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Fostering Trust in Your Brand and Beyond (Videoconference)
Thursday, March 12, 2020 • Enterprise Community
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Fostering Trust in Your Brand and Beyond (Videoconference)
Speakers: Margot Bloomstein
Link:

Summary

We must empower our audiences to earn their trust—not the other way around—and our tactical choices in content and design can fuel empowerment. Margot will walk you through examples from retail, publishing, government, and other industries to detail what you can do to meet unprecedented problems in information consumption. Learn how voice, volume, and vulnerability can inform your design and content strategy to earn the trust of your users. Let’s address the tough questions: How do brands develop rapport when audiences let emotion cloud logic? Is there a place for vulnerability in corporate strategy? And what’s the role of command and control consistency in the creative work of a corporate enterprise? Learn how these questions can drive design choices in organizations of any size and industry—and discover how your choices can empower users and rebuild our very sense of trust across society itself.

Key Insights

  • Trust is earned by empowering users with consistent, transparent, and authoritative content that builds their confidence in themselves and the brand.

  • Authority in content comes from sharing unique perspectives, evolving knowledge, and showing vulnerability rather than authoritarian certainty.

  • Users evaluate new information not only based on facts but on how it fits with their self-identity and cultural belief systems.

  • Inconsistency in messaging or behavior from brands and institutions fuels cynicism and damages trust over time.

  • Providing appropriate content volume—neither overwhelming nor insufficient—helps users feel confident enough to act.

  • Brands like Volkswagen maintain user loyalty through values alignment and transparent comparisons, even after public scandals.

  • Using plain, accessible language balanced with necessary detail improves trust and comprehension, especially in complex or stressful contexts.

  • Transparency involves citing sources and allowing independent assessment to build credibility and user empowerment.

  • Vulnerability in communication, such as admitting unknowns and sharing ongoing learning, fosters authenticity and trust.

  • Marketing is a form of authority that should educate and empower rather than merely persuade with jargon and empty promises.

Notable Quotes

"Design won't save the world, but it may make it more worth saving."

"Authority comes from being willing to go where your audience cannot, because of danger, cost, or expertise."

"Inconsistency stokes cynicism; consistency bolsters our faith in the world."

"We evaluate new information against how we see ourselves, not just against what we know."

"Marketing is a form of authority; when done poorly it abdicates responsibility to educate."

"If you want to empower users, focus on voice, volume, and vulnerability."

"Transparency is citing your sources and hosting third party conversations, even about competitors."

"Vulnerability is saying, 'here’s how we are evolving and learning,' not pretending to know everything."

"Loyalty fueled by identity is a hard habit to break, even after public scandals."

"Success breeds confidence, and confidence breeds trust."

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