PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Jess: 00:00 Hey. It is Randall and Jess. We are back this week and we’re super excited to start a two-part series with you today. And what we’re going to be talking about is building trust with consumers. So today we’re going to talk a little bit about how big brands should invest in building that trust. And then next week, we’ll be back to talk about how challenger brands can be building trust with the consumers as well. And no, these aren’t meant to be pitted against one another. But it’s just how you can focus your brand to make sure that you are building trust with consumers in a way that makes the most sense and kind of hitting some check boxes along the way.

So big brands, let’s talk about this. Basically there are four main areas the big brand should invest in. So first and foremost is purpose. I think of a lot of mission minded brands, like Tom’s shoes and even Newman’s own over the years where they have invested in a purpose that has allowed them to give back, but also maintain their mission and vision through a long period of time.

Randall: 01:38 Yeah, I think that having a purpose and overall purpose and whether that is giving back to the community or whether that is a purpose for the quality of the ingredients that you’re going to use, or whatever your kind of mission is. I think that it can be really powerful to utilize that as not just a marketing tactic, but as a marketing tactic. I mean, it’s something that’s going to connect you with your customers. So it is a piece of marketing and there’s a lot of research out there about how… Especially millennials and the younger generations, they’re connecting with brands that have a purpose. And I think it’s really important for big companies to kind of really hone in on what that purpose is and be able to, to kind of push the agenda a little bit stronger and stronger every year to the point that their customers know what that brand is all about.

Jess: 02:29 Well, and bringing that to the forefront of the conversation on a regular basis as well. I know that there is a lot of organizations that contribute to non-profit organizations and give back to the community and are very invested in that space. But if you’re not bringing that to the forefront, you’re not showing the purpose behind what you’re doing, or even the quality ingredients. If you are kind of making that your pillar stance, of we provide quality ingredients. And I think organic products really kind of dive into this even more so. But if that is kind of your bread and butter message, and that’s your purpose. Then you need to be bringing that to the front of the messaging, to the front of your creative and making sure that that is a conversation piece over and over and over again.

Randall: 03:13 Now on that note, I will say, I do think that there’s a fine balance between having a purpose and living out that purpose. And then just being showy, because you can write a big check to an organization. I think it needs to go beyond money, beyond the giving of actual cash. And it can go your employees giving time, the community involvement that you have, all those different things-

Jess: 03:34 Bring them along for the ride.

Randall: 03:35 Yeah, exactly. I think it really needs to go beyond that. It needs to be felt throughout an entire organization when it comes to larger brands like this. And it can’t just be, “Hey, we wrote a check from the top.” And that’s the end of it.

Jess: 03:48 Right. And so that kind of leads us into the second thing, authenticity. And this has been a hot topic, especially in the past couple of years. And I know we’ve done previous podcasts based on authenticity, but with authenticity… And I think that we can give the perfect example of this in terms of how we’re giving back and what we’re giving back to and what we’re supporting, or where our products are coming from if we’re really focused on quality. How are we providing freshness? I know for some of our clients, we’ve talked a lot about freshness and how we’re trying to bring the freshest product to consumers on a regular basis. There’s a plethora of examples that we could give, but how do we make sure that we’re investing in authenticity?

Randall: 04:37 I think it’s not necessarily a hard one, but I think there’s so many different ways to go about doing that. One is in the people that work for your company. Really the voices behind the brands can be the most authentic way to… I don’t want to say push an agenda, but pushing on an authentic agenda out there, because they’re the ones living it every day. And they’re going to call BS on you just as fast as your customers will, if you’re not being authentic. So to me-

Jess: 05:04 Which goes to the point of making sure you’re writing your ship in terms of authenticity, internally. And this goes back to the episode with Claudia last season and not tuning your own horn when your ship isn’t order.

Randall: 05:20 So I think there’s that making sure that every person in the organization is riding the same ship, but I also think that there’s the messaging that can be put out if you’re working with different vendors. How can you connect with them, as far as the quality of your products? And then really having an authentic voice behind where things come from and how you can showcase if something is sustainable, or if it’s organic, it’s good for the earth, whatever the message is there. I think that can help add a lot of authentic voice to the overall picture of what it is that you’re producing.

Jess: 05:56 I agree, and authenticity also stems into my next point, which is transparency. And I think this is something that we can kind of dive into, because transparency and authenticity somewhat ride together, but they’re also two different things. And when we’re talking about transparency, I think of brands that are very clear on where their product is coming from, who they’re working with, who they’re sourcing with. And I think back to the series that we had done back in 2017, which was an Effie finalist for Ahold Delhaize. And we had started this series of fresh stories.

And this kind of road in that authenticity, transparency track, but basically long story short is between 13 States and three different countries. Our team traveled for a year capturing the stories of different vendors for Ahold Delhaize. And it was this kind of project of authenticity in terms of, “this is how we’re providing freshness to the consumer.” But it was also the chance for the vendor to be very transparent on where the practices of them growing or producing product, whether it was seafood or it was flowers, or it was fruits or vegetables. Oh, and we even did package products and that too. So what were the ingredients that were going into those things, or even bakery items for that matter-

Randall: 07:22 The good thing is, and this comes back to working with companies that really understand what they’re going for. But that client in particular, they had very stringent practices that had to be adhered to from their vendors. So there was no BS there. We were able just to go talk to them, “Okay, this is how it works.” We didn’t have to fake anything. You talked about authenticity and transparency. To me, transparency is the thing that we’ll call your bluff of authenticity-

Jess: 07:55 They ride so close together.

Randall: 07:57 Its like saying “We’re very authentic in everything that we do.” And then you say, “Okay, well now I’m going to look through this window at what actually happens behind the scenes.” And those two things have to connect. And if they don’t, then I think somebody is going to clearly see that. There are people out there, customers that will do the research and they’ll call it on you.

Jess: 08:18 Ooh they will.

Randall: 08:19 So it’s just a matter of making sure that you are open in those practices. And what you’re saying is what you’re doing. And you’re connecting all the dots.

Jess: 08:31 100% agree. And that leads me to our fourth point, which is consistency. Whatever you say once, make sure you say it multiple times and it is still authentic, true and purposeful every single time.

Randall: 08:49 Well, this one’s hard, actually. Consistency is tough, especially when it comes to, marketing. Consistency can also be considered boring from a marketing perspective, because you say, “Well we’ve put that message out.” “We’ve put that message out.” Over and over and over again. Well, the unfortunate reality is it takes your customers a long time to be able to hit it-

Jess: 09:08 Well 7 touch points at least.

Randall: 09:10 So if you’re going after quality of product, that’s what your messaging has to be about. Don’t stray from it. If you’re going after pricing, that’s what your messaging has to be about. If you’re the cheapest in town that [crosstalk 00:09:22]

Jess: 09:21 About the time that you’re exhausted on it, or you’re like, “I’m tired of looking at this.” Or “I’m tired of hearing this-”

Randall: 09:27 [crosstalk 00:09:27] First connecting with it.

Jess: 09:28 Is about the time that your customer is just starting to recognize it.

Randall: 09:31 It doesn’t mean that you can’t put something out that says, “We do quality, and we do it at the best value for your customers.” There are different ways that you can say things. But my point is, I think, we talked about, about kind of purpose and saying, “This is what the overall purpose of our businesses. This is our mission. Let’s not stray from that in our communication to our people.” It doesn’t mean always putting out the same thing or the exact same message, but it means making sure that you’re consistent with the overall vibe of what your marketing is, and really striving for that. Every campaign that you have should be able to speak back to that main overall mission. And again, I keep saying connecting the dots, but it’s all these things together really connect your client, your customers, and your clientele back to your brand.

Jess: 10:19 Yes. And you said it so well in the sense of consistency doesn’t mean repetitiveness and the same thing over and over and over and over again, there are five ways to Sunday to talk about a singular topic and execute multiple different versions of creative, that support that. It’s just a matter of being able to say, okay, this is who we are. This is what we stand for. This is the messaging that we want to put out. Now let’s look at all the different executions of how that can happen. And that way it doesn’t get boring, but people are starting to hear that message. And what Randall hears versus what you hear versus what I hear, may resonate differently with all three of us. Whereas if you’re constantly saying the same exact thing over and over and over again, maybe only Randall’s hearing it. And you and I are not-

Randall: 11:15 There’s no room for interpretation.

Jess: 11:16 Exactly. So you need to be able to have multiple different ways and mediums and avenues of creative to express that idea and that message, in order to make sure it’s resonating with all the people within your audience.

Randall: 11:32 I’m just going to give a really basic example of price. You can say there are people that are price conscious because they have to be, and there are people who are price conscious because they want to be. First off, you have to know your customer and what you’re going after, who you want to hit. But I think again, there’s those people where you have to talk, “We have the cheapest prices in town, because of X, Y, and Z. And because we know that you can only afford this much on cheese or whatever it is, and that’s what we’re going to provide.” And then I think there’s the flip side of it, where you say, “We’re going to give you the best value for this cheese that we’re selling, but we know that you care about quality.”

So if your whole mission is talking about quality, you’re not want to talk about the cheapest cheese. You want to talk about the best value of the cheese and you can kind of flip that conversation as well. If all your customer cares about is the cheapest product. But I think again it’s hunting into saying it doesn’t mean you can’t talk about price if you talk about quality, but talking about value really helps bring the message home.

Jess: 12:40 All right. So we’ve talked about how big brands invest, purpose, authenticity, consistency, and transparency. Hopefully you have some new things that you can take from this conversation and apply it to your work today. Join us next week. As we talk about building trust with consumers, from a challenger brand standpoint, and until then, we hope that you continue to invest, obviously in all that you do. And we will talk to you next week.

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