Our client Littelfuse faced an interesting challenge this past year when coming up with a campaign to replace its successful Speed2Design 2012 IndyCar promotion.  The company created a racing-themed promotion the year before to take engineers “behind the scenes” at four IndyCar races as a way to tie its circuit protection devices to high performance technology.  And you can’t get much more demanding in terms of engineering performance than IndyCar racing.

Trust is an interesting concept to explore.  For any theme or message to be accepted, we can’t just say it;  we have to SHOW it.  We have to demonstrate innovation and flexibility, not just claim that we offer it. Building trust helps our message get through, at the expense of our competitors.

Frankly, trust has eroded in business today, and in society overall.  The Edelman Trust Barometer even puts a number to it – 77% of consumers trust business less today than just a year ago.  The past two years of economic struggle has broken the bonds of trust between companies and customers, and in many cases between companies and their employees.  Trust in business is at an all-time low, driven by the financial scandals on Wall Street and foreclosure crisis that initiative the recession.  Many joke that “bank” is a four-letter word, but the truth is that the public’s lack of faith in their bank has extended throughout corporate relationships.  The Gulf oil spill, and the way BP handled its communications, further damaged trust in corporations.

Even the political arena has eroded trust.  The clear effectiveness of negative campaigning has led to one commercial after another of negative messaging, to the point where Congress is one of the least-trusted institutions in America.

So what we have is a situation where:

- I don’t believe my political leaders

- I don’t believe my boss

- I don’t believe my vendors

- I don’t believe my customers

Tough environment to build a brand in, or to find and establish new relationships with customers.  What it means is that the bar has been raised higher, and that we have to demonstrate that we’re trustworthy.  Claims of product performance and corporate value are just that – claims – unless we can prove it.  And once we can, our messages and programs will become far more compelling and persuasive. 

We have to go beyond lip service.  That’s why social media, to take just one example, has captured the imagination of so many.  It’s not that Twitter is truly a Tier 1 marketing strategy for corporations today;  far from it.  Instead, social media is a way to build personality, create connections and engage with our customers in ways we never could before.  It’s a more powerful platform for building trust.  It reduces the distance between the customer and the company.

Storytelling will become more important for demonstrating and building trust.  First, adult learning takes place more effectively through storytelling.  We remember stories, and
we pass them on to others, making it a very effective tool for brand building and building internal cultures.  But, more important, stories allow us to demonstrate that we’re trust-worthy, by telling stories of others who believe in us.  Case histories become a key platform for marketing going forward, whether we name the company or not. 

In fact, when people are asked who they trust most, invariably other customers or peers are
at the top of the list.  Creating peer-to-peer interaction, as you’re working to do on your LinkedIn page and with the videos you’ve done of focus groups, can be very powerful for us going forward.

Honesty and authenticity will drive the more successful, trusted companies.  We can’t just “memo” to get more trust or put it on a goals chart; we have to create a culture, message and environment that fosters trust with our customers.  In doing so, we’ll drive more leads, create more opportunities, and drive prospects to our brand.  Trust, in effect, brings people to the table, tips the scale in our favor, and drives the prospect to purchase.  It’s the currency of business going forward.