コロナ禍で試されるブランドへの信頼
Back in January 2019, iProspect released its Future Focus annual report featuring the Search for Trust in the Digital Economy as the central theme. The research presented in this report clearly demonstrated that in the digital economy, trust was not an issue, it was the issue: 88% of marketers declared trust would be a priority in 2019, 76% stated trust was important to keep consumers buying their brand, and 72% believed brands should be socially active and vocal about their actions. Our research underlined the three key components of our “Trust Equation” for measuring trust. - Credibility: the much-needed compass in the Age of Doubt - Relevance: the key factor to emerge in the Age of Noise - Reliability: the token of quality in the Age of Convenience Trust = Credibility + Relevance + Reliability Now, fifteen months later, trust could hardly be more crucial. Although we all long to resume our pre-pandemic lives, 4.5 billion of us are still confined in our homes. Misinformation about COVID-19 is so prevalent that the World Health Organization had to warn against the “Infodemic” risk in its situation report. And as we are more dependent on online services for communications (Microsoft Teams has now more than 44 million daily active users), entertainment (twitch.tv sessions increased by 19.7% in two months) and replenishment, the reliability of IT infrastructure and last-mile delivery logistics has been challenged at unprecedented levels. In this uncertain context, trust is paramount for brands to preserve their customer relationships and to attract new consumers to their products and services. In this article, we will showcase some insightful initiatives brands took in response to the pandemic to support their customers and maintain consumer trust in their brands. Credibility In the Trust Equation, we defined Credibility as the capacity to be perceived as competent and legitimate. In the context of the pandemic particularly, it is critical for companies to be clearly identified as sources of truth. This is not limited to brand communications: in these difficult times, corporate decisions affecting employees, general public, shareholders and public bodies are also closely monitored by customers and play an important part in the company’s perceived credibility. First and foremost, credibility is about providing helpful advice to consumers, as demonstrated by the security software specialist Kaspersky, which provides clear actionable tips for people to protect themselves from cybercriminals when they are the most vulnerable. Credibility also involves dispelling harmful misinformation spreading on social platforms, as illustrated by the recent clarification by Reckitt Benckiser about improper usages of their products (Lysol and Dettol). Streaming a lot of TV shows and movies to get you through the weekend? Be sure to only use trusted resources. With people spending more time online, cybercriminals have been busily devising new opportunities to spread malware or steal personal data: https://t.co/uAqT6iN3v7 pic.twitter.com/I89nWhGNTe — Kaspersky (@kaspersky) April 7, 2020 Reminder: Lysol disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as directed and in line with usage guidelines pic.twitter.com/yPVhvINxbU — Lysol (@Lysol) April 24, 2020 In times of crisis, signalling is also particularly important for credibility, and we see many brands stepping up their game to help consumers make the right decisions for themselves. It can be about pointing users to the right content, for instance, Google added a ‘teacher approved’ section to its app store for apps vetted by a panel of 200+ teachers across the United States, so that parents can easily find quality educational apps for their children. Signallig can be about making it easier for users to signal themselves, too. The dating app Bumble added the option for users open to virtual dates to let others know through a badge. Credibility can take many forms. In the insurance industry where trust is essential, we see many brands returning value to customers who may not need all the insurance products at the moment. For instance, as people are driving less due to the confinement measures, and as car insurance premiums are established on the likelihood of accidents, insurers like State Farm have announced they will automatically give policy credits to most customers. Other brands have taken steps to not only support the end users of their products, but also other stakeholders of their industry. For instance, SoundCloud, a multi-sided platform that connects creators and listeners, has announced specific actions to support creators through increased promotion of their work, free of charge. @SoundCloud has stepped up support for its creator community amid the COVID-19 pandemic by unveiling a new $15 million set of initiatives.https://t.co/GHcPseStU9 — MusicTech (@MusicTechMag) April 3, 2020 Relevance Credibility alone isn’t sufficient for creating trust. In our Trust Equation, we defined Relevance as the capacity to resonate with consumers. In the attention economy, consumers expect individually tailored solutions, accessible when and where they want them. In the context of confinement, relevance includes brands finding ways to bring value in the daily monotony, helping their customers entertaining themselves or their kids, being more productive, staying healthy and simply fulfilling basic needs. Credibility can take the form of new content or services that provide people with relevant support through relevant channels. For instance, Netflix has launched a new series on Instagram Live to discuss challenges teenagers face during the health crisis and starring cast members of young adult series available on the platform. In India, Mexico, Japan and Brazil, Amazon customers can check their symptoms or their risk level at home through their Alexa-compatible devices, which source information directly from local health authorities. As many large gatherings have been cancelled for the rest of 2020, Fortnite is recreating live concerts in its virtual world. From April 23 to April 25, the platform transformed into a live venue for an exclusive concert of the hip-hop artist Travis Scott, attracting more than 12 million viewers. And when people do need to go outside, brands like Lush provide them with new services. In the UK, the brand lets anyone wash their hands in-store for free. View this post on Instagram today at 4pm PT / 7pm ET — understanding and adapting your self care needs can be really challenging when you’re in quarantine. Noah will be interviewing Dr. Ken Duckworth from @namicommunicate to discuss self care and how it may look for different types of people. So...do you Wanna Talk About It? A post shared by Netflix US (@netflix) on Apr 9, 2020 at 12:58pm PDT For many companies, relevance in times of crisis also means supporting health and essential workers. However, genuine association is important so that it can provide real value to the workers. In the UK, the beauty brand UpCircle Beauty has been offering workers from the National Health Service some care packages, which they can easily request through a simple form. In France, Doctolib, a scheduling service for health practitioners, has waived fees for doctors to use the virtual consultation service, and in doing so, helped reduce the pressure on hospitals. In Italy, physicians partnered with Isinnova, a technology startup that turns a snorkeling mask into a ventilator. The sporting goods retailer manufacturing the original mask, Decathlon, immediately provided technical assistance and since then have withdrawn their masks from sale so they can donate them. Brands without a genuine association connecting what they offer in normal times and the immediate needs of health and essential workers should be very cautious venturing into initiatives far-fetched from their core competency, which could be perceived as opportunistic. As a nation, we’ve probably never been more indebted to our NHS. So, at UpCircle, we’d like to do our bit to support them. It could be a friend, colleague or family member. Just send them the link below – and we’ll get posting our care packages out!https://t.co/2JyWC4b71o pic.twitter.com/1D44MDJRLv — UpCircle Beauty (@upcirclebeauty) March 27, 2020 Reliability The last variable of the Trust equation is Reliability, which we define as the capacity to provide an experience that consistently and conveniently meets customer expectation during every interaction with a brand. A brand can be seen as an expert and be highly relevant in the eyes of consumers, but if its website loads slowly, a package is lost, or the payment crashes mid-transaction, consumers won’t fully trust this brand for their purchases. In the context of the pandemic where people need to be reassured, it is important for brands to be transparent about what they can and cannot do, to not overpromise and to find alternative ways to keep serving their customers. For many brands, it starts with relieving customers from worries associated with deliveries and returns. For instance, Office Depot has updated their return policy as follows: “For the health and safety of our associates and customers, Office Depot and OfficeMax stores have stopped accepting returns or exchanges of any product through May 3rd. We realize you may have returns that expire during this period, so we’re extending the normal return deadline by two weeks to accommodate your needs.” Through simple terms, the company explains the reason behind their decision and provides clear steps for customers. To cope with additional demand, Amazon has decided to put new Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods delivery and pickup customers on invitation-based waitlists, has reserved the first hour of pickup delivery for shoppers 60 years and older, and announced a new feature allowing customers to secure time to shop through a virtual “place in line.” In Singapore, KFC offers both contactless delivery and contactless takeaway options in an effort to alleviate consumers’ sanitation concerns. Reliability also means minimising disruptions for consumers. To do so, some brands are rethinking their product launch calendar. Disney released Frozen 2 to Disney+ three months ahead of schedule to help parents keep their children entertained. Others reflect upon logistics to support solidarity: Walmart and Nextdoor announced the “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” partnership through which Nextdoor members can now request assistance – or offer to help someone in their community – with shopping for their essential items at Walmart. This initiative helps vulnerable people coordinate the pickup of their groceries with a neighbor who is already planning a trip to their local store. “That could be potentially life-saving for low-income community members who can’t risk shopping in a store during the coronavirus pandemic, but who also struggle to afford alternatives like online grocery.” More on our @Walmart partnership via @TechCrunch: https://t.co/UzYrJAuL4U — Nextdoor (@Nextdoor) April 23, 2020 Industries such as Hospitality have been hit particularly hard by confinement measures. However, brands like Hilton have found ways to indirectly keep serving their customers: DoubleTree by Hilton has shared the official bake-at-home recipe for the brand’s chocolate chip cookie. Similar initiatives from IKEA in the UK (Swedish meatball recipe) or Burger King in France (instructions for homemade Whopper) have been launched. Although they will never replace the experience that goes alongside the originals, these little attentions demonstrate situational awareness and care from these brands in these challenging times for their customers. En attendant l'original. pic.twitter.com/BehZf0qBFQ — Burger King France (@BurgerKingFR) March 30, 2020 Missing your IKEA meatball fix? We’ve created a recipe for you to recreate this delicious dish in the comfort of your own home #IKEAmeatballs pic.twitter.com/d89lRsJxH7 — IKEA UK (@IKEAUK) April 20, 2020 Consumer trust will be one of the keys to recovery Now more than ever, it is fundamental for brands to deliver against each component of the Trust Equation - Credibility, Relevance and Reliability – if they are to hold consumer confidence for the short term and the long term. Nurturing trust is a constant endeavour, yet one that can be derailed in a fraction of a second. This is especially true in the digital age, where social platforms act as catalysts for spreading information, and search engines are permanent collective memory. However, the company that demonstrates integrity in its intent and transparency in its actions will be able to build trust with its customers in the long term. Through it all, clear, timely communications play a vital role in earning and keeping consumer trust. Those brands that are grounded in credibility, relevance, and reliability will be well positioned for faster recovery in the months and years ahead. - iProspect constantly monitors the impact on COVID-19 on brands and work with partners to support clients with the most up-to-date actions to ensure business continuity. 0
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One of the most important considerations in building experiences that truly capture attention is to make sure everyone feels included. It may sound obvious but is yet to be a reality for many population groups, despite their growing economic influence (in the US alone, the buying power of racial and ethnic minority groups is close to four trillion dollars). Like attention, diversity and inclusivity should not be taken for granted and require continuous effort. Brands have a critical role to play in that space. According to dentsu and SeeHer, 81% of US consumers agree media plays a crucial role in shaping gender roles, but less than a third (32%) think media usually portray women accurately. A pivotal moment in time 2020 has been pivotal in allowing many to realise for the first time the disparities endured by minorities. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit minorities hardest and several tragedies in the US such as the murder of George Floyd have spotlighted systemic discrimination against people of colour. The global public outrage that followed made waves across all aspects of society, including consumption, through movements such as #BlackoutDay2020, and brands, with many major companies publicly confronted for the lack of diversity in their boards. Brands can no longer neglect diversity and inclusivity. It may lead to uncomfortable realisations, difficult conversations and mistakes along the way, but embracing inclusivity is now an imperative for brands to become or stay relevant to population groups that have been overlooked for too long. There has been progress, but the road to diversity and inclusivity is still long. According to the iProspect 2020 Global Client Survey, 96% of marketers now believe inclusive marketing is important, most of them (63%) seeing it both as a moral imperative and a business opportunity. Interestingly, the percentage of marketers who believe it is only important for the business potential it represents is decreasing (-7% YOY), while the percentage of respondents seeing it as important solely on moral grounds is increasing in the same proportion. It could be a sign that more companies are growing more comfortable with embracing a societal role. Reflecting on the campaigns they ran over the last six months, 55% of marketers declare they featured people from a different ethnicity/caste than the dominant one in their market at least once in a positive way. This increasing figure (+3% YOY) could hint that the increasing visibility of movements like Black Lives Matter progressively change perceptions and actions around social justice. However, not all population groups follow the same trend. For instance, we observe the percentage moving down for people with disabilities (-4%), which makes them underrepresented compared to the global share of people living with some form of disability (15%). These figures show that, although inclusive marketing is gaining traction, there is still a lot left to do to improve the visibility of minorities in media and advertising and to build authentic stories that accurately reflect minorities’ experiences. Although there is no inclusive silver bullet, there is definitely a starting place: the diversity within the organisation. Building inclusive marketing campaigns requires inclusive marketing teams wherein diverse voices can be heard. This is a sine qua non condition for brands to resonate with all their potential customers. The fight against bias Bias is everywhere in society, and technology and data are no exception. Far from being neutral, technology and data can perpetuate and exacerbate disparities, prejudice, and discriminatory patterns. Many fields at the core of data marketing can be subject to bias, from insights to algorithms to targeting and performance analysis. However, tackling bias is a difficult challenge as it can appear in many forms and on multiple occasions. It can be intentional (e.g., a decision to exclude a certain ethnic group from a campaign) or unintentional (e.g., combining multiple data targeting dimensions such as income and location that could de facto exclude minorities living in certain areas). It can play out at an individual level (e.g., due to the personal values of an employee) or at a company level (e.g., due to a lack of diversity in a product development team). It can stem from organizational inertia, negligence, or ignorance. (e.g., if a community was never targeted by the brand, a predictive model using historical data can incorrectly conclude the community is less likely to purchase its products and thus that the brand should not target this community in the future). It can emerge from within or be imported into the organisation (e.g., by using incomplete or poor-quality data from third parties). It can be a combination of the factors listed above and more, which makes bias detection even harder. Because of the omnipresence of bias across organisations, it is crucial for companies to actively seek to identify and eliminate bias through various, overlapping strategies. According to the iProspect 2020 Global Client Survey, a majority (52%) of marketing teams are now diverse and inclusive (+9% YOY). This is an important milestone as minority groups should not only be visible in consumer personas, but also around the marketing table. Guidelines and best practices on diversity and inclusion are the second option favoured by brands (44%), followed by multidisciplinary bias training (32%, +8% YOY). From the results, it seems that brands are increasingly concentrating their efforts on the people within the organisation (e.g., through recruitment, training, committees) to drive change, rather than relying on external partners or focusing on processes. However, the latter should not be overlooked. An external perspective can be useful for organisations to look beyond their filter bubble (e.g., through advanced analysis of data and algorithms, hiring process testing, or consulting on website design accessibility), and a systematic audit of product development and marketing campaigns can prevent oversights. Marketers should keep in mind these additional considerations to reduce bias specifically in data marketing: As with the move toward privacy and Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP), the fight against bias calls for better data. Question the quality of the data you use in your marketing campaigns to prevent bias from spreading into data-powered activities. Your teams are not the only ones who should have frequent bias training. Your predictive models should be retrained regularly as well to learn from new, real-world data. Tools such as the AI Fairness 360 by IBM and The Linux Foundation can help you understand the bias in machine learning models. Keep investing in diverse teams. Human critical thinking is an essential safeguard to remove blind spots automation can generate. This article is excerpted from the report Future Focus 2021: Brands Accelerated. Download it now for key insights on how brands can make the most of brand and performance to accelerate their growth. 0
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