MUMBAI: Integrated brand-comm, a Madison Group company, recently hosted the brand-comm Summit 'The Journey from Attention to Trust' in Bengaluru where it was inferred that trust is the most relevant theme and objective of communications in 2019.
Accenture Solutions Pvt Ltd chairman and senior managing director Rekha Menon stated that there can be a significant impact on value to a company from any compromise of trust. This is proved by the impact of the loss of trust on the revenues of companies. “Of some 7,000 companies studied globally by Accenture, 54 per cent of these organisations experienced a drop in trust. This had led to a revenue loss of over USD 180 billion. Considering these, it is essential that trust be an integral part of the CEO strategy,” she said.
Speaking on the subject of need to build trust among consumers is integral to the success of any brand at the summit, Mindworks CEO R Gopalakrishnan said that when crisis hits, there is panic within the company and its board. Under such adverse circumstances, the role of the leader becomes integral in decision-making. However, such decisions need to be taken in sync with the DNA of the company.
But the idea of authenticity in communication did not hit mainstream till the end of the last millennium, said Madison World chairman and managing director Sam Balsara. He spoke on how his campaign to advocate the continuity of the Parsi community in India has actually led to an 18 per cent increase in the population of the community. While the role of advertising is to make the product look larger than what it is, it is essential that authenticity gain precedence in the messaging.
Integrated brand-comm CEO and founder Ramanujam Sridhar said that consumers have become discerning, which have led to polarisation of views. He added that consumers will become increasingly selective about what they want to see and hear in 2019.
Continuing with the theme of authenticity, AVTAR Group founder-president Soundarya Rajesh suggested that attention, consistency and authenticity are integral to each other. She added that inclusive communication is critical to the process of creating trust.
Community disseminated messaging on the social media has built a greater trust among the millennials and other target audiences, hence there is a need to influence this narrative that would be in line with the communication that a business wishes to convey. So, brands need to influence creating content that would influence user,” said Saundarya Rajesh.
