Trust. We hear the T word everywhere. It is used about people, places, things and relationships. It is used as a verb, a noun and an adjective. Trust can be built and trust can be demolished. The former takes a long time, the latter, a heartbeat. Trust sounds like something subjective - a feeling, a sense or an experience - but, it is more than that. Trust is a process. As a process it can be deconstructed, learned and incorporated into how we build relationships between customers and brands. The challenge across all brands is to gain this illusive trust.

Research by Maister and Green reveals that when your brand has credibility, reliability, intimacy and low self-orientation - then you can expect an increase in satisfied customers and improved retention - loyal brand consumers who come back for more and tell others about their experience. If you are a commercial brand this directly translates into increased revenue and profit. Some brands understand this - best practice is displayed across a variety of sectors, this case study delves into a selection.

The e-commerce brand Naked Wines builds credibility by providing a platform to talk directly to the wine-makers. They have a superb tone of voice and a CRM system that delivers on the promised date. In financial services, LV blends online with direct contact in a seamless way. Their email marketing, social media, website and contact centre communications have a consistent tone of voice. In travel Jet2 ranks highly on Google for flights, holidays and package deals. Content is jargon-free, relevant and the brand has a consistent tone of voice across all channels. See handout

The Naked Wines loyalty program rewards "angels" (loyal investors) by discounting wine, announcing new wines to them first and holding personalised regional pop-up tastings. Customers score the wines via a blog and interact with each other. Annual group sales are up 67% earlier this year. For LV - CRM at the heart of their service offer providing each customer with an intimate and accurate experience. Debenhams also understands the trust equation. It shows uniformity of brand design across all channels and social media, which leads to credibility. See attachment for more

Credibility rates how people find you, the relevance of your content and their initial experience. Reliability measures how you communicate after your consumer's commitment and how dependable you are. Intimacy indicates how well you really know your consumer, their choices and preferences. Low self orientation refers to how well you enable consumers to freely share with others their experience with your brand. If you get a perfect balance of these factors then your brand will start to gain and build trust.