The contribution “trust” made to brand loyalty increased average of 250% across the 100 sectors and 1,257 brands we track.
That was January 2019. It’s up again the first-half of this year too. Another 39%.
How well brands meet expectations for “trust” ultimately determines their success or failure, which is why major brands are extraordinarily unhappy with how Facebook handles hate speech and real fake news. Unilever PLC, Coke, Levi’s, Ben & Jerry’s, Hershey, Verizon and Patagonia – nearly 100 advertisers in total – have joined a Facebook boycott.
That’s Brand Life Lesson 101: Your brand will be judged by the company it keeps. Or, in this case, where they advertise. Or as Unilever put it, “Continuing to advertise (on Facebook) at this time would not add value to people or society.” Nor (not-so-coincidently) to brand loyalty or their bottom line.
Facebook’s stock dropped 8% Friday. The company denied its policies are influenced by economic agendas, then announced it would begin labeling extremist and inflammatory content that are still deemed newsworthy. We’ll leave it to you to decide how much trust you put into those coincidences.
For an analysis by MediaPost’s Sarah Mahoney of the opening boycott salvo, read this.
Oh, and Brand Life Lesson 102: When your brand is likely to be judged badly by the company it keeps, find new company!
Find out more about what makes customer loyalty happen and how Brand Keys metrics is able to predict future consumer behavior: brandkeys.com. Visit our YouTube channel to learn more about Brand Keys methodology, applications and case studies.
Share this: 