Do Prospects Trust Your Advertising?

Syndication Header: Rob Reed is president of Terrakon Sales and Marketing Consulting. Terrakon provides sales, marketing, and internet marketing services that increase online and offline conversions using a trust-building framework.

Post: If you are exploring different advertising mediums, you may want to consider survey results from comScore Networks conducted in Fall 2006. The question of 1,000 respondents representing the general internet population:

Where would you find trustworthy advertising for any product or service?

Advertising Medium - Percent of respondents

1. TV - 63%
2. Corporate sites - 51%
3. Print - 50%
4. News/Media sites - 49%
5. Radio - 28%
6. User Generated Content Sites (UGC) - 23%
7. Billboard - 19%

There are at least three significant takeaways from this survey:

1. If you offer a service or more complex product where trust is critical to your success, you may want to think twice about which advertising vehicle is used in your marketing mix.
2. It appears the majority of people do not believe advertising is trustworthy for products and services. The lack of trust could be because many companies and ad agencies use way too much hype; focus too much on the creative and not enough on the consumer; and don't understand how to build trust elements into their advertising.
3. If you can create trustworthy advertising, you can significantly differentiate yourself in the minds of potential customers and win more business - regardless of which advertising vehicle you choose.

Comments

[Charles H. Green]

Interesting data, Rob, thanks for posting.

I think your 3rd conclusion is true, but people need to be careful of it.

It's true that if you create trustworthy advertising, you will differentiate yourself (since most don't), and that you will also win more business.

Interestingly though, you won't win more business because trust is a differentiator, in the same vein that features might be. You'll gain more business because people will trust you. It's not about being different--it's about being trusted, which is vastly more powerful. The fact that being trusted is different is relatively inconsequential.

Another thought: trustworthy advertising almost by definition has to be advertising the real deal, the real goods. Any form of deception or suggestion of untruth will kill trust. And the fastest way to low trust is to advertise what you have before you have it, or without having it. Selling vapor is a very short-term strategy. So, trustworthy advertising means there has to be something behind it.

[Rob Reed]

Charles,

Thanks very much for contributing to this blog with your comment. I'm honored to have your participation.

I think we both agree that trust is a key component to increase business performance. Businesses are always looking to create a separation point from competitors - looking for ways to differentiate their products or services from competitors. The best way to create that differentiation is to create a trust-building process that results in higher prospect trust levels than your competitors can achieve. There are many facets to this process, but one of them can and should be your advertising. Creating trustworthy advertising can help a company move into the list of prospect options to consider (considered set) more often. Of course, that's just the beginning. The company must have many other pieces in place with their sales and marketing mix to successfully build winning levels of prospect trust.

You make the point that differentiation through trust is really inconsequential. Here's where we perhaps diverge a bit. Many people make the mistake that trust is something you have or you don't - it's there or it's not. That's not the case. Trust development happens in degrees or levels - on a continuum. Trust is built in our unconscious minds based on situational factors. At least one prominent trust survey shows that 80% or more of business professionals are not trusted. In a buying situation, then, it is very likely that none of the competitors will be totally trusted by the prospect. The key to win the business is to differentiate by achieving the highest level of trust along that continuum. This may or may not result in "being trusted."

I agree that being trusted is the best possible outcome. It is very powerful because it is so rare. However, no company or professional can gain "trusted" status through advertising alone. It takes a lot more work that that. By making your advertising more trustworthy, though, it is a reasonable expectation that you can differentiate enough to get on the prospect's list of options. Since this post only addresses the advertising slice of the trust-building process, I think differentiation has significant importance.

I agree with your last point that advertising must be the "real deal" or it will diminish trust. That goes to my point that advertisers too often focus on the creative with a lot of hype and not enough on simply building trust with the consumer.

[Andrew Ghalashahi]

We all are so used to the traditional methods of marketing communications.....I think word of mouth is the most trusted form of marketing.....2nd I know from experience that convesational based professional telemarketing is very effective when introducing any new technology. I do agree with the study to some extent, but feel some other mediums were left out....

Andrew Ghalashahi
Strategic Marketing Consultant