Our last post and Step 6 of our Brand Pivot series – and just as Shelter in Place is easing up across the country and the globe.
Trust. Trust is a precious asset for institutions and brands. Unfortunately, trust in institutions – governments, universities, religions and businesses – as well as trust in experts, celebrities, and influencers, continues to erode. The pandemic itself has hastened this erosion, as a never-ending supply of competing agendas, inconclusive data, erratic communication, and unverified and/or unreliable sourcing coupled with sensationalism, is added to the mix and drip fed to audiences, millions of whom are either critically at the end of their rope, or dangling from a fraying end.
Add to this, inconsistent leadership over the recent ignition of social unrest, and what constitutes consensus around a workable definition of acceptable approach to Covid containment. After this one-two punch, the populace has been increasingly turning more to peers and corporations to provide leadership at every level and for visible solutions.
With the shutting down of everything for months, that local connection, that local social circle around home, neighborhood, community, is poised to be a powerful force in post-pandemic life. While the pandemic has been a globally “shared” experience, those in your immediate vicinity have seen it played out close to home, felt its impact on family, friends, neighbors. It’s one thing to watch it on the news, see it in your social feeds, and entirely another to walk through your neighborhood, your town, your city, and actually see firsthand the toll taken. Businesses you once relied upon, supported, frequented, that were integral to the fabric of your sense of place, are altered in some way or still shuttered; many are completely gone, never to return. Some, tragically, boarded up, burned out.
Ironically, it could be an amazing time for business, particularly the micro-, small-, and medium-sized businesses and enterprises. With more than 99.9 percent of all businesses in the US classified as being “small” (fewer than 500 employees and consisting of privately held corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietorships – US Small Business Administration), they account for 30.7 million US jobs (nearly half of the US workforce), create approximately 1.5 million jobs annually, and create 64% of all new US job growth. We often inherently trust our family, friends, neighbors and community to keep us safe, to have our best interests at heart, to have our backs as we have theirs because they are within our “circle,” we know them and see, up close, how they move in the world.
Step 6. Rebuilding Brand Trust
Living and telling your brand story from a place of heart and authenticity allows you to continue building your trust capital, to contribute to your trust “reserve.” Brands focused on building trust and building trust capital before the pandemic have a head start. Both those with the head start and those just jumping into reimagining their brand have the opportunity to not only regain their pre-pandemic business momentum, but to lead the way in rebuilding and revitalizing their lives, their business, and the lives of their employees, their neighborhoods, their communities, their towns, and their cities.
Black Ink has conceptualized and implemented strategic, systemic brand culture for startups, micro- and small-to-medium businesses, and Fortune 500 companies – including through acquisitions – across a wide range of industries in both regulated and non-regulated environments. What worked in the past may no longer work in your future; Black Ink can assist you in purposing brand culture as a fundamental change management tool for organizations.