Marketer’s Framework: 10 Elements Required to Generate Sustainable Trust in Your Brands
Generating
1. Stand up for what you stand for. 2. P romise what you intend to deliver and deliver what you promise. 3. Provide extraordinary guarantees. 4. Simplify choice complexity—we live in an “over-choiced” world. 5. Be a trusted information source.
6. Educate consumers. 7. Be open and transparent. 8. Be responsive and responsible. 9. Don’t speculate, collaborate. Collaboration is better than confrontation. 10. Support causes.
BrandHearted F&B C
onsumers expect a lot from brands these days, but at the heart of every truly great brand is trustworthiness.
“Without trust, you don’t have a brand, you have an empty claim,” says Larry Light, IHG’s new global Chief Brands Officer. “Every brand makes a promise of a certain experience. Strong brands have earned the trust of their customers to actually deliver on their promises.” Developing a sustainable foundation of trust—being BrandHearted— involves 10 key elements (see the list above) and has high-potential implications for IHG’s food and beverage agenda, Larry notes.
just the brand, but the company behind it,” Larry says. “People care about the foods and beverages they consume—not just about the taste, but also about being able to trust in what they consume. They also care about areas such as stewardship of the environment and the well-being of employees.”
As IHG continues to focus on its overall brand-building, including the IHG food and beverage strategy, it’s important to maintain a global perspective, but be locally relevant.
“If companies try to standardize the world, the consumer will fight back,” he says. “Being sensitive to cultural differences is key, “Food and beverage involves a much bigger guest experience than whether it’s in China, Europe or the Americas. There are lots of what’s in the glass or on the plate,” he says. “It’s an important part of ways to make our global, brand-wide F&B strategies locally relevant, the stay or visit, and can be a significant differentiator for IHG’s brands.” whether it’s in the areas of brand standards, menu or restaurant design, or in the promotional arena, such as with signature items.” Building trust with modern consumers, informed and connected as they are by the Internet, has become a much greater challenge over Larry also believes IHG and the World Class Beverage Program the past decade, Larry says. “Trust in all established institutions— have the opportunity to take our relationships with supplier government, big business, etc.—is declining, giving rise to a partners to an even higher level. significant level of skepticism. It used to be that all you needed was “Our vendors can truly become our strategic partners,” he says. brand awareness. Now that’s no longer enough; we need brand “They view the market from a lens we’ll never have a chance to look differentiation and credibility as well.” through, working with more hotels and restaurants than we will ever A by-product of the emphasis on building trust is the growing come in contact with. We invite them to understand our strategy, importance of corporate social responsibility. “It’s moved beyond and we welcome their ideas for new concepts and ways to be being brand loyal. Consumers believe they should be able to trust not innovative in the beverage experience. We have a huge opportunity together—when our sales go up, of course, theirs do, too.” 16