Bringing Balance to the Brand Trust Deficit

Once trust is lost, it’s difficult to recover. And it’s not just hard to get a hold of. It’s slippery, too.

Due to an over-determination of factors (corruption, inequality, and polarization among them), trust in institutions, media outlets, and industries is declining. People now trust brands more than they trust the media or the government , which isn't saying much given consumer trust in brands is at the lowest levels since 2016 and does not seem to be rebounding. Half of the respondents in a recent survey of 10,000 people indicated they did not have trust in the brands they do business with and that number is even more dismal for Gen Z (only 28% trust brands).

At the same time, the impact of trust in driving consumer behavior is increasingly critical for business operations. Marketers have been aware of the importance of trust (and its modern driver, authenticity) since the profession began. It’s simple psychology; trust—authority, honesty, likeability—is the root of persuasion.

Trust is Indispensible

The impact of trust goes deep. Gartner indicates that 81% of customers are unwilling to engage in business or make purchases from brands they don't trust . Additionally, 89% of customers anticipate ending their relationship with a brand if it violates their trust. According to PwC’s 2023 Trust Survey , 92% of business leaders, 92% of consumers and 94% of employees agree that organizations have a responsibility to manage that trust.

A 2022 Gallup poll indicates that the most deeply recessed non-governmental institutions when it comes to public confidence are newspapers and big business (right above the lowest on the list: Congress), presenting a significant challenge for traditional earned media strategies.?Small businesses fare a little better in the survey, but it's still grim.

With only 32% of U.S. citizens trusting the media to report the news fairly and accurately and a record 39% expressing total distrust, there's a clear need for more authentic and trustworthy forms of communication.

This environment makes earned media on social platforms even more crucial.?

By leveraging earned media on social platforms, brands can bypass traditional media channels that are viewed with skepticism and directly engage with their audience more transparently and genuinely.

The devaluing of media placements and corporate channels like company blogs or owned social means PR and corporate communications, if they are to innovate against low consumer confidence, need to take a page from modern earned media marketing strategies and re-examine the impact of influencers on promoting consumer trust.

“Earned media and PR continue to be viewed as essential to business success, with 42% of respondents stating they brief executives weekly on efforts and 90% saying leadership understands their work at least somewhat well,” according to MuckRack’s State of PR 2023 report. From the same report: “Measurement of PR efforts is still the best way to show success, with 31% of PR pros ranking stories placed as their most useful metric.”

In other words, earned media reigns (it’s the most trusted form of media) yet the reliance on coveted earned media tactics faces hurdles due to waning trust in the institutions that serve as their source.

Sources of Distrust

In ‘Reversing the Customer Trust Deficit ,’ the dissipating faith that people have in organizations is shown to have reached critical mass due to a perfect storm of three factors, all strikingly related to connection or a lack thereof:

1. The speed and degree of information sharing possible with social media.
2. The failure of organizations to keep up with shifting generational expectations.
3. The disconnection between companies, employees and consumers.

“The unfortunate result of this dissipating trust across industries is that it affects all businesses. And it isn’t just customer trust that’s scarce—customer satisfaction has been on the decline as well,” write David Ducharme and Andrew Robertson.

Generally, most leaders across organizations face the aforementioned three major challenges in some way or another. Depending on the industry, there are specific idiosyncrasies and shades of relevance peculiar to brand communicators. For our industry and for the companies we work with, those challenges mean:

1. Brands no longer control ‘the narrative. ’
2. Millennials and Gen Z trust influencers and creators .
3. Your employees (and partners) are reliable barometers of your trustability ; at the same time, consumers trust your employees the most.

Now, consider the following statistics from The Future of Commerce in light of the ways the previous three factors intersect:

“Ninety-one percent of Gen Z shoppers look for user-generated content from other customers before they make a purchase, and one-third won’t buy if there’s no UCG from people who own the product.”

Navigating Trust Challenges with Earned Media

Here's the good news. The 2023 State of the Media Report by Cision indicates that while consumer trust in media is thinning, a significant 92% of consumers still trust earned media over paid ads. This disparity in trust levels makes it crucial for brands to measure the impact and value of their earned media efforts on social media, where consumer engagement and opinions are increasingly influential.

Furthermore, for brands to reach Gen Z, strategists need to think beyond traditional channels: this demographic gets their news from TikTok, not news outlets. They use social to handle their searches, not Google. And despite the rise of the 'de-influencing' movement (which can be seen as a reaction to disingenuous, 'untrustworthy' influencers and not the power of trusted influence to motivate behavior), most brands have (or should have ) resources set aside because of the outcomes they've seen with the right influencers.

We believe it's clear that earned media, particularly through influencer marketing , is not only a critical component in the marketing strategies of various brands but also a highly effective way to build trust , create authentic connections, and drive consumer engagement in an increasingly digital and creator-driven marketplace.

Learn more about what your earned media is doing for your brand with Social Index , which allows you to measure the value and ROI of your social, influencer, and content marketing through a combination of expert analysis, machine learning and trusted data.