BUILD TRUST. DON’T BUILD A BRAND. - Cannect Digital
- Terry Flack
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
Reading is a deep passion of mine. From cold war spy novels to meaningful, value adding business books. Top of the pops right now (and top of the pile on my bedside table) is Quantum Marketing by Mastercard CMO, Raja Rajamannar. Highly recommended. In the foreword, Mastercard Executive Chairman, Ajay Bangu, encapsulates exactly what this article is all about when he simply states, “There is one word that comes to mind when I think about marketing these days: trust.” In the traditional marketing playbook, ‘the brand’ was king. Businesses spent millions crafting the perfect visual identity and narrative to project an image of success. However, as the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer highlights, we have entered an era where consumers no longer buy what you say, they buy what you do. For businesses in KwaZulu Natal and beyond, the shift from building brands to earning trust is not just a marketing pivot. It is a survival strategy.
Brand building is what you say about yourself. Trust is what others believe about you after they’ve experienced you, and what they’ll repeat publicly. In a reputation driven economy, the gap between the two is where growth is either unlocked or destroyed. Your potential client is short on time, deep on tech utilisation and is marketing savvy, sniffing out the real from the real chancers. So authentic, real trust that is earned, and shared, is the new currency for commerce.
Well, not that new, really, as we have always bought from those we like and trust. It’s just that it is now accessible and measurable in our digitally immersed world. As Seth Godin, the modern marketing guru states, “The ‘age of infinity’ means customers have endless choices. T hey don’t need another logo to look at. They need a partner they can trust.” Highly regarded reputation expert Charles Fombrun famously defined reputation as the ‘collective representation of a firm’s past actions and future prospects’. While a brand is an internal promise (what you tell the world you are), reputation is the external reality. What the world says about you when you leave the room. Building a brand creates awareness, enables positioning, and storytelling, it’s scalable and creates emotional resonance whilst driving initial awareness (think top of sales funnel).
Yet it often can feel hollow or ‘corporate’, it is expensive to maintain and often victim to inconsistency and it is easily undermined by one bad experience. Building trust results in high retention, drives word-of mouth resulting in the ‘holy grail of marketing’, referrals, to be enacted and it creates ‘reputational capital’ that acts as a buffer in crises. The flip side is that it can be hard to measure, slow to build and requires every employee to be a ‘brand ambassador.’ The goal should be ‘Trustworthiness by Design’. Ensure your operational delivery matches your ads. If there is a gap between your brand promise and your Google Reviews, no amount of marketing spend will bridge it.
Here’s a simple playbook for KZN businesses to build their reputational capital:
1. Define your brand promise in one sentence. Then prove it.
2. Illustrate trust: request reviews, respond quickly, and treat complaints with urgency.
3. Respond as a human: acknowledge and resolve publicly with empathy, logic, authenticity. 4. Social proof with your best reviews, stories and testimonials across your digital ecosystem.
Stephen M.R. Covey, bestselling author of The Speed of Trust, argues that trust is the single most critical driver of business success. As Covey reminds us, high trust will not necessarily rescue a poor strategy, but low trust will almost certainly derail a good one. Always remember that the most admired brands succeed by earning trust, love, and respect simultaneously. Not by chasing brand awareness alone. Don’t trust me. Trust what the market says about me.
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