Aflevering Brands, Marketing & Trust

Today’s guest is Kent Grayson, associate professor of Marketing at Kellogg School of Management and co-founder of The Trust Project. Many academics study trust but there is a need to bridge the language used by academics and business people and practitioners. Although every discipline has a different perspective of trust, when you pass the language, we are talking about the same thing: what encourages someone to make themselves vulnerable and to rely on another person for something important. Marketing is not just advertising, or how to sell a product or service via social media or communication. At business schools, students learn that marketing communication is the final step in the marketing process. It is about understanding the target customer sufficiently well, their goals, problems, or needs. Trust is essential for that understanding. You have to find a way to trust what the consumer is telling you so that you can be confident that your solution will solve their needs. Generation Z, when asked are there any brands or business you trust, they will talk passionately about a handful of organizations. Kent speaks about the “wack-a-mole” challenge in marketing, the efforts of truthfully communicate with your customers, the role of influencers, about honesty and sincerity, and the relation between trust and transparency. Trust is about making sure you understand the other party's motives, that you believe they have your best interests at heart, and telling you the truth and keep your promises.