Trends on How to Gain, Keep and Break Consumers’ Trust

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trends on How to Gain, Keep and Break Consumers’ Trust

Given how turbulent and uncertain the past couple of years have been, it is more important now than ever for brands to earn and keep consumers’ trust. Morning Consult’s Most Trusted Brands of 2022 report examines the 10 largest economies in the world, including the United States, and unpacks why trust is important, how it’s built and how it’s broken. In this report, they do a deep dive on the most trusted brand in each country and on the top 10 most trusted brands in the United States. Let’s look at some key insights of the results and see how they can benefit your brand.

Consumers are more likely to trust local brands 

As they say, there’s no place like home. A shared home, whether it’s local, regional or national, gives consumers a reason to trust your brand and even take pride in it. While it may take awhile, spending time to gain consumers’ trust and loyalty will pay off. In fact, in six out of the 10 countries surveyed, the most trusted brand originated right there. The most trusted brand in 2022 in the United States is Band-Aid, which was founded in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Making your civic and/or national pride a central part of your brand messaging to your fellow citizens can help establish your brand and increase its popularity – simply because they share an origin.

Consumers tend to trust small businesses

The popularity of shopping small has increased ever since the creation of Small Business Saturday in 2010. They have become the most trusted in the United States, with 77% of Americans saying that they trust “a lot” or “some” of small businesses. While it can be difficult for small businesses to gain a large following, they can give their consumers a personal and memorable experience. This makes consumers feel good, earning their trust and satisfaction. Also, Gen Z is less likely than older generations to trust established brands, which means there is no better time for your small or new business to enter the market.

Engender trust through high quality and value

One way to gain – and keep – consumers’ trust is to provide them with a good value for the price and high-quality products and services. These two factors are the highest rated among Americans when it comes to factors that build trust with a brand. Consumers feel good when they can be confident that they won’t be wasting their money when spending it on your brand, so don’t make them regret it. If consumers can’t trust their money with your brand, then it will be difficult for you to regain their trust and convince them to purchase from you in the future.

You can lose it all with one bad experience

According to Morning Consult’s report, bad customer service experiences were one of the top three reasons that global consumers lost their trust in brands. Picture this: you’re shopping for a new product at your favorite store. You ask an employee for advice on what to get, and instead of being helpful, the employee is judgmental and rude. You’re shocked – you’ve always had a great experience with this brand. It turns you away because you feel betrayed and hurt. 

That’s the thing about trust. You can spend years working hard to gain it But with just one mistake, your brand could lose it all. Consumers want brands to deliver on promises, so make sure that you provide excellent customer service with great value and follow through when you say you will. It goes a long way with consumers.Here at G/L, we can help ensure that your consumers will continue to trust your brand. We have created successful campaigns in the past to earn and keep consumers’ trust and we’d love to do the same for your brand! If you’re interested, contact our president, Tim Leon at [email protected], to find out how we can help you gain trust in the marketplace.

Dynamic Branding: Refresh vs Rebrand

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Dynamic Branding: Refresh vs Rebrand

It’s important to remain relevant in this fast-moving world, especially as a brand. When your brand falls behind and loses its luster in the marketplace, it can quickly feel daunting and nearly impossible to catch up. Here at G/L, we want to help brands become dynamic so they are able to adapt and remain aligned with the world around them. This does not require having to do an entire brand overhaul, but rather a refresh.

Think of a brand refresh as a home renovation. You evaluate and decide which elements are structurally sound and which elements need to be reinforced or redone. We understand that your brand still likely has valuable brand equity and that some of what inspired the brand still may be true. It just needs a little touching up. We make slight changes to the graphic identity, tone, presentation, and/or messaging to create value and relevance between your brand and the marketplace.

A total rebranding is like completely destroying a building and building a new one to serve new needs and functions. This means creating a new brand identity, brand standards, and/or new message architecture. Our team at G/L will conduct voice-of-the-customer research to identify the problem and fully understand what it will take to regain your brand’s relevance with your audience. Then, we reposition the brand, develop new brand architecture, and communicate this new brand messaging both internally and externally. This ensures that the brand is embraced and understood by all audiences.

That doesn’t sound too bad, right? With our experienced team, we can lead the way to help your brand find relevance with the customer, no matter what path you choose.

One of our many successful rebranding campaigns was with Cottey College, an all-women’s school in rural Missouri. They challenged us to update their brand to be relevant, especially with prospective students that sought a specialized college experience. That’s when we developed the ‘Creators of Incredible Futures’ branding, tagline and campaign. This bold look highlighted the unique students at Cottey College with hero portraits to make them stand out. This messaging was all about Cottey offering students not just a college experience, but also a life experience, which caught the attention of many prospective students. Not only did the fresh modern look catch their eye, but the powerful messaging did too.

Another rebrand we are proud of was for our client Clayco, a full-service national real estate, architecture, engineering, design-build and construction firm. The challenge they presented us was to evolve their brand from a local design-build firm to a national design-build firm that was building the structures that significantly improve healthcare, the environment, and our future. The messaging reflects the company’s holistic approach to creating buildings that have an impact beyond the physical structure. As a solution, we created the “Beyond These Walls” brand campaign that highlighted Clayco’s forward-thinking passion to deliver building solutions of the highest standard. This branding campaign is over four years old and still as relevant as ever. We are thrilled to have been involved in the national success that Clayco has had and it has been exciting to see what they have accomplished as a result of the “Beyond These Walls” campaign.

Finally, we sometimes recommend a lighter-touch refresh, like the one we developed for Upper Iowa University’s (UIU) brand. UIU, located in Fayette, Iowa, is a private, not-for-profit university that challenged us to develop an integrated marketing plan to create a cohesive brand and message. Through a comprehensive brand discovery session with UIU leadership, our team developed the ‘Education Built for Life’ campaign. This new brand identity gave prospective students a better perception of the UIU experience for both undergrad students and adult learners who were looking for a university that met them where they were in life and designed an educational experience that helped them succeed. Don’t take our word for it, studies show that after launching this campaign, UIU experienced growth in applications and enrollment.

Doing a brand refresh or rebrand is not something to shy away from or delay. In fact, most companies wish they had done it sooner! Our team at G/L is ready to help you with whatever path you choose. Take the survey on the homepage of our website to find out if your brand needs a rebrand or refresh. If you have any questions about the dynamic branding model or process to help brands regain their relevance, email our branding expert Tim Leon at [email protected].

 

 

The Digital Download: Is TikTok More Than Just Dancing Videos?

Melissa Ross
Digital Content Producer

The Digital Download: Is TikTok More Than Just Dancing Videos?

The future of social media is recommendation. Otherwise, it’s a pay-to-play game, and even ads to boost content can come off as unauthentic. With platforms like TikTok driven by user preference more than ever, your social strategy has to be equally targeted towards people who don’t know who you are just as it is for people who do. 

Think of TikTok as a tool for a specific need; it’s great to have when a job calls for it. No digital marketing strategy should only have one tool in its toolbox though, especially when we’ve seen platforms fall apart, profiles get hacked, and users move from one platform to another for seemingly no reason at all. But let me tell you why TikTok is a smart choice to include in your social media marketing plan for any brand.

First and foremost, if you’re spending money on video creation for other social media platforms, it’s a no-brainer to transform that video into a TikTok. The average watch time for TikTok exceeds both Facebook AND YouTube. And, as stated in the upfront, customers are more likely to trust mobile video platforms and feel better after spending excessive time on TikTok as opposed to other social platforms. People are more likely to understand your message on TikTok, with 96% of people watching FB and IG with the sound off, but more than 75% of users are watching TikTok with the sound on.

Just like Youtube, TikTok has the same ultimate goals—community and consistency. Users turn to TikTok to have conversations and to be a part of the conversation. Some people have recently had to combat loneliness due to isolation during the pandemic. The comment section of a TikTok video shows just how much users are craving that human connection they’ve missed out on in the last couple of years. Some reply with their thoughts, a joke, and often they’ll tag their friends. Even people who don’t know each other will have conversations. There’s a lot of community that happens in the comments.

The second goal is consistency. Whether it’s your content niche, your posting schedule, or your hashtag strategy, if you’re on TikTok, then you must have some sort of consistency. Research top hashtags pertaining to the topic of your video with this useful tool and DON’T use trending hashtags unless it’s relevant to your content. Find and repeat content formulas that work for you and your audience. Try some of these key content themes: 

  • Recipes and roadmaps
  • Best/worst (insert whatever) ever
  • The one thing you need to know about…
  • Duets/stitches
  • Stories
    • That one time when…
  • Replies/reactions
  • Transformations
  • Quotable shares

Take time after posting to see if the video sparked meaningful conversations within the comments. With user-driven platforms, it is important for content to generate interactions to increase the number of people seeing your video. You want users to feel compelled to share to get your message out there. Brands like Duolingo, the San Diego Zoo, and the Empire State Building, among others, have taken the lead on TikTok; don’t let your brand get left behind. After all, you don’t want to get to a job and realize that you’re missing the tool that you need. Contact us to see how TikTok and other user-driven platforms can fit into your digital marketing strategy.

The Digital Download: Reframing the way you view influencers

Melissa Ross
Digital Content Producer

The Digital Download: Reframing the way you view influencers

Influencer marketing isn’t limited to celebrities anymore. Thanks to the rise in popularity of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, anyone with a devoted following and curated community can hold influence. 

But in a post-pandemic world, after so many people worldwide were forced to feed their social needs online … and everyone began evaluating digital ads for their authenticity … we’re left to redefine what influencers are. In the past, we knew them as public relation officers, brand ambassadors and blogger relations, but now we’ve finally landed on the term “influencers.” However, if you associate influence with people who have a staggering number of followers on social media, then you’re missing a big portion of the influencer marketing pie. 

Jason Falls, author of Winfluence – Reframing Influencer Marketing to Ignite Your Brand, argues that a winning influencer strategy includes online influencers, but these strategies also will have to expand far beyond a digital space. Influencers can actually be anyone that can motivate an audience to take action. 

And really, influencer marketing is kind of a misleading term. Rather than focusing on the individual influencer, companies should focus on having the greatest impact possible. Wherever it happens and with whomever it involves. And not just online. 

Influencers could include a public speaker, a bartender, a political leader, a YouTuber, a minister, an activist, etc. In this day and age, marketers must reframe how we think about influencer marketing by removing the “r” and instead focusing solely on influence. That allows us to really see what we’re trying to accomplish: actually influencing a group of people and not just considering the person we consider to be an influencer. 

So then, what makes influencer marketing so successful? Not only is it becoming one of the most effective ways to reach niche markets and audiences, but done well, these audiences can grow to trust your brand through authentic word-of-mouth marketing. One survey found that 38% of shoppers rely on influencer reviews when online shopping, while 30% said they’re open to hearing from influencers several times per day. Another survey showed that during the pandemic, consumers trusted influencers more than brands. 

Keep in mind that identifying the right influencers to associate with your brand can make or break your influencer marketing campaign. Influencer marketing strategy must consider the prospective influencer’s follower demographic and how it aligns with your marketing goals. The only way to do that is to leverage influencer marketing tools. That’s why at Geile/Leon, we’ve partnered with Klear, an influencer discovery tool that allows us to really dive into metrics and follower demographics of potential influencers to ensure they’re the perfect fit for our clients. 

The influencer marketing industry is set to increase by approximately $13.8 billion this year, which is why Geile/Leon has expanded their service offerings to include it. SocialPubli found 42% of marketers consider influencer marketing their top revenue-generating marketing tactic, and other surveys and statistics like these prove that digital marketing is headed in the influence direction, which means Geile/Leon is following suit. 

What does that mean for you? Get in touch with us to find out how influencer marketing can benefit your brand.

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