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BeyoND TRusT
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mexico – february 2010
Brought to you by

BRANDZ BeyoND TRusT 1

Trust alone is
not sufficient.
It no longer assures sustained brand success.
Not in this post-recession world populated with
more sceptical and less acquisitive consumers.

For brands to succeed in this altered landscape,

they need to understand and respond
to consumers in new ways.

BUT HOW?

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 2

Finding the answers is the challenge that we set for
ourselves in a powerful collaboration combining the
unique and complementary capabilities of two global
consumer research and intelligence leaders – The
Futures Company and Millward Brown.
Our findings are available exclusively to WPP clients,
please ask your WPP contact for a full report
customised by country and industry.
in recent experience, that the brand continues to
perform consistently and fulfil its promise.
3. Brand success requires Trust plus
Recommendation. This equation forms an innovative
new metric, the TrustR Score, which measures
how effectively brands meet the more demanding
expectations of the post-recession consumer.

TRUST
The Futures Company anticipates changes in
consumer attitudes and behaviours that can lead
to new opportunities and value. Millward Brown
applies its in-depth knowledge of global consumers
to develop and unleash the full potential of brands.
Both are part of WPP, the world’s largest and most
comprehensive network for consumer research,
intelligence and communication.

Recently, The Futures Company discerned a

seismic shift in consumer thinking that will shape
consumption during and after the recovery.
Millward Brown made a similar discovery in the RECOMMENDATION
consumer responses that inform its proprietary
BrandZ database, the world’s largest and most
comprehensive reference for brand equity.

This combined research yielded both original

insights, which will help brands act effectively, and a
set of new metrics to measure those actions. Here is
a summary:

1. Trust remains essential. It is the customer’s belief,

cultivated over time, in the efficacy and reliability of
the brand.

SUCCESS
2. Recommendation is a separate and vital
component of the consumer-brand relationship.
Recommendation is the customer’s belief, grounded

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 3

TrustR is a powerful new tool for keeping brands
fresh and relevant during this time of transition.
We are introducing TrustR Brand Workshops
that provide this original diagnostic tool, enriched
with comprehensive analysis leading to prescriptive
actions. Complete details appear toward the end
of this report.
Success requires Trust plus
Recommendation
Forget business as usual. Forget the extreme
viewpoints, too. Reality is more complicated.
Worldwide, people are thinking differently about how
they behave and consume. The “new frugality” is not
going to happen. Frugality is a coping mechanism,
not an aspiration. Nor will we return to a period of
excess.
Risk and consequences are back
on the agenda. “Live responsibly” is
the new warning label of our lives.
This more reflective and cautious attitude has
been percolating below the surface for a while.
Consumers have felt that they had enough material
SPEN
D
goods and that the cycle of getting and spending,
which could be alternatively exhilarating and
exhausting, ultimately was unfulfilling.
The recession, with its overwhelming and shared
economic anxiety, gave consumers permission to
take a collective sign of relief and break the social
contract, to say no to indulgence, to an obsession
with luxury, and to the waste of natural resources.
In most developed markets, the recession jarred
consumers from a complacent belief in a future of
benign economic cycles where bubbles never burst.
The recession frightened consumers in developing
economies as well, because although growth
continued, it slowed dramatically. While personal
circumstances, such as loss of income, sometimes
increased consumer caution, the attitude change
mostly resulted from general insecurity.
If the recession was a wake-up call, other factors
also focused the mind. Unchecked climate change
threatened the future of the planet. Frequent stories
about Swine Flu and unsafe food reminded us that
even our daily routines were slipping away from
our control.
THIN
K
BRANDZ Beyond Trust 4
The subtext to these threats was that they were
universal and non-discriminatory, potentially affecting
all citizens of the earth regardless of national origin,
religion, economic status or any other designation.
This notion of universality and world community
received positive expression at the Beijing Olympics
and with the ascendancy of Barack Obama as a
symbol of hope.
We gathered these findings from The Futures
Company’s research in 20 countries. They indicate
that, despite some local variations, this is not the
world that consumers anywhere expected. The
economic downturn is shaping, if not defining, our
lives. Consumerism is not dead. People still aspire to
better lives. But they take a more sober view.
Trust will become more important. And consumers
will need to both trust a brand and be willing to
recommend it.
We are entering a new era of risk
and uncertainty
In a significant shift, consumers will
place greater emphasis on functional
rather than emotional reasons to
believe in a brand.
Emotional attachments to brands will not disappear.
But consumers will need more justifications for their
purchases and successful brands will need to offer a
clear functional advantage.
As we chart this new landscape, The Futures
Company has identified four global consumer
themes:
1. Consumers everywhere are re-evaluating their
attitudes toward consumption.
2. They are re-evaluating what really matters to them
and focusing on those things.
3. As they navigate through this change, consumers
are seeking support from their personal networks of
family, friends and colleagues and from the brands
with which they interact.
4. Consumers feel a greater sense of shared
responsibility and connectedness as a global society.
1. Attitudes toward consumption
People are taking their consumption decisions more
seriously, asking more questions and considering
more factors. The need for added scrutiny suggests
an erosion of trust.
Consumers seek value, the best combination of
price and quality, and are less likely to pay a premium
simply for a brand’s prestige. Similarly, consumers
are less willing to trade up and more likely to accept
good enough.
Feeling uncertain, consumers also want to minimize
risk. They respond positively to guarantees and to
opportunities to try a product before purchasing it.
To sell products and services during a period of high
BRANDZ Beyond Trust 5
 unemployment, some car companies, for example,
offered substantial refunds in the event of job loss.
In Canada, a toothpaste brand promised to refund the
purchase price if the buyer’s dental bills did not decline.
Consumers still want quality and are willing to pay
for it. However, they are less likely to simply accept
the claim of quality without proof that a product is
somehow different and better and worth a premium.
Implications:
• Consumers are beginning to apply the same scrutiny
whether they’re purchasing a tube of toothpaste or a
car.
• Trust can streamline decision making and therefore
command a premium. But as consumers behave
more critically, trust alone is not enough to sustain
brand loyalty. And simply ratcheting up the trust level
of a brand may not lead to recommendation.
• To achieve recommendation, trust must be
accompanied by a rational underpinning, a level of
value and performance that provides the assurance
the customer needs to recommend the brand
comfortably without looking foolish.
• In the past, consumers might have recommended
brands they did not trust – in the luxury category, for
example. Today’s more sceptical consumers are less
likely to recommend brands that they do not trust.
• While trust may not require verbal expression,
recommendation by definition involves
communication. And consumers are more likely to
recommend a brand when the brand has crystallized
the brand experience and supplied the language for
expressing it.
2. Focusing on what matters
Consumers everywhere are re-examining their
priorities. More than half of all consumers surveyed
by The Futures Company in the United States
said that the economic climate has caused them
to reconsider what’s important to them. A similar
percent of our respondents in China answered the
same way.
Consumers want balance. Although
they have not abandoned their interest
in acquiring quality products and
services, that desire is complemented
by a growing regard for simple
pleasures and enriching experiences.
At the same time, the perception that governments
failed to adequately anticipate and respond to the
economic crisis has convinced consumers worldwide
that they need to be more self reliant and assert
control over their lives. They increasingly resist paying
for purchases with short-term debt.
Implications:
• The disenchantment consumers feel about
government and large institutions extends to trust in
brands. Brands need to be especially careful about
sustaining trust in this context.
• The price-value equation will receive extra scrutiny
today. It projects the level of a brand’s honesty and
integrity. Unfair pricing will erode trust in a brand and
prevent consumers from recommending it.
• Providing a brand experience that the consumer feels
comfortable recommending both strengthens the
bond with the consumer and satisfies the consumer’s
need to feel in control.
BRANDZ Beyond Trust 6
 3. looking for support
With the erosion of trust in government and
institutions, consumers seek reassurance and
support from family and friends. Despite the
exponential growth of social networking, we
found that 87 percent of the consumers we
interviewed worldwide believe that having a small
number of reliable friends is much more important
than maintaining an extensive contact list of
acquaintances.
Consumers expect brands to be
4. sharing Responsibility
The economic crisis, and the disappearance of
individual and family wealth, dislodged belief in a
social order where brain or brawn – leveraged with
enterprise and credentials or connections – could
guarantee material success. Suddenly, life seemed
random.
Global warming, pandemics and other disasters,
once dismissed as abstract and remote, became
imminent possibilities leaving consumers feeling
humbled and interconnected by their common
humanity and helplessness.

forthright about what they stand for Implications:

and to stand for something greater • Brands achieve the deepest levels of trust and
than a commercial proposition. recommendation when they genuinely fulfil
commercial needs while also demonstrating a
sense of human interconnectedness that respects
They prefer brands that embrace individuals and the planet.
the same qualities – honesty,
genuineness, reliability – that they for brands, the bar is raised
value in their friends. much higher.
In addition, consumers feel positively about brands
that exhibit leadership because, amid uncertainty,
these brands provide welcomed stability and
direction. Heritage continues to drive trust as well,
but only if it is genuine and affirmed by current
experience.

GENUINE
Implications:

• Because consumers value the honesty and

ARTICLE
genuineness of close friendship, brands have an
opportunity to strengthen trust by manifesting those
values.

• In this era, when sceptical consumers are more likely

to trust only themselves and small groups of family
of friends, being a brand that consumers are willing
to recommend becomes an especially significant
marker of brand loyalty.

BRANDZ BeyoND TRusT 7

TrustR Why Recommendation?

strengthens the When it comes to purchasing decisions, trust alone

is not enough. Trust is a state of mind. It’s how we

bond between think or feel about a brand. It is about our history

with a brand and how that brand has treated us over

customer and time. Recommendation is more about action. It is a

reaction to our recent experiences with a brand. By

brand recommending a brand we demonstrate and affirm

our deep trust in it.

In fact, we discovered that the bond is 50 percent

stronger among brands that consumers say they Why TrustR?
both trust and recommend. And a stronger bond
Because, as this study discovers, a deep bond
leads to greater sales.
with the customer requires both Trust and
Recommendation. By measuring Trust and
Why Trust? Recommendation, TrustR enables brand owners and
agencies to understand and manage their brands
Trust is a state of deep belief and assurance. On its relative to the competition.
most basic level it is about absolute reliability. Our
trust in the laws of nature, in the unending sequence
of days following nights, gives us the stability and
predictability we require for daily living. We set a
similar standard of unequivocal trustworthiness for
the brands that touch our lives most closely.

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 8

 We created TrustR range of scores
This chart enables you to quickly see how your brand

TrustR from compares in the distribution of TrustR scores among

all brands studied. A score of 105 or higher (red) is

global consumer above average.

TrustR range of scores

research 120+

115 to 119
1%

3%
27% of brands
The research is contained in the proprietary BrandZ achieve scores
110 to 114 8% of 105 or higher
database, which tracks thousands of brands in over
105 to 109 16%
30 countries and includes more than a million in-
depth consumer interviews. 100 to 104 24%

95 to 99 25%
Established 12 years ago by Millward Brown, BrandZ
provides a detailed and quantified understanding of 90 to 94 15%
consumer decision-making worldwide.
85 to 89 6%

We analysed consumer responses to two questions: 80 to 84 1%

79 or less 1%
• How trustworthy is this brand?

• Would you recommend this brand?

We then created an index for each of these

measures, which produced a Trust score and
a Recommendation score for each brand. By
combining these scores and dividing by two we
arrived at each brand’s TrustR score.

The average TrustR score is 100. A

good score is 105 or more. A poor
score is 94 or less.
To make the scores comparable country-to-country,
we normalised them to account for local variations in
the way people respond.

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 9

High TrustR TrustR and Brand Value
The points on this chart represent the BrandZ Top 100

drives brand Most Valuable Global Brands, arranged in groups of

five and plotted according to their financial value. As

value TrustR scores increase (moving right on the horizontal

axis), average brand value grows (moving up the vertical
axis). The curved line illustrates this positive correlation
Every year, we combine the BrandZ database with between high TrustR and financial value.
relevant corporate financial data to produce the
BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, the
most authoritative annual brand valuation ranking.

The TrustR Global Top 10

These are the TrustR Global Top 10 brands ranked
according to their TrustR score. Most of these brands
To download your free copy of the BrandZ Top 100 Most also rank among the 50 most valuable brands in the
Valuable Brands report, go to www.brandz.com or get the world, based on our definitive BrandZ data.
free iPhone app from iTunes.
TrustR Global Top 10
One of the most important and useful findings from
Brand Score
BrandZ is that brands with the highest financial value
also are likely to be highly trusted and recommended. Pampers 121

Tide 117
In fact, when we calculated the TrustR scores of the
Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, the positive Amazon 116
correlation between a high TrustR score and brand Google 116
value became startlingly clear.
Visa 116

This correlation between brand value FedEx 116

and TrustR is more than incidental. China Mobile 115

Trust and Recommendation drive Nokia 115

incremental brand value. Toyota 112

Colgate 111

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 10

High TrustR TrustR and Brand Personality
Compared with all brands (the blue shaded area), TrustR

drives brand leaders (the blue line) tend to be much more creative,
playful, fun, adventurous and desirable as well as wise,
TrustR and Brand Personality
sales assertive and in control.

Playful

s
Along with their high financial value, brands that

rou
Brav
Re

Fu n

ntu
be
score high in TrustR have functional and emotional

e
llio

ve
attributes that draw customers and drive sales.

Ad
us
le
Se ir ab
xy
D es
Functionally, for example, 35 percent of consumers
I n no c ive
believe that the TrustR leaders have a positive ent Creat
brand promise, which is 13 percent greater than the
response for brands in general. Different Wise

Ass
Consumers also are drawn to high TrustR brands
ali stic er t i
ve
because of their distinctive brand personalities. Ide
In
nd Co
Compared to brands in general, TrustR leaders Ki nt
ro
l

Str
exhibit more vibrant, imaginative and dramatic
ing

Friendly
us

aig
Car

personalities. G enero

htf
orw
ard
TrustR and Brand Functionality
This chart reveals the many functional ways that
consumers are more drawn to brands high in TrustR
compared with brands overall.

Top 10 Global vs Average

Seen communications 36% +22

Unaided awareness 1st mention 25% +20

Positive brand promise 35% +13

Definitely consider 25% +18

Searched for information 18% +9

Bought last 24% +18

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 11

 High TrustR lifts The TrustR leaders by country
These are the Number 1 TrustR brands by country.

brands in all Some are global. Others are local. All share a powerful
brand-customer bond.

countries Number 1 TrustR brand by country

The positive impact of TrustR becomes especially Country Brand Score

clear in the performance of the TrustR leaders.
Australia Colgate 126
Across the 22 countries studied, the Number1 TrustR
brand enjoys these advantages: Brazil Porto Seguro 121

Canada Toyota 119

• The brand-customer bond is 10 times greater
than the average brand-customer bond. China Nokia 124

Czech Republic Microsoft 121

• The brand is nearly seven times more likely to
be purchased. France Pampers 128

Germany Pampers 129

• The brand shows a high likelihood of short-term,
market-share growth. Hungary Nokia 126

India Surf Excel 122

Brands that score high in TrustR may trade in one
country or many countries. They may be global – Italy Nokia 129
or not. But they share one quality in common.
Japan Toyota 123
They are leaders.
Korea Cheju SamDaSoo 126

Brands that score high in TrustR Mexico Colgate 118

may trade in one country or many Netherlands Douwe Egberts 122

countries. They may be global – or Poland Nokia 127

not. But they share one quality in Russia Nokia 125

common. They are leaders. Spain Lindt 118

Sweden Nokia 117

Taiwan Nokia 120

Thailand Nokia 124

UK Pampers 124

USA Amazon.com 123

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 12

Not all Two findings are immediately apparent:

categories are 1. The category effect is a function both of the

category itself and the demographics of the

created equal category’s predominant consumer.

2. A strong brand can – and often does – outperform

Not when it comes to TrustR scores. Consumers
see certain categories as more worthy of Trust or
Recommendation and other as less worthy.
This consumer preconception produces a category
effect that influences brand TrustR scores.
consumer preconceptions of its category.
The category effect on the TrustR score becomes
especially clear when categories are plotted on a
four-quadrant chart.

Recommendation

• Baby
• Laundry
• Luxury
• Cars
• Spirits
• Coffee • Personal Care
• Mobile Operators
• Beer • Apparel • Bottled water
• Confectionery • Tobacco • Insurance
• Airlines
Trust

• Retail

• Soft Drinks
• Game consoles
• Financial • Technology
• Motor Fuel
• Fast Food

TrustR expectations vary by product category

Consumers expect the highest TrustR scores in
categories that require uncompromised reliability,
such as baby care and airlines. For brands in those
categories, which appear in the top right quadrant of
this chart, the main challenge is meeting expectations.
In other quadrants, brands are challenged to exceed
category expectations. The influence of the consumer
demographic on TrustR is apparent in game consoles.
Whether a product is worthy of Trust or Recommendation
is less important that whether it's fun.

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 13

STRONG BRANDS consumer preference for retail own-label products,
which are seen as offering a real value combination

OUT PERFORM THEIR of price and quality.

CATEGORY Because retail brands generally lack prestige,

however, consumers are reluctant to recommend
them. Addressing and overcoming this reluctance
Some categories, such as soft drinks and fast foods, offers retail bands an enormous and realistic
score poorly on both Trust and Recommendation. opportunity to out perform their category.

Consumers indulge in soft drinks and fast food, of

course, but knowing that they are not the best health Retailers that can achieve both
choices consumers do not place high trust in these
products and are reluctant to recommend them.
Trust and Recommendation
will gain the competitive
While these category preconceptions create a TrustR
disadvantage, brand power makes a difference.
advantage of a high TrustR score.
In this sense, Coca Cola and McDonald’s are
overachievers. Despite the fact that soft drinks
and fast food are ranked low on both Trust and
Recommendation, Coke and McDonald’s rank third
and fifth, respectively, in the BrandZ Most Valuable
Global Brands 2009.

A similar dynamic is at work in categories such as

luxury, spirits, beer, apparel and tobacco, which
consumers are likely to recommend despite a
relatively low Trust score. While the low Trust
score may reflect the fact that these categories
are non-essential and do not require the highest
levels of Trust, the desire to be associated with
a brand’s prestige status may produce a high
Recommendation score.

Again, a strong brand can, and usually does,

outperform its category. A leading luxury brand, for
example, would score relatively high on both Trust
and Recommendation and be more likely to achieve
a high TrustR score.

Retail offers a particularly interesting insight into the

opposite situation, a category that inspires trust but
whose brands are not highly recommended. The
data suggests that consumers trust retail brands. In
fact, these days consumers may trust the financial
services of a retailer more than those of a bank.
This high level of Trust is reflected in increasing

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 14

 TrustR in Mexico

TRUSTR IN MEXICO The Mexico TrustR Top 10

Brand TrustR

The Mexican ranking reflects the influence of global Colgate 118

brands and of the country’s northern neighbour.
Visa 117

Global brand Colgate leads the TrustR ranking and Sam’s Club 117
US-based Sam’s Club is Number 1 in Trust. Both
Sam’s Club and its corporate parent, Walmart are Wal-Mart 115
ranked among the TrustR Top 10. Mary Kay 115

Other global brands in the rankings include Visa Bonafont 114

(credit card), at Number 2 in TrustR, as well as Nokia
Telcel 114
(mobile phones) at Number 9. Sony Ericksson (mobile
phones) and Coca Cola (soft drinks) receive strong Nokia 113
Recommendation scores.
Microsoft 112

The U.S. influence also is indicated by the strong Nescafé Clasico 112
TrustR score of Mary Kay, the cosmetics brand, and
by the high Trust score achieved by Chevrolet, the
only car brand included in the Mexican rankings.

The presence of Walmart and Sam’s Club indicates

that the brands outperformed the retail category,
which generally ranks poorly in Recommendation
and does not typically appear in the TrustR rankings.
Since entering Mexico in the early 1990s, these two
brands have established retail industry leadership in a
country market that had been extremely fragmented.

That said, the Mexican grocer Chedraui appears in

the Trust ranking. In fact, despite the strong influence
of global and US brands, these two Mexican brands
rank among the TrustR Top 10 – Bonafont (mineral
water) and Telcel (telecoms).

Available Categories
Based on the available BrandZ data, these categories are included in TrustR study for
Mexico : Apparel, Banking/Financial Transactions, Beers, Body Care, Cars, Coffee,
Confectionery, Credit Card Networks, Credit Card Providers, Face Care, Fast Food,
Fragrances, Grocery Stores, Hair Care, Insurance, IT Hardware & Peripherals, IT
Software & Gaming, Mineral Water, Mobile Phone Handsets, Oral Care, Soft Drinks,
Telecoms Mobile Operators, Tobacco.

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 15

 TrustR in Mexico

The Mexico Trust Top 10 Brand Strength Pyramid

Brand Score
Consumers form relationships with brands. The
Sam’s Club 124 character and intensity of these multifaceted
relationships influences brand loyalty and impacts
Visa 120
sales.
Wal-Mart 120
The assessment tool for measuring this brand
Colgate 118
strength is the brand pyramid, which was developed
Chevrolet 118 as part of the BrandZ protocol for determining brand
equity and value. It arranges five facets of the brand-
Banamex 118
consumer relationship into a hierarchy. Starting at the
Chedraui 117 bottom of the pyramid, the levels are:

Bonafont 117
Presence: How aware of the brand are consumers?
Microsoft 116
Relevance: Does the brand fill an important need?
Mary Kay 116

Performance: Does the brand fulfil its promise?

Advantage: Is the brand better than its competition in

The Mexico Recommendation Top 10 any way?

Brand Score
Bonding: Is the brand best among its peers?
Colgate 119
TrustR and Brand Strength
Sony Ericsson 116
In every country studied for this “Beyond Trust” report,
Telcel 114 the pyramid measuring the consumer-brand relationship
of TrustR leaders was wider and sturdier than the
Mary Kay 114
pyramid for brands overall.
Visa 113

Pantene 113 Top 10 Mexico Average Mexico

Coca Cola 113 Bonding 22% 4%

Nokia 113 Advantage 46% 23%

Bonafont 112 Performance 50% 33%

L’Oreal Revitalift 112 Relevance 55% 40%

Presence 69% 53%

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 16

 TrustR in Mexico : the Hair Care (Shampoo/Conditioner) Category

TrustR for Hair

Successful brands can change. Successful brands
chart their own destiny.

Care (Shampoo/
Conditioner) in The TrustR Scores

Mexico
This chart ranks brands according to their TrustR
score. TrustR is sum of the Trust and Recommendation
scores divided by two. In general, Trust measures
Every brand inherits the TrustR expectations of its how consumers feel about a brand over time, while
category. Recommendation reflects recent brand performance.

For some categories the TrustR expectation is high Hair Care (Shampoo/Conditioner) Ranked by TrustR Score
(airlines). For others it’s low (fast food).
Brand Trust Recommended TrustR

For a brand, the category expectation Pantene 103 113 108

is equivalent to the life circumstances Tresemmé 99 109 104

that individuals inherit at birth. It’s the Pert Plus 97 107 102

starting point. It’s not destiny. Head & Shoulders 96 108 102

Fructis 94 108 101

Brands determine their destiny by how they work
with the hand they’ve been dealt. Some brands face Palmolive Optims 97 101 99
the challenge of meeting high expectations, of not
Sedal 95 104 99
disappointing. For other brands success requires
exceeding expectations, overachieving. Herbal Essences 93 106 99

Vanart 98 97 97
To maximize the TrustR potential of a brand, look at
the charts provided on this page and start by asking Caprice 83 104 94
these questions:

1. What is the TrustR expectation for the brand’s

category?

2. How does the brand score relative to the

expectation for the category?

3. How does the competition score?

4. If the brand is not achieving its TrustR potential,

why?

5. What can be done?

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 17

The Competive view of Trust and Recommendation
This chart plots the TrustR scores. Trust is tracked on the
horizontal axis. The most trusted brands appear furthest
to the right. Recommendation is tracked on the vertical
axis and brands scoring well in this dimension appear
high in the chart.

Recommendation

• Pantene

Tresemmé
•
Fructis • • Head & Shoulders
•
Herbal Essences • Pert Plus
• Caprice Sedal •

Palmolive Optims •
Trust

Vanart •

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 18

How does your
brand measure
up?
Do today’s consumers consider the
brand worthy of both Trust AND
Recommendation?
No matter how good a job you’re doing, there are
probably some gaps. Consumers have changed
– dramatically. This report analyses how and why.
And it begins to offer some prescriptive advice for
constructively dealing with the unprecedented levels
of scepticism and apprehension.
We are at an inflection point.
Unsettled by the deep recession, consumers are
scrutinizing brands like never before.
Routine responses will not work.
That is why we created TrustR – to yield fresh
consumer insights that point brand marketers to
new and effective strategies and actions. And that
is why we are introducing TrustR exclusively to WPP
clients in comprehensive and affordable one-day
workshops.
TrustR Brand Workshops
A workshop will help you identify new ways to
increase the levels of Trust and Recommendation of
your brand. The day will begin with an assessment
of your brand in the context of today’s consumer and
end with suggested action items for increasing both
Trust and Recommendation. Experts from Millward
Brown and The Futures Company will…
• Provide a brand audit based on your BrandZ data
and that of your competitors.
• Share our analysis of your current performance.
• Analyse your competitors to reveal where they may
have advantages.
• Look at your category, and others, to extract
innovations and best practices.
Then we will sift this information to begin the process
of helping your brand to succeed in this new era of
risk and uncertainty.
If your brand or your competitors’ brand are not
currently tracked in the BrandZ database, we would
be pleased to arrange for a custom study.
The workshop, organised by Grey Group, will be
tailored to meet your specific needs and will be
totally confidential. It will draw on the unique insights
and capabilities of Millward Brown and The Futures
Company along with the full global brand research
and communication capabilities of WPP.
We designed the workshops to be an efficient and
effective investment of time and money.
For further information and to arrange for a workshop
appointment, please contact Christian Krikorian at
Grey Group. We hope to see you at a workshop
soon.
BRANDZ Beyond Trust 19
Take Aways
Power accrues to a brand when it is both highly
trusted and much recommended. That distinction will
be elusive in the recovering marketplace where both
Trust and Recommendation are being tested. Here
are some specific actions that help.
To be worthy of trust
1. With today’s high level of consumer scrutiny, it is
imperative to be consistent about the promises the
brand makes and to make only promises the brand
can keep.
2. Communicate about the brand simply, clearly and
honestly. Stand for values that are important to the
communities you serve. People will believe in your
brand only if it believes in more than itself.
3. Constantly renew the brand, keep it relevant and
infuse current activities with the time-tested values
and authority that form brand heritage. Then be sure
that the brand consistently performs up to these
expectations.
To be worthy of recommendation
1. Be true to the brand’s character. People
recommend brands that are unique, special and
honest.
2. Earn it. Everyday. Customers may trust your brand
because of history, but hesitate to recommend it.
Recommendation is based on current performance,
on actual customer experience with the brand.
3. Offer innovation that differentiates the brand in a
genuine way and converts the customer into a willing,
even proactive, advocate for the brand.
4. Make it easy for customers to recommend you by
crystallizing the brand’s proposition and expressing it
in clear and compelling language.
5. Assign Recommendation a high priority.
Build it into your organization as a performance
measurement across all relevant departments and
disciplines.

4. Profit and principle are interdependent not mutually

exclusive. Principles protect profitability long term.
Profitability turns principles into action. And in today’s
world, trust requires both.

5. Help your customers manage their uncertainty by

being respectful of their needs, reducing risk and,
at every touch point, providing the leadership and
integrity they seek.

BRANDZ Beyond Trust 20

FOR MORE
INFORMATION
Contact
Christian Krikorian
Interactive Manager
55551844
ckrikorian@grey.com.ar

Grey Buenos Aires

Velasco 845

Br ought to you by
wpp is a world leader in marketing
communications.
WPP companies, which include some of the most
eminent agencies in the business, provides global,
multinational and local clients with:
Advertising · Media Investment Management ·
Information, Insights & Consultancy ·
Public Relations & Public Affairs · Branding & Identity
· Healthcare Communications ·
Direct, Digital, Promotion & Relationship Marketing ·
Specialist Communications
Collectively, WPP employs 131,000 people
(including associates) in more than 2,000 offices in
107 countries. Clients include
more than 330 of the Fortune Global 500, over half
of the NASDAQ 100 and over 30
of the Fortune e-50.
A complete list of WPP companies and
a searchable directory is available at:
www.wpp.com/wpp/companies
EWA
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For further information contact David Roth
david.roth@wpp.com
BRANDZ BeyoND TRusT 22