Marketing during the Recession, Golden Rule #3: Build Trust and Confidence through Clarity and Transparency

In early 2008, we learned that 61% of European consumers thought advertisers did not treat them with respect, and that 69% were ready to pay for a service that would help them skip advertising. In October 2008, the research conducted by OTO Research just after the financial crisis shows that 83% of consumers do not trust the brands they use, and that more than 50% believe the price is not fair on basic needs categories (66% on food…). But there are solutions for brands to re-gain trust during this recession.

Beyond re-focusing on creative but understandable, reality rooted, simple advertising (moving away from the just funny, impactful, over promises), consumers will want to have clear data about the brand, what it truly stands for and what is the value for money of its products and services. To achieve this, most (but not all, see the Simpleo example in rule 6) of the solutions are Online. Clear, understandable, dialog oriented websites. eCRM platforms that address consumer needs and concerns.

A crucial factor is what consumers say and write about brands. 54% of consumers say that their primary source of information when choosing a brand is the Consumer Generated Content about the product and brand experience. Even for the mythical iPhone, a site like PleaseFixtheiPhone built by* and for iPhone addicts proposed to users to list the product flaws and begs Steve Jobs to fix them. More than 250,000 votes and 1,600 posts in less than a week… Managing this kind of transparent information will be vital in this recession.

*Full disclosure: PleaseFixtheiPhone was built by the FullSIX NYC team