I-Com Global Summit 2022: It’s important to separate trust from sentiment and reputation

On day three of the I-Com Global Summit, Yannis Kotziagkiaouridis, global chief data and AI officer, Edelman Data and Intelligence, USA, along with Ikea Sweden’s group communication performance leader, Erik Fägnell, and strategic planning and performance manager, Simone Page, discussed how trust should be a c-suite imperative at organisations.

 

Difference between sentiment, reputation and trust

 

Kotziagkiaouridis started the session by speaking about how trust is different from sentiment and reputation.

 

“They are related to each other, but still very different. Trust is really related to risk and personal experience,” he said.

 

Kotziagkiaouridis explained that sentiment is about a single experience, while reputation is a group consensus. Trust, on the other hand, is built by multiple experiences.

 

He further explained, “Sentiment is about emotion, reputation is about perception and a factor of trust is belief. Sentiment helps create awareness, reputation provides consideration, wheras trust delivers preference and loyalty.”

 

He followed this by explaining Edelman’s ‘trust management framework’.

 

“The framework delivers a net trust score, which is based on five principles – personal and cultural trust, societal and environmental trust, moral and ethical trust, transactional trust, and functional trust. We live in a world where you can't only talk about purpose and societal issues, but also need to see transactional trust, where the product keeps its promises and treats the consumer well.” 

 

Page and Fägnell then explained briefly how Ikea is working on building trust.

 

Page said, “Ikea is a purpose-driven company, in its roots. We wanted to create a better everyday life for people. Our vision is our purpose. This is coming naturally and we keep measuring it.”

 

Fägnell added, “I can see that trust is something we are coming directly to see. From our research, we could see that these components are matching what Ikea wants to do. We use it to handle not only the planet, but also our co-workers.”

 

Kotziagkiaouridis then explained how building and protecting trust unlocks deeper relationships.

 

“Trust unlocks value at every step of the consumer relationship. It helps with a 48% of website visits, four times more consideration, seven times more willingness to pay a premium price, and 14% increase in purchasing, among others. This validates that when you build trust, you build better outcomes,” he concluded.