What's Your Brand's Trust Index?

Given any thought lately to your brand's Trust Index? How does it measure up, in the minds of your prospects and existing customers, against your competition in terms of perceived honesty? Reliability? Straight-shootitude?

It's a trick question, because thus far there isn't any universal "Trust Index." Yes, there are plenty of polls and surveys out there to take the public's temperature about who they trust, hour to hour, community by community, including Edelman's Trust Barometer, but is there really any objective scale for for authenticity? But that's one of the things that matters most in terms of how an audience relates to a brand.

Not knowing how well-trusted your brand is can be dangerous. And it can be a missed opportunity to improve your image -- and bottom line!

Take a look at Toyota's problems during the "unintended acceleration" episode to see just how quickly and precipitously a brand's stature can tumble in the market's eye. A lot of factors, most of them out of the brand's control, figured in the decline, and many of them were unfair, to be honest – but they're proof of just how fast mud can stick if you make a misstep.

Toyota has recovered, to a huge degree, in terms of sales, but there was a luster, a sheen of exceptionalism, that's now gone forever. Now they're just another car company that makes the occasional bonehead mistake.

Would knowing how they were regarded in the mind of consumer have made a difference in all this? Maybe. They might have held themselves to a higher standard in how they handled the entire "unintended acceleration" affair -- avoided some of its shrapnel.

For any marketer, including B2B marketers, understanding how you're perceived in the mind of your audience is a good thing. The news might be bad sometimes -- but knowing it is half the solution.

It's incredibly easy to find out what those perceptions are, too. How? Well...ask.

Whether it's a conversation across a conference table or in a purchasing office, or whether you're using a more formal brand audit or a state-of-the-art survey tool to get more qualified or insightful results, they're direct and straightforward ways to get the lowdown on how your best customers regard you.

Moreover, if there's an account or a market you just haven't been able to crack, then doing this groundwork is even more valuable.

Even if you think you've got an excellent handle on their perceptions, the best advice you can give yourself is to never believe your own assumptions. It can lead you down the wrong path -- or even cause you to miss out on leveraging positive perceptions you might never have known existed, perceptions that could open new opportunities.