‘This is the era of consequences. Be real or be rejected’: Forrester’s Anthony Mullen on why it’s incumbent for brands to become trustworthy
Trust has become a cornerstone value for brands today and strong messaging just doesn’t cut it anymore, according to Forrester analyst Anthony Mullen.
Speaking at the Lewis Silkin Brand Academy of the upcoming challenges brands face in achieving trust and transparency, Mullen continued; “Trust, while an exotic, fluffy quantity, takes years to build and can be destroyed in seconds."
He continued: “We are now in a post-social world, where your mistakes, errors and how you perform is easily broadcast through social networks. The challenge is to be real or be rejected. This is the era of consequences. It’s not about what you say, it’s about what you do.”
Mullen paused for a moment to explain how the industry had arrived at this point, claiming that for the last 30 years, brands and publishers have allowed themselves to be indulged with what happens to customer data. “But that curtain of Oz is being pulled back. What you do and how you act makes a material difference to your brand,” he said.
In pre-2009 “things were pretty covert”, especially in the digital world. Consumers weren’t really aware of how their data was being used and they weren’t taking part in managing or curating their own data.
From 2009-11 there was maturing public awareness through social media. For the first time, people were managing their privacy settings and understood how their data was being distributed.
“Where we are now is the era of ‘Legislation and Privacy’ and for the next couple of years the discussions about privacy and honourability are not going away, they’ll pick up more pace. The revised data protection directive will soon be turned into an act by all the EU member states. I’ve summarised it in nine works ‘Show me everything. Delete Everything. Move everything.’”
He explained that while brands and their legal teams have tried to “put arms around customer data”, there’s now a legal imperative to do so. But, he added, there’s an opportunity now for greater automation and transparency, a goal brands should be working towards by 2016.
“We need greater automation because the amount of data brands and consumers are having to deal with is getting higher. Unless something is done in regards to automation and consumers being able to trust brands to make decisions for them, the signal to noise ratio will be all wrong.
“We have to go through this period now where brands earn trust and when the trust is earned consumers will be able to devolve the decision making to them.”
Mullen then briefly talked about cookie law, which came into effect earlier this year, exemplifying the way BBC handled it by giving control back to their visitors. For them, he said, it was about managing their risk profile and as we start to see more tools allowing consumers to take back control of their data this is something that brands and publishers need to consider.
Mullen concluded by stating that brands are now facing a window of opportunity where it has never been more important to become trustworthy: “You’re going to need to make deals with your legal and compliance teams, you’re going to need to assess your risk profile using the technology that’s out there. Not because you have to but because you want to improved relationships with your customers.”