If trust is gone. Forget the brand.  (McDonald’s Gets It. Do you?)

Trust. McDonald's gets it. Do you?

A few weeks ago I blogged about the importance of trust for Food & Beverage brands. Well I’m back for more. And this time I’m even more passionate about my subject.

Back then I was referring to a couple of examples, brought to our attention in the national press. Wall’s Lincolnshire Sausages - made with sausage from Germany and Poland. And Cheddar Cheese ‘packed in the UK’ (but from a dairy in Latvia).

The problem is not about importing

Now let me be clear. I have no issue with importing good quality and cost effective products from other countries. That is, after all, the very foundation of trade and the core module of Economics 101 (economically we should each do what we do best to create a Consumer Surplus so we can trade and create value).

The problem is when brands or retailers mis-lead consumers

As our Friend, and fellow food champion, Rob Ward, points out in his campaign for honest labelling: “Did you know a Pork Pie labeled as ‘British Produced’, can have imported pork? Or that Norwegian Salmon can be smoked in Scotland and called Scottish Salmon. Or that Beef reared in England can be slaughtered in Scotland and called Scottish Beef?”

Trust = Reliability + Delight

Smart Brand Owners are (finally) seeing the short-sightedness of this cost cutting

Business Week ran a special report on the 100 Best Global Brands in September this year. In it, the lead article was called “The Great Trust Offensive” (Overdue in my opinion) Interviewed for the piece, McDonald’s Global Chief Marketing Officer, Mary Dillon said, “Trust and transparency [are] more important to us than ever.”

After years of fending off critics, McD’s has finally decided to change tack, and has started to enter the conversation - even engaging with PETA on animal welfare. In 2007 I witnessed the launch of their ‘Quality Scouts’ initiative where consumers could walk every step and see every transparent detail of the McDonald’s supply chain and report back on the surprisingly good ….well… everything. You can see it all now at their Make Up Your Own Mind website: www.makeupyourownmind.co.uk

I attended a McDonald’s supplier conference in Lisbon, Portugal back in 2006 when I worked for Kraft Foods (supplying Rainforest Alliance Certified, Kenco Sustainable Development Coffee to McDonald’s Restaurants).

What I saw was amazing…

Far from being the ‘bad guy’ the popular press has been so keen to expound, McDonald’s was demanding quality, sustainability and the highest ethics from every supplier. At McDonald’s they are building Consumer trust from the ground up - and, trust me, it was **Magical** to see.

More recently, in an even more overt move to share their approach, Heather Oldani, U.S. Communications Director at McDonald’s leaked their Social Media Strategy online. As you can imagine, it was Twittered, Tweeted and Re-Tweeted around the blogosphere before you could say “Do you want fries with that?”

Is it working?

Is it ever! Consumers are demanding it. Consumers are telling companies “If you aren’t open with me, I won’t trust you.” It’s counterproductive to fight that. The Golden Arches have come a long way since Morgan Spurlock tried to ‘Supersize’ himself in 2004.

David Kiley and Burt Helm report in their Business Week article that according to global consulting firm Reputation Institute, McDonald’s has not only grown its business through value pricing during the recession, but it’s strengthened its overall brand image too: +8%pts to 63% since 2007 making McDonald’s one of the fastest gainers (and though still slightly lower than average for all companies - just think where they’ve come from!)

How can you make it happen for your brand?

Wennstroms Four Factors of Success Book

Here at the Healthy Marketing Team we specialise in brand positioning. Wennstrom’s Four Factors of Success include a Factor specifically examining Brand Trust. We work with out Clients through Rapid Research and Consumer Co-creation Workshops to engage consumers’ hearts and minds in decoding and identifying the components of brand trust before building them into brand propositions and brand communications.

To find out how we can build consumer trust into the very core of your brand identity, contact me at sam@healthymarketingteam.com.

You can follow my healthy marketing updates on Twitter @sam_waterfall