I Find the "Great Trust Offensive", well, Offensive

It often takes me a while to catch up on all the magazines, newsletters, blogs, etc. around here, but I finally got around to reading an important article in the 28 Sept issue of Business Week. Written by David Kiley and Burt Helm (available online here), the article claims that "companies as diverse as McDonald's, Ford, and American Express are revamping their marketing to win back that most valuable of corporate assets."

I don't know about you, but I get queasy when companies start trying to tell me why I should trust them.

Kiley and Helm report that "...[in] the world of branding, trust is the perishable of assets. Polling in recent months shows that increasing numbers of consumers distrust not just the obvious suspects -- the banks -- but business as a whole."

Gee, given that we're still immersed in one of the deepest recessions ever, that seems really surprising, doesn't it?

"Even before the economic meltdown, companies with trust issues began realizing they couldn't keep talking past the problem with slick television commercials," the article continues. An example the authors provide is McDonald's, which has reportedly begun working with some of its long-time critics, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). "McDonald's used its influence to force egg suppliers to raise the living standards of hens and cease debeaking them. PETA has publicly lauded the company for its efforts."

I must be getting cynical in my old age, but this sort of effort -- while, indeed, praiseworthy -- doesn't make me "trust" McDonald's any more than I did before.

Trust is multi-faceted, and once lost, as I know I've written before, not easily regained (remember that old saw: "Fool me once..."?). One of the key elements of trust is transparency, and most corporations are deeply uncomfortable with transparency (if only because it makes CYA so much more difficult). Moreover, making an active effort to build trust can easily backfire and be read as just so much more spin.

Trust, after all, isn't something that suppliers tell clients about. It's clients who reward the best suppliers with their trust.