Windows on the role of trust in shopping (Issue 06)

on the role of trust in shopping

The shopper trust equation How trust has changed in recent times 64% of shoppers use word of mouth to build trust

The shopper

trust equation

I

“Trust is one of those big words isn’t it? I suppose when I talk about ‘their quality’ or ‘their service’ what I mean is that I trust them to always offer quality. But I would never think of it like that normally – it’s more that I know they do”

n our work with clients we have been increasingly hearing businesses talk about trust in the context of shopper purchase decisions, and whether trust – in brands and in retailers – is being re-considered as a result of the recession. This got us thinking about what trust means to shoppers: what are they thinking about when deciding whether or not a brand or retailer is trustworthy; and what role this has in their decision making processes.

Table 1: Trust as an amalgamation of factors Ambience

Shoppers want stores and the staff to be clean.

This includes an uncluttered, easy to shop environment

Consistency

Shoppers expect retailers and brands to deliver the same promise across time and locations (closely linked to Familiarity)

Familiarity

For regular shopping trips, shoppers are more comfortable with familiar environments which speed up the trip

Convenience

Location, access etc

Customer/staff service

Friendly, helpful and knowledgeable about the products they are selling

Corporate responsibility

Ethical credentials. Treatment of staff and suppliers etc

Promotions

Good, genuine and relevant offers

Individual/unique

For some shopping trips e.g. clothing, specialities, shoppers want the benefit of somewhere that’s different

Quality

Of products and shopping environment

Word of mouth/recommendation

By friends or family, particularly for a new or unfamiliar store

Speed and efficiency

Of the shopping process from parking to navigation, to ease of finding what they want, paying for them and delivery (where appropriate)

Transparency

Honest and open across all aspects of the business, from supplier relationships to pricing, from promotions to returns policies or guarantees

At a very basic level, shopper trust is created when a retailer or brand delivers against a shopper’s needs or expectations.

Shoppers don’t spontaneously talk about trust as a purchase decision factor in its own right, and yet they recognise that trust is playing a role in their decisions.

The Trust Equation

TRUST =

In our research it emerged that trust is an amalgamation of a whole range of factors that a shopper may take into consideration when judging whether or not they want to shop in a certain retailer or buy a particular brand (see Table 1 on opposite page).

Experience Needs + Expectation

The factors that are called into play in determining whether a store or a brand is to be trusted vary considerably depending on the individual‘s own priorities, the shopping occasion, and the channel used. For example, the Porsche owner may look for a petrol station that he knows can be trusted to supply quality fuel, whereas the commuter may look for the outlet he trusts to offer the lowest price.

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Value for money

Based on own personal equation

Whereas businesses tend to see trust as an issue dealt with at the corporate level, our research with shoppers demonstrates that trust needs to be considered at two levels:

In fact the petrol station scenario also gives an insight into a key issue regarding ‘trust’ – that two distinct levels of trust exist. Just because a shopper trusts a particular company to supply cheap fuel, doesn’t mean he / she trusts them at a corporate level:

• Corporate integrity: which relates to corporate responsibility, staff / supplier treatment, transparency, consistency and heritage

“I wouldn’t trust the ethics of any of the petrol companies as far as I could throw them, but I choose to fill up at the Esso on the roundabout because they have the cheapest prices locally – I trust them to do that, they’ve been the cheapest around for some time now”

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• Tangible delivery: which is about the business’s ability to meet the shopper’s individual needs and expectations during the actual purchase process

5

The shopper

trust equation

I

“Trust is one of those big words isn’t it? I suppose when I talk about ‘their quality’ or ‘their service’ what I mean is that I trust them to always offer quality. But I would never think of it like that normally – it’s more that I know they do”

n our work with clients we have been increasingly hearing businesses talk about trust in the context of shopper purchase decisions, and whether trust – in brands and in retailers – is being re-considered as a result of the recession. This got us thinking about what trust means to shoppers: what are they thinking about when deciding whether or not a brand or retailer is trustworthy; and what role this has in their decision making processes.

Table 1: Trust as an amalgamation of factors Ambience

Shoppers want stores and the staff to be clean.

This includes an uncluttered, easy to shop environment

Consistency

Shoppers expect retailers and brands to deliver the same promise across time and locations (closely linked to Familiarity)

Familiarity

For regular shopping trips, shoppers are more comfortable with familiar environments which speed up the trip

Convenience

Location, access etc

Customer/staff service

Friendly, helpful and knowledgeable about the products they are selling

Corporate responsibility

Ethical credentials. Treatment of staff and suppliers etc

Promotions

Good, genuine and relevant offers

Individual/unique

For some shopping trips e.g. clothing, specialities, shoppers want the benefit of somewhere that’s different

Quality

Of products and shopping environment

Word of mouth/recommendation

By friends or family, particularly for a new or unfamiliar store

Speed and efficiency

Of the shopping process from parking to navigation, to ease of finding what they want, paying for them and delivery (where appropriate)

Transparency

Honest and open across all aspects of the business, from supplier relationships to pricing, from promotions to returns policies or guarantees

At a very basic level, shopper trust is created when a retailer or brand delivers against a shopper’s needs or expectations.

Shoppers don’t spontaneously talk about trust as a purchase decision factor in its own right, and yet they recognise that trust is playing a role in their decisions.

The Trust Equation

TRUST =

In our research it emerged that trust is an amalgamation of a whole range of factors that a shopper may take into consideration when judging whether or not they want to shop in a certain retailer or buy a particular brand (see Table 1 on opposite page).

Experience Needs + Expectation

The factors that are called into play in determining whether a store or a brand is to be trusted vary considerably depending on the individual‘s own priorities, the shopping occasion, and the channel used. For example, the Porsche owner may look for a petrol station that he knows can be trusted to supply quality fuel, whereas the commuter may look for the outlet he trusts to offer the lowest price.

4

Windows 6

Value for money

Based on own personal equation

Whereas businesses tend to see trust as an issue dealt with at the corporate level, our research with shoppers demonstrates that trust needs to be considered at two levels:

In fact the petrol station scenario also gives an insight into a key issue regarding ‘trust’ – that two distinct levels of trust exist. Just because a shopper trusts a particular company to supply cheap fuel, doesn’t mean he / she trusts them at a corporate level:

• Corporate integrity: which relates to corporate responsibility, staff / supplier treatment, transparency, consistency and heritage

“I wouldn’t trust the ethics of any of the petrol companies as far as I could throw them, but I choose to fill up at the Esso on the roundabout because they have the cheapest prices locally – I trust them to do that, they’ve been the cheapest around for some time now”

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• Tangible delivery: which is about the business’s ability to meet the shopper’s individual needs and expectations during the actual purchase process

5

Corporate Integrity At this level trust tends to focus on the degree to which shoppers expect a business to behave honestly and responsibly – whether with regard to the environment, their staff, or even their shareholders.

Interestingly for retailers, Corporate Integrity can be about the direct personal experience because the store is in effect a form of direct marketing and as a result the in-store experience can impact on Corporate Integrity: “You go to Morrisons in town, and the staff all look as they’d really rather be somewhere else – I imagine they can’t be treating them very well. Whereas in Waitrose, they all look happy and motivated – and I know they get £100 a year to spend on cultural activity”.

Trust at the Corporate Integrity level is usually formed on the basis of the information that shoppers hear about in the news or word of mouth, rather than direct personal experience, and the

Tangible Delivery At a more micro level, trust is derived from personal experience of the retailer or brand, linking back to our trust equation - hence our definition of this being the ‘Tangible Delivery’.

challenges it is open to are, therefore, often beyond the direct control of the organisation itself. Unfortunately this can often be negative news stories, and can form long term, entrenched views converging in a perceived lack of corporate integrity and therefore lack of trust. Even now shoppers reference ‘old’ news in their decisions:

Shoppers judge the retailer or brand on how well it delivers against their personal needs and therefore whether or not it can be trusted to do so in the future.

“I won’t shop at Gap because of the whole thing about child labour that came out a few years ago”

“You’re pretty sure of what you’re going to get – it’s a tried thing – I trust them”

“There was that whole thing about the baby milk in Africa and that makes me really angry about the company (Nestle)”

“For the children’s stuff, you know that the sizes are pretty realistic, if they don’t fit then you can just take them back, no questions asked”

Is trust an ingredient companies can choose to include in their offer?

A couple of our qualitative respondents had noticed a window sticker recently applied to their local M&S Simply Food (see photo), and questioned the appropriateness of trust in this list of ingredients.

For retailers and brands the important point is that the personal nature of this level means this definition of trust is more open to challenge. A failure to deliver against needs and expectations – even on just one occasion – can undermine a shopper’s trust to the detriment of the retailer or brand.

Trust cannot be built quickly but once gained can be a very powerful factor in determining repeat purchase / custom. It can, however, be lost quickly if the experience does not match the needs and expectations of the shopper - companies have to earn

“I think of trust as something you earn – it’s not something you can pull off a shelf and add to your business” “The more I think about this, the more it touches on arrogance. I’ll decide if I trust M&S, I’m not going to have them tell me they’ve added trust in for my benefit”

trust by delivering it rather than just saying it.

“Experience is the huge bit of the iceberg below the waterline – companies need to focus on the delivery” Industry Expert

On the basis of our research we would suggest that for shoppers trust is about reputation backed up by experience because for shoppers it is about getting the detail right. It is not a business feature that can be sought solely from the boardroom, it actually has to be built from the bottom up.

“It’s not the coolest place to shop in the world but it does the simple things and necessities really well, which is why I use them”

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To have shopper trust, you have to be delivering at the coal face – at the point of purchase.

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7

Corporate Integrity At this level trust tends to focus on the degree to which shoppers expect a business to behave honestly and responsibly – whether with regard to the environment, their staff, or even their shareholders.

Interestingly for retailers, Corporate Integrity can be about the direct personal experience because the store is in effect a form of direct marketing and as a result the in-store experience can impact on Corporate Integrity: “You go to Morrisons in town, and the staff all look as they’d really rather be somewhere else – I imagine they can’t be treating them very well. Whereas in Waitrose, they all look happy and motivated – and I know they get £100 a year to spend on cultural activity”.

Trust at the Corporate Integrity level is usually formed on the basis of the information that shoppers hear about in the news or word of mouth, rather than direct personal experience, and the

Tangible Delivery At a more micro level, trust is derived from personal experience of the retailer or brand, linking back to our trust equation - hence our definition of this being the ‘Tangible Delivery’.

challenges it is open to are, therefore, often beyond the direct control of the organisation itself. Unfortunately this can often be negative news stories, and can form long term, entrenched views converging in a perceived lack of corporate integrity and therefore lack of trust. Even now shoppers reference ‘old’ news in their decisions:

Shoppers judge the retailer or brand on how well it delivers against their personal needs and therefore whether or not it can be trusted to do so in the future.

“I won’t shop at Gap because of the whole thing about child labour that came out a few years ago”

“You’re pretty sure of what you’re going to get – it’s a tried thing – I trust them”

“There was that whole thing about the baby milk in Africa and that makes me really angry about the company (Nestle)”

“For the children’s stuff, you know that the sizes are pretty realistic, if they don’t fit then you can just take them back, no questions asked”

Is trust an ingredient companies can choose to include in their offer?

For retailers and brands the important point is that the personal nature of this level means this definition of trust is more open to challenge. A failure to deliver against needs and expectations – even on just one occasion – can undermine a shopper’s trust to the detriment of the retailer or brand.

Trust cannot be built quickly but once gained can be a very powerful factor in determining repeat purchase / custom. It can, however, be lost quickly if the experience does not match the needs and expectations of the shopper - companies have to earn

A couple of our qualitative respondents had noticed a window sticker recently applied to their local M&S Simply Food (see photo), and questioned the appropriateness of trust in this list of ingredients.

“I think of trust as something you earn – it’s not something you can pull off a shelf and add to your business” “The more I think about this, the more it touches on arrogance. I’ll decide if I trust M&S, I’m not going to have them tell me they’ve added trust in for my benefit”

trust by delivering it rather than just saying it.

“Experience is the huge bit of the iceberg below the waterline – companies need to focus on the delivery” Industry Expert

On the basis of our research we would suggest that for shoppers trust is about reputation backed up by experience because for shoppers it is about getting the detail right. It is not a business feature that can be sought solely from the boardroom, it actually has to be built from the bottom up.

“It’s not the coolest place to shop in the world but it does the simple things and necessities really well, which is why I use them”

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To have shopper trust, you have to be delivering at the coal face – at the point of purchase.

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7

Without

Filling the experience gap % of total sample (1009)

Word of mouth

experience,

Online reviews TV advertising Press reports

then what?

S

hoppers will always have needs, and will always have expectations for delivery against those needs. Yet there are many occasions when shoppers are faced with making choices for which they have no experience. In fact, it is likely that shoppers are currently facing this more regularly than normal with the impact of the recession on their budgets and the choice of stores on the high street. (38% of shoppers have started using stores that they hadn’t used in the past - source: Shoppercentric Windows on Evaluating Promotions in the Recession)

Consumer magazine reviews Trial Mailshot Online chat

In fact all shoppers interviewed would access direct experience through either word of mouth or reviews, whereas ‘only’ 71% of shoppers would reference company funded information sources such as advertising or the company website.

These figures highlight the need to access actual experience – “if I don’t have that experience myself, I’ll ask around”.

Source: Windows on the role of trust in shopping Q: If your familiar store no longer existed and you needed to find out about alternative stores you could use, which of thes alternative sources of information would you use?

When shopping for a higher ticket item like an electrical product the shopper is willing to invest more effort in filling the experience gap. The fact that the experience gap relates to an online retailer probably accounts for the relative importance of new media sources. So a trust building strategy needs to reflect both the nature of the product being purchased and the channel.

What is also interesting is that shoppers are clearly willing to invest time in filling the trust gap – visiting company websites, online reviews and reading the press.

The Trust Equation

TRUST =

Company website

Experience

Filling the experience gap % of total sample (1009)

Word of mouth

64

Company website

When that question was put to our online sample, the results emphasised the role of word of mouth that our qualitative sample had discussed (see chart opposite). 64% of shoppers would rely on word of mouth to help them fill the gap in their trust equation, and 37% would reference online reviews, both of which support the increasing focus by companies on viral marketing and social networks.

46

Online reviews

37

TV advertising

36

Press reports

31

Consumer magazine reviews

22

Trial

17

Mailshot Online chat

9 4

Source: Windows on the role of trust in shopping Q: If your familiar store no longer existed and you needed to find out about alternative stores you could use, which of thes alternative sources of information would you use?

8

% of total sample (1009)

A new grocery retailer A new electrical supplier/retailer A new washing powder brand

Furthermore, the type of information being sought will depend on the shopping occasion / purchase (see chart opposite).

Needs + Expectation

If experience is a crucial element in the trust equation, then what happens? How do shoppers fill the gap?

The information sought when sourcing a new retailer / brand

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A new coffee brand Source: Windows on the role of trust in shopping Q: What information would you be asking for?

At the same time, ensuring

that Tangible Delivery trust is as much the focus of trust building strategies as Corporate Integrity will better align company websites and marketing to shopper needs.

The Tangible Delivery elements of trust are universally required, so clear communication of pricing policies, ranges, quality proposition, and convenience are important.

Interestingly, the roles of the Corporate Integrity elements of trust are quite varied: a new electrical supplier / retailer will need to communicate its reputation more effectively than a grocery retailer in order to adequately fill the experience gap.

For brands this could mean that Experiential Marketing has a greater role to play in marketing strategies than is currently the case, since it can fill the experience vacuum in a manner that is managed by the company themselves. After all, “communication can only do so much – it’s really about the experience in-store” Industry Expert

In designing the trust building strategy for a business, both retailers and brands need to consider where shoppers turn to in an experience vacuum, and the sources of information shoppers are likely to reference.

Windows 6

Tangible Delivery Corporate Integrity

9

Without

Filling the experience gap % of total sample (1009)

Word of mouth

experience,

Online reviews TV advertising Press reports

then what?

S

hoppers will always have needs, and will always have expectations for delivery against those needs. Yet there are many occasions when shoppers are faced with making choices for which they have no experience. In fact, it is likely that shoppers are currently facing this more regularly than normal with the impact of the recession on their budgets and the choice of stores on the high street. (38% of shoppers have started using stores that they hadn’t used in the past - source: Shoppercentric Windows on Evaluating Promotions in the Recession

Consumer magazine reviews Trial Mailshot Online chat

In fact all shoppers interviewed would access direct experience through either word of mouth or reviews, whereas ‘only’ 71% of shoppers would reference company funded information sources such as advertising or the company website.

These figures highlight the need to access actual experience – “if I don’t have that experience myself, I’ll ask around”.

Source: Windows on the role of trust in shopping Q: If your familiar store no longer existed and you needed to find out about alternative stores you could use, which of thes alternative sources of information would you use?

When shopping for a higher ticket item like an electrical product the shopper is willing to invest more effort in filling the experience gap. The fact that the experience gap relates to an online retailer probably accounts for the relative importance of new media sources. So a trust building strategy needs to reflect both the nature of the product being purchased and the channel.

What is also interesting is that shoppers are clearly willing to invest time in filling the trust gap – visiting company websites, online reviews and reading the press.

The Trust Equation

TRUST =

Company website

Experience

Filling the experience gap % of total sample (1009)

Word of mouth

64

Company website

When that question was put to our online sample, the results emphasised the role of word of mouth that our qualitative sample had discussed (see chart opposite). 64% of shoppers would rely on word of mouth to help them fill the gap in their trust equation, and 37% would reference online reviews, both of which support the increasing focus by companies on viral marketing and social networks.

46

Online reviews

37

TV advertising

36

Press reports

31

Consumer magazine reviews

22

Trial

17

Mailshot Online chat

9 4

Source: Windows on the role of trust in shopping Q: If your familiar store no longer existed and you needed to find out about alternative stores you could use, which of thes alternative sources of information would you use?

8

% of total sample (1009)

A new grocery retailer A new electrical supplier/retailer A new washing powder brand

Furthermore, the type of information being sought will depend on the shopping occasion / purchase (see chart opposite).

Needs + Expectation

If experience is a crucial element in the trust equation, then what happens? How do shoppers fill the gap?

The information sought when sourcing a new retailer / brand

Windows 6

A new coffee brand Source: Windows on the role of trust in shopping Q: What information would you be asking for?

At the same time, ensuring

that Tangible Delivery trust is as much the focus of trust building strategies as Corporate Integrity will better align company websites and marketing to shopper needs.

The Tangible Delivery elements of trust are universally required, so clear communication of pricing policies, ranges, quality proposition, and convenience are important.

Interestingly, the roles of the Corporate Integrity elements of trust are quite varied: a new electrical supplier / retailer will need to communicate its reputation more effectively than a grocery retailer in order to adequately fill the experience gap.

For brands this could mean that Experiential Marketing has a greater role to play in marketing strategies than is currently the case, since it can fill the experience vacuum in a manner that is managed by the company themselves. After all, “communication can only do so much – it’s really about the experience in-store” Industry Expert

In designing the trust building strategy for a business, both retailers and brands need to consider where shoppers turn to in an experience vacuum, and the sources of information shoppers are likely to reference.

Windows 6

Tangible Delivery Corporate Integrity

9

Trust

and the W

recession • Redundancies / salary cuts: Shoppers have been forced to re-evaluate their needs due to budgetary constraints

e started our research with a hypothesis that the recession was bound to have made a difference to the role of trust within the purchase journey. The banking collapse and the MP’s expenses scandal in particular, have challenged our trust in our institutions, making us more cynical than we were in the recent past.

Furthermore, the impact of the recession has changed our retail landscape considerably many well-known high street retailers have disappeared and town centres are suffering.

• Promotions: Retailers are awash with special offers and promotions so shoppers are no longer buying on the basis of trust in the original price but on the reduced price instead • Retailers: More shoppers have discovered the likes of Aldi and Lidl and are prepared to shop there for certain categories to supplement their usual supermarket shop

The number of shops boarded up has tripled in the last year according to LDC, from 4% in the summer of 2008 to 12% at the end of June 2009, amounting to 12,000 store closures.

• Brands vs Own Labels: Shoppers trading down from branded goods to supermarket own label products, and from supermarket top tier own label to lower tiers As a result each part of the sum in our Trust equation is undergoing change: • If shoppers’ circumstances are changing, so are their needs • If the way stores or brands market themselves is changing, so are shoppers expectations • If the stores/brands shoppers are buying into are changing, so are their experiences

So we wanted to understand what the impact of these events has been on shoppers’ trust in retailers and brands.

In fact our research shows trust in the retail and manufacturing sector has been affected – by changes in the context in which retailers and brands now operate:

10

Price is an area of particular consideration for businesses concerned with building or maintaining shopper trust. Shoppers are very aware of the swathe of price cuts currently in-store, but there is some suspicion that all is not what it seems: are manufacturers reducing pack sizes to reduce costs without telling shoppers; are retailers cutting supply corners to reduce prices?

With these changes, and the increasing cynicism towards business and institutions,

Windows 6

whether it’s the petrol forecourt, the local greengrocer or a major multiple. In fact some of the renewed appeal of local stores during this recession relates to trust:

“To be honest, I question whether or not I can carry on trusting the honesty of a retailer if they persist in offering promotions that, once you’ve looked at them in detail, offer very little value whatsoever”

“(In my local shoe shop) I know what it is I’m going to get. I haven’t had a bad pair yet and therefore don’t really have any reason to go elsewhere. They probably aren’t the cheapest but your feet are important, aren’t they?!”

Shoppers want to know that the promotions are genuine, that profits are being made fairly, and that there is no smoke and mirrors in the proposition they are buying into:

Companies that have been communicating their core values alongside the pricing messages should retain shopper trust, but those who have substituted core value messaging for price-driven messaging have got a much harder job to maintain trust amongst shoppers when prices start to return to normal.

“I trust Amazon a lot. But Amazon marketplace is lots of independent sellers and they look so like Amazon that you often don’t realise they’re not and I think that’s not being honest” “If they can afford to lower their prices so much it makes me question how much money they (the manufacturers) make” “It makes me question my trust in the store”

Windows 6

“That ‘Every little helps’ thing… it’s laughable. For me it’s clear that they (Tesco) think so much more about how “every little” helps them, rather than how it helps their suppliers, their staff or even their customers”

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Trust

With these changes, and the increasing cynicism towards business and institutions,

and the W

shoppers are looking for greater transparency from the companies they choose to do business with,

recession

whether it’s the petrol forecourt, the local greengrocer or a major multiple. In fact some of the renewed appeal of local stores during this recession relates to trust:

• Redundancies / salary cuts: Shoppers have been forced to re-evaluate their needs due to budgetary constraints

e started our research with a hypothesis that the recession was bound to have made a difference to the role of trust within the purchase journey. The banking collapse and the MP’s expenses scandal in particular, have challenged our trust in our institutions, making us more cynical than we were in the recent past.

Furthermore, the impact of the recession has changed our retail landscape considerably many well-known high street retailers have disappeared and town centres are suffering.

• Promotions: Retailers are awash with special offers and promotions so shoppers are no longer buying on the basis of trust in the original price but on the reduced price instead • Retailers: More shoppers have discovered the likes of Aldi and Lidl and are prepared to shop there for certain categories to supplement their usual supermarket shop

The number of shops boarded up has tripled in the last year according to LDC, from 4% in the summer of 2008 to 12% at the end of June 2009, amounting to 12,000 store closures.

• Brands vs Own Labels: Shoppers trading down from branded goods to supermarket own label products, and from supermarket top tier own label to lower tiers As a result each part of the sum in our Trust equation is undergoing change: • If shoppers’ circumstances are changing, so are their needs • If the way stores or brands market themselves is changing, so are shoppers expectations • If the stores/brands shoppers are buying into are changing, so are their experiences

So we wanted to understand what the impact of these events has been on shoppers’ trust in retailers and brands.

In fact our research shows trust in the retail and manufacturing sector has been affected – by changes in the context in which retailers and brands now operate:

10

Windows 6

“(In my local shoe shop) I know what it is I’m going to get. I haven’t had a bad pair yet and therefore don’t really have any reason to go elsewhere. They probably aren’t the cheapest but your feet are important, aren’t they?!”

“To be honest, I question whether or not I can carry on trusting the honesty of a retailer if they persist in offering promotions that, once you’ve looked at them in detail, offer very little value whatsoever”

Shoppers want to know that the promotions are genuine, that profits are being made fairly, and that there is no smoke and mirrors in the proposition they are buying into:

After all, what happens when the recession ends and businesses look to restore prices to pre-recession levels?

“I trust Amazon a lot. But Amazon marketplace is lots of independent sellers and they look so like Amazon that you often don’t realise they’re not and I think that’s not being honest”

Companies that have been communicating their core values alongside the pricing messages should retain shopper trust, but those who have substituted core value messaging for price-driven messaging have got a much harder job to maintain trust amongst shoppers when prices start to return to normal.

“If they can afford to lower their prices so much it makes me question how much money they (the manufacturers) make” “It makes me question my trust in the store”

“That ‘Every little helps’ thing… it’s laughable. For me it’s clear that they (Tesco) think so much more about how “every little” helps them, rather than how it helps their suppliers, their staff or even their customers”

Price is an area of particular consideration for businesses concerned with building or maintaining shopper trust. Shoppers are very aware of the swathe of price cuts currently in-store, but there is some suspicion that all is not what it seems: are manufacturers reducing pack sizes to reduce costs without telling shoppers; are retailers cutting supply corners to reduce prices?

Windows 6

11

So where does

trust fit into the

shopping process?

As discussed earlier in this ezine, trust is not spontaneously mentioned by shoppers as a factor driving their purchase decisions. It is, however, a considerable part of the context to a purchase.

What contributes to their trust in that purchase is dependent upon all the elements we’ve considered in our earlier articles. The role of trust is not a static factor, but is a movable feature which adapts to each and every occasion. Yet it is at the core of the purchase, and therefore is a feature that businesses shouldn’t overlook.

Purchasing is multi-faceted and is not just about behaviour. Shoppers choose a particular store or select a product for purchase from a shelf for all manner of reasons. The individual’s ‘life’ experiences, beliefs, goals and needs within their world will influence the specific action that they take. So, as always, it is vitally important to understand the context to behaviour – at the shopper level.

Ultimately trust is about the relationship between the business and the shopper – whether in terms of Corporate Integrity or Tangible Delivery. And the strength of this relationship has a direct impact on the purchase decisions made.

The context to a purchase will not only include those elements we typically think of such as the mood, mindset, time available, whom the purchase is for, budget etc, it will also include attitudes towards and perceptions of the brand or retailer which are most likely to be built up over a period of time.

The context that Trust creates in the purchase decision

Marketing to Shoppers

To make any purchase decision the shopper has to have some level of trust in the brand / retailer.

Range Price Availability Environment Service

Experience /Tangible Delivery

Needs

Expectation /Corporate Integrity

Marketing to consumers, shoppers, institutions, government, shareholders, influencers etc CSR PR Corporate website

The brands that have stood the test of time have all been able to point to ‘trust’ as a key part of their success.

Those businesses that put shopper relationships at the heart of their business will be the long term winners, regardless of recessions. It’s all about making a real connection in order to engage, to generate trust and therefore loyalty. Retailers and brands that work out how to identify and execute the contextual factors that turn on the shoppers to their brands and stores will keep the conversation and relationship going beyond a story based purely on price or promotion.

The brands that shoppers come back to in times of trouble are those they ‘trust’. So it goes without saying, a business that understands and builds trust is looking to the long term future.

“How would the chicken have been reared, what was it fed, and what did that mean for the quality of the meat? Suddenly there was no way I was going to buy that and serve it to my family”

The Story of a Chicken More than one shopper in our research told of how their trust in a retailer had been called into question recently whilst in store, and this typifies how trust can play a role in an actual purchase decision. These were regular shoppers of Tesco with no overtly environmental or ethical beliefs – certainly none strong enough to influence how they shopped or their product choices.

No longer was Tesco the trusted supplier of quality goods, but in this specific decision Tesco became a supplier of fresh produce provided under questionable circumstances.

This is a prime example of our trust equation impacting on a purchase decision: • Need = feeding the family • Expectation = good value, quality meat • Experience = such a low price point that quality couldn’t be guaranteed

An offer on fresh whole chickens caught their eye – a whole chicken for £2. Initially this sounded like real value for money, but the next thought was to wonder how on earth Tesco could sell it at that price?

Therefore TRUST was lost, along with the purchase.

Purchase

12

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So where does

trust fit into the

shopping process?

As discussed earlier in this ezine, trust is not spontaneously mentioned by shoppers as a factor driving their purchase decisions. It is, however, a considerable part of the context to a purchase.

What contributes to their trust in that purchase is dependent upon all the elements we’ve considered in our earlier articles. The role of trust is not a static factor, but is a movable feature which adapts to each and every occasion. Yet it is at the core of the purchase, and therefore is a feature that businesses shouldn’t overlook.

Purchasing is multi-faceted and is not just about behaviour. Shoppers choose a particular store or select a product for purchase from a shelf for all manner of reasons. The individual’s ‘life’ experiences, beliefs, goals and needs within their world will influence the specific action that they take. So, as always, it is vitally important to understand the context to behaviour – at the shopper level.

Ultimately trust is about the relationship between the business and the shopper – whether in terms of Corporate Integrity or Tangible Delivery. And the strength of this relationship has a direct impact on the purchase decisions made.

The context to a purchase will not only include those elements we typically think of such as the mood, mindset, time available, whom the purchase is for, budget etc, it will also include attitudes towards and perceptions of the brand or retailer which are most likely to be built up over a period of time.

The context that Trust creates in the purchase decision

Marketing to Shoppers

To make any purchase decision the shopper has to have some level of trust in the brand / retailer.

Range Price Availability Environment Service

Experience /Tangible Delivery

Needs

Expectation /Corporate Integrity

Marketing to consumers, shoppers, institutions, government, shareholders, influencers etc CSR PR Corporate website

The brands that have stood the test of time have all been able to point to ‘trust’ as a key part of their success.

Those businesses that put shopper relationships at the heart of their business will be the long term winners, regardless of recessions. It’s all about making a real connection in order to engage, to generate trust and therefore loyalty. Retailers and brands that work out how to identify and execute the contextual factors that turn on the shoppers to their brands and stores will keep the conversation and relationship going beyond a story based purely on price or promotion.

The brands that shoppers come back to in times of trouble are those they ‘trust’. So it goes without saying, a business that understands and builds trust is looking to the long term future.

“How would the chicken have been reared, what was it fed, and what did that mean for the quality of the meat? Suddenly there was no way I was going to buy that and serve it to my family”

The Story of a Chicken More than one shopper in our research told of how their trust in a retailer had been called into question recently whilst in store, and this typifies how trust can play a role in an actual purchase decision. These were regular shoppers of Tesco with no overtly environmental or ethical beliefs – certainly none strong enough to influence how they shopped or their product choices.

No longer was Tesco the trusted supplier of quality goods, but in this specific decision Tesco became a supplier of fresh produce provided under questionable circumstances.

This is a prime example of our trust equation impacting on a purchase decision: • Need = feeding the family • Expectation = good value, quality meat • Experience = such a low price point that quality couldn’t be guaranteed

An offer on fresh whole chickens caught their eye – a whole chicken for £2. Initially this sounded like real value for money, but the next thought was to wonder how on earth Tesco could sell it at that price?

Therefore TRUST was lost, along with the purchase.

Purchase

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Windows 6

Windows 6

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CONTACT Alice Synge, marketing and operations manager Shoppercentric: alice.synge@shoppercentric.com mobile: + 44 7977 579 076

Our series of Windows reports are a small part of the research service we provide to clients.

If you would like to know more about how we can help your business better understand shoppers’ attitudes, needs and behaviours please contact us.

trust@shoppercentric.com or visit our web site at: www.shoppercentric.com

Windows 6

Windows 6

CONTACT Alice Synge, marketing and operations manager Shoppercentric: alice.synge@shoppercentric.com mobile: + 44 7977 579 076

Our series of Windows reports are a small part of the research service we provide to clients.

If you would like to know more about how we can help your business better understand shoppers’ attitudes, needs and behaviours please contact us.

trust@shoppercentric.com or visit our web site at: www.shoppercentric.com

Windows 6

Windows 6