For any organization, establishing and maintaining a reputation is critical to its survival. An organizations’ stakeholders; be it potential partners, investors, or consumers rely on the information they know to build an affinity/association with the brand. Understanding its purpose, values and promise to deliver is when trust is established. In essence, what you say as a brand is equally important to what you do – and that is what consumers buy into and base their trust on.

Anan Ibrahim, Associate Director at Edelman Middle East

In today’s rapidly changing world, consumers and stakeholders rely on communicating and consuming news on digital platforms. That, coupled with the gradual hype around the metaverse and the idea of existing in a virtual world, makes it doubly important for organisations to maintain trust. 

In the UAE, 68 percent would buy or advocate for brands based on their beliefs and values, and 78 per cent invest based on their beliefs and values, according to findings from the 2022 Edelman UAE Trust Barometer. So, if a certain business voices its commitment to sustainable apparel as an example, and is transparent about the full cycle of how they procure materials, their methods of production, or is an advocate of diversity and inclusion, I for one, would prefer to associate with this brand over another. The simple social science: I care for brand X because they embody and support societal values that matter in today’s day and age. 

Trusted companies are also better equipped to address potential risks and stand resilient in times of crisis.  To add a bit of color for you: trust to an organization is Wallace’s army of men in the Battle of Stirling in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. 

References to epic movies aside, businesses that break that bond quickly fail – and rebuilding that trust is an undertaking, and often, never fully recover from the repercussions, so it’s important to keep that front and center. How an organization or a brand communicates can immensely contribute to building trust, like:

  • Ditch the corporate speak and speak in a human voice: an approachable, authentic and human voice always wins. Consumers understand it and the more tangible and real it sounds, the better it will resonate and sit with audiences. 
  • The three C’s always win: Clear, concise and consistent – say it clearly, say it often and your audiences will get the reassurance of your promise and even advocate for it.

  • Leadership as the face of change: Using an organization’s senior leadership (CEO) as the voice of influence and even more so as an organization’s change agent is paramount to its success, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer. 85 percent state that CEOs should be personally visible when discussing public policy with external stakeholders or work that their company has done to benefit the society.

If we take Majid Al Futtaim’s approach to navigating the ebbs and flows of the COVID-19 – this is a classic case and point of how an organization was able maintain transparency and authenticity during a time of where the world was at its wits end in a battle with a global pandemic. Making decisions such as a workforce restructure, offering digital platforms to support retail partners – all being communicated by the CEO himself, embodied values that MAF stood for: socially responsible. That solidified trust among its stakeholder groups.

Trust is a core building block to a brand’s success story. Without that, there’s hardly any foundation to fall back on. 

About the research:

The 2022 Trust Barometer is Edelman’s 22nd annual trust and credibility survey. The research, conducted by Edelman Data & Intelligence (DxI), surveyed a sample of more than 36,000+ respondents in 28 markets. To read through the results from the UAE survey, visit: https://www.edelman.ae/trustbarometer2022 

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