How to Build Brand Trust and Integrity

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Brand trust is not an easy feat to achieve. It takes time and effort, and one wrong press release or social media post can send you back to square one. Yet, at its heart, brand trust and integrity are easy as long as you know what your brand stands for. In this article, we discuss how to build and maintain it. 

 

Humanise the Brand

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Customers, rightly or wrongly, tend to harbour a distrust of faceless corporations. Unless you are a local store that is meeting customers face-to-face, this can be hard to get away from. Thus, the human element of the brand, the one that will build trust, needs to come from everything else you do. 

However, being human does not just mean being informal and friendly. It all depends on the brand itself. You don’t want to be using the language of Gen Z if you have a product primarily aimed at the sixty-plus age group, who may actually find more formal language more human. 

Social media is a great way to do this. It allows you to curate your posts in a way that makes your brand human. Comment on posts that will resonate with your audience, create content that shows the faces working behind the scenes, and drop the facade for a little bit. 

 

Be Adaptable

 

In any business or industry, there are a multitude of different things that can change around you. This could be societal changes, political changes, or just the needs of your customers. If you are adaptable and can change, it shows that you are growing as a company and are looking to the future. 

Plenty of companies change policies based on these factors. Fast food giant McDonalds has had to change everything from the levels of salt in their food to what they make happy meal toys with. This does not show that you have an inferior product; it shows that you are ready to better it. 

The iGaming sector is a prime example of an industry that is adaptable in the face of changing policies and regulations. Sites with UKGC and MGA licences are revered for their commitment to paying anything from £2,556 to €65,000 for a licence to prove the seriousness of their services. Once they have this, further revenue is often spent on complying with the regulations as they change. Yet this is worth every penny, as it shows to the customers and wider sector that they're serious about delivering the best level of service in a changing modern world. 

 

Apply Consistency

Consistency is key to the application of this. If you suddenly drop your brand identity when times get tough, it signals that it was never real all along. This will result in an exodus of customers who are unlikely to return. You also need consistency across channels. The front of your store must mirror the image portrayed on your social networks. Thus, you need to check all the customer touchpoints and ensure you are getting it right. 

Start by humanising your brand, be adaptable, and apply consistency. All of these should soon see you develop a brand identity that resonates. This will create returning customers and, crucially, increase conversions.