A few years ago, Unilever launched The Campaign for Real Beauty in support of its Dove Beauty Bar. The campaign highlighted an important social problem: the artificial, stylized image of beauty to which women were expected to conform. It included online videos, billboards and grassroots community events, and resonated with women everywhere.
These days, Unilever positions itself as a leader, not only in gender issues but also in responsible management. Its website includes the requisite information about its business and financial performance, but more prominently displayed are its initiatives to support young women and sustainability. Its CEO, Paul Polman, has established a global reputation for leadership in this field.
All this seems a long way from the day-to-day business of selling soap and detergents. But it isn’t, not by a long shot. Brands are increasingly interested in building an intimate bond with consumers. They want consumers to trust them.
Companies have long appreciated that to compete effectively, it is not enough to sell a product that simply does an effective job. If we go to Starbucks, we don’t just get a coffee, we are also buying the aroma, cool music and local community events. In effect, we are buying the whole Starbucks experience. Physical products have become vehicles for delivering a much broader range of benefits that satisfy a broader range of consumer needs.
But trust is a much higher bar for brands; it represents a different conception of value. If someone is to trust us, they need to believe that we are working in their interest and will take responsibility for our actions. At the University of Victoria’s Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, we believe that consumers’ trust in brands takes three forms: functional trust, relationship trust and values-based trust.
Functional trust is trust the brand does its job; it is reliable, high quality and good value. Relationship trust is consumers’ belief they will be well treated; that companies will communicate honestly with them and will respond well to their concerns. Values-based trust is a belief the brand is socially responsible, contributes to community, respects the environment or treats its employees fairly.
Earlier this year, we fielded a major study that measured more than 6,000 consumers’ trust in 276 brands, in 27 categories. We analyzed overall brand trust, each of the three kinds of trust and the likelihood consumers will recommend the brand to others. The results, just released last week, were fascinating.
As we anticipated, all three types of trust explain overall trust which, in turn, determines the likelihood that one recommends a brand. While consumers expect brands to do their job and to treat them well, they also expect brands to adhere to values of sustainability and responsibility.
Tied for first place in our study were Mountain Equipment Co-op and President’s Choice. Both brands ranked high on all three kinds of trust, with MEC’s main strength being values-based trust and President’s Choice scoring at the top on functional and relationship trust. Costco came in third, followed by Home Hardware and Shoppers Drug Mart.
There are many other interesting stories in our findings. Tesla almost squeaked into the top 10, even though few Canadians actually own one or have even been in one. Packaged-goods brands tended to do well on functional trust, and some did well on relationship trust, but values-based trust tended to be a weakness in this sector. Uber didn’t do well, perhaps because of limited actual usage, but maybe also due to poor publicity around the brand. Hotels and dairy products were the most trusted categories overall.
At the other end of the scale, the least trusted categories were gas stations, cell phone providers and soft drinks. Bringing up the rear was Volkswagen, publicly vilified in the past year for faking emission results in its diesel models.
As for Dove, that iconic Unilever brand, it came in at #29 overall – one of a select few packaged goods brands that reached the top 30. Long after the Campaign for Real Beauty, Dove still scores well on both values-based and functional trust. Real beauty is more than skin deep, as is trust. •
David Dunne is a professor and director of MBA programs at the University of Victoria’s Peter B. Gustavson School of Business
Saul Klein is dean and Lansdowne Professor of International Business at the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business
