Corporate brand value is hard won but easily lost. The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified that reality by exposing weak links in product and service delivery.
There are several ways to measure corporate brand value. The Gustavson Brand Trust Index (GBIT) provides one. Established in 2015 at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business, the index, which champions responsible management within organizations, promotes positive community contributions from a wide range of businesses. It measures how consumers perceive the brands corporations represent, why they choose to support or reject the products or services those corporations produce and how trust influences their decision to recommend brands to their friends and their professional and social networks. Approximately 400 brands across Canada were included in this year’s index. In addition to overall brand trust, the GBIT survey measures three aspects of trust, including corporate authenticity. Among the findings in this year’s GBIT: trust in Air Canada increased in the early part of 2020 but declined as the country’s national airline failed to issue refunds to customers when government-instituted pandemic restrictions grounded their travel plans. At the other end of the spectrum, trust in Canada’s big three telecoms increased as more Canadians became dependent on their services as the dark pandemic clouds rolled in. Trust in major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter has remained extremely low throughout the pandemic economy. Therein lies hope that verified information generated by reputable news organizations still matters more than gossip, innuendo, character assassination and trigger-happy cancel culture cowardice. Another fundamental takeaway from the GBIT index: there remains marketplace merit in authentic corporate principles that assign value to more than company profits, and that bodes well for more than Canada’s business community.
