down to subtlest touches. Consider the implicit promises a brand makes by including an acknowledgement of country on its website. Then, consider how the potency of those promises may vary if you were to see the same acknowledgement published word-for-word elsewhere.
Promises are about trust. Keeping promises retains trust. Keeping bold ones builds trust, and failing to keep them, however small or implicit, is how trust dies. The latest Roy Morgan ‘Net Trust’ rankings saw overall consumer trust in Australian brands continue to fall, with Optus shifting from the 17th most distrusted brand in Australia to the 2nd most distrusted in the wake of its September data breach. A timely reminder to all businesses that the act of asking for consumer data implies a promise that you can safely store and protect it.
The brands who succeed online are those able to make bold promises, articulate them precisely, reinforce them often and consistently keep them. The trust they generate drives a style of brand authority not guarded by a ‘Made in Italy’ stamp or arbitrary self-declared expertise, but by their advocates; consumers transformed by kept promises, exceeded expectation and effective communications.
We wrestle with this dynamic daily at Moonsail. Brands who willingly cash in their brand equity for short-term gains will find opportunities to deceive everywhere they look, but those are not the brands our team help to grow. Our globally-minded clients span broadly across industries and yet, from providers of public transport to retailers of luxury watches, the core priorities we reinforce with brands seeking long-term growth remain the same: promise boldly and precisely, communicate authentically and often, and protect dearly that (and those) which set you apart.
The reputations of globally-minded brands are defined by the relationships they foster with the advocates who champion them, not how efficiently they translate the trust of advocates into their bottom line.
If your brand is globally-minded, we'd love to discuss how we can help refine and embolden the promises you make.
Visit moonsail.co to get in touch.
