Brands should aim to build functional trust

When Jeff Jarvis visited the Guardian earlier this year he said that trust was one of the key measures when looking at engagement with a brand. So it was good to see that research into brand trust was the theme of the keynote speech at the nVision UK conference last week.

Tested across four different sectors, consumers tended to have more trust in the functional aspects of the brands they were loyal to (eg. safe products, value for money). Trust in the same brands to be open and transparent was still high but was lower than functional measures. Yet the trust in these brands to have good corporate social responsibility was at the lowest levels. For example, only 36% of people said they trusted at least 3 out of 4 brands they regularly used to support good causes.

The drivers of trust varied across sectors; however the one common theme was that consumers did not want to be lied to.

Therefore, building functional trust with customers, as well as transparency, should be a key priority for brands in 2014 and onwards.

I'm the invisible man

Unless you have been living under a rock, (although the NSA would still probably have found you) the Edward Snowdon revelations would have made you think twice about online privacy.

With 54% of the UK population thinking in five years time it will not be possible to turn off automatically sharing your location and personal data (source: nVision, 2013), there is no doubt that there is a growing trend towards greater control of personal data and increased anonymity online.

This has already started to emerge with mobile apps such as Secret, Whisper and WUT allowing for a more anonymous form of communication between friends and groups. The 'right to be forgotten' ruling will also have implications for businesses and consumers, as more people seek to have details about themselves expunged from the web. If this trend continues, one begins to wonder what implications this will have for the 'big data' future most are predicting.

The brands are coming to make us all happy

In the last blog entry we discussed the Guardian's 'Mood of the Nation' research, which studies how brands can influence consumer happiness.

This is certainly taking off in the digital world, from apps such as Kiip which allow brands to reach users during moments of elation (imagine Coca-Cola offering you a voucher after completing a particularly tricky level on Candy Crush Saga). To more tangible products, such as the mobile phone case 'Feeling Skin', which glows to indicate the mood of your friends' messages.

This all seems to be heading in one direction and startup company Affectiva may be the first to offer a glimpse into the mobile advertising future. Their Affdex product could enable real-time emotion tracking to be built into your mobile phone camera, so if you turn your nose up at a McDonalds ad it could change to show you one for KFC instead.

E-commerce could go face-to-face

Another rising trend of importance for the online retailer is the introduction of human contact in e-commerce.

43% of British adults agree that they would be interested in an online shop assistant that they could talk to for advice as they were browsing products online, with this figure rising to 57% for Generation Y (source: nVision 2014).

Retailers are taking notice, with sites such as Baukjen offering a live online eStylist service for customers. Other companies such as Live Ninja give a brand the chance to turn their website visitors into live customers with real-time video chat directly on their site.

Additionally, with the likes of Cadbury, Toyota and Coca-Cola using Google Hangouts to allow consumers the chance to connect with each other face-to-face, is online shopping about to return to its human roots?

Why wear a smartwatch when you could wear SuperShoes?

Finally, with Apple's smartwatch rumoured for an October release maybe this will be the tipping point when everyone finally heads out to buy one. An altogether different product, designed to take our eyes off small screens, the SuperShoe offers a beautifully simple premise. Tell the retrofit insoles where you want to go via an app, and they will vibrate in your left or right foot to indicate which way to turn. Or let them take you on a whole new route but returning you to your starting point in the time you have available. Maybe 2015 could be the year of the SuperShoe?