Each week I join the ‘Your Money’ panel for a segment called Taking Stock, where we discuss the trending money news of the day.
- View this week’s episode
- Catch up on recaps
- Tune in every Tuesday evening at 7pm (Sydney local time) on free-to-air channel 95 and Foxtel channel 601
- Watch live here: https://www.yourmoney.com.au/watch/live/
This week on the show we discussed the latest Samsung advertising campaign, which uses DSLR camera shots to promote a phone camera that is incapable of capturing such snaps. The panel and I debate, ‘if it’s in the fine print, can you get away with it?’
For me, it’s a ‘no way every day’ on this one. It’s misleading and misrepresents the product. When building a brand you’re creating a feeling about that brand. A consumer’s trust for a brand will dissipate, resulting in an erosion of trust, if you promise one thing and deliver another. This example from Samsung says to me that they’re not proud of their product – if it purports to do something and it doesn’t, it’s absolutely misleading. We can’t assume that people are going to read the detail or the fine print. Legalese is not a coverall for making misleading statements to customers. Put simply, it’s not good enough.
Creating trust, building trust and keeping trust has never been more difficult. We’re collecting data faster than we ever have before, and we need to ensure we’re using this data for good – specifically when we consider the world of online retail. Trust is paramount in every business relationship. Customers must trust the person, organistaion or institution they’re engaging with – that what has been promised will be delivered. Without trust, it is really difficult to achieve great things.
Simon Sinek has often been quoted about trust in the workplace, specifically its misuse in regard to large organisations.
“Trust is a feeling, a distinctly human experience. Our instincts tell us when things are not right. So much of business is now conducted ‘online’. The Internet is an amazing tool to connect people, to spread the word quickly and also to massively increase the speed of transactions…. but what it is not good at is building relationships,” Simon Sinek.
Trust is the very premise of all relationships. At the Big Red Group, the most important thing for us to build as online brands, is trust. I learnt this really early on – that managing people’s expectations is really very important. And those thousands of businesses who deliver experiences on behalf of our brands all understand this; they’re part of the conversation – and that conversation is all about trust, respect and delivering to your customers. This attitude of ‘hide it in the fine print’ is a big reason brand credibility and character is eroding, particularly when it comes to big business. And customers won’t – and shouldn’t – stand for it.
Also published on Medium.
