In class, we learnt that Brand is the sum total of a consumer’s experience with the product, leading to Brand = Trust. On Drew’s marketing minute blog, I read a post “They’ll buy when they trust”, he proposed a equation that every business owner needs to understand: Know+Like+Trust = Buy. A customer must be able to 1) Know you you are, 2) Like who you are, 3) Trust you to make a purchase. I agree with this equation that a customer must be able to have some knowledge of your product/brand, like what you’re product is providing them and trust that your product will fulfill their needs.

 

Drew proposed,

Know = Search

If consumers can not find you, then you don’t exist.

Like = social network/blogs

Through online blogs and social networks (Facebook, Twitter), people are responding to the product and this will help shape your impression on the product.

Trust = consistency online and off .

Is the product providing you consistency and fulfilling your needs. Is it just a one time thing or can fulfill the same benefit everything you use it.

These are what I interpreted from reading Drew’s blog. After reading this, Drew speaks of products or brands as if it’s a person. It’s interesting because when you endow trust into a brand (brand loyalty), you are somewhat forming a relationship with it. If you have one bad incident with your brand (product), even though you may be forgiving because of your loyalty but you don’t give complete trust in that brand again. We can think of a relationship between a brand and a person like dating.

Trust is extremely important when it comes to branding. A company must be able to deliver its product consistently. Not only in terms of distribution channels  but the quality of the product in order to capture the consumer’s trust.