2021: The year of the trusted brand

Let’s face it: after nearly two years of unprecedented chaos and turbulence, our confidence in things has been shot.

The Covid-19 pandemic, with more than 5 million lives lost and joblessness equivalent to the Great Depression, has accelerated the erosion of trust around the world.

According to a recent study by The Reuters Institute For The Study Of Journalism, trust in the media dropped to 45% in Canada and went even lower down to 36% and 29% in the U.K. and % in the U.S., respectively.

Trust in government didn’t fare much better.  A recent poll by the Pew Research Center reported that less than one quarter (24%) of Americans trusted their government, a decades-long erosion since an all-time high of 77% in 1964.

And when it comes to trust in the world’s two largest economies – China and the U.S. – compared to 2020 levels, trust fell by 18% and 5%, respectively, according to Edelman’s 2021 Trust Barometer.

During these times of mistrust and misinformation, people will naturally look to things we can count on.

Enter: the trusted brand.

Now more than ever, people’s trust in your brand needs to be rock solid.  Like an old friend, people want to be able to rely on you to deliver on what you promised.  It’s these trusted brands that have become highly sought after — and pandemic-proof.

Trusted brands need to also speak the truth.  They need to be real about what’s going on around us – namely, the pandemic – and offer real solutions that are doable and effective.

It’s this combination of brand consistency and truth speaking that makes a real ‘Trusted Brand.’

Here is our pick of the top brands who got the ‘trusted brand memo’ in 2021:

1. AirBnB

Prior to the pandemic, Airbnb spent heavily on performance marketing, such as paid search and affiliate marketing, to drive traffic. But for 2021 they slashed their annual marketing spend from $1.14 billion to $482 million, shifting away from performance marketing to brand marketing.

This means that their marketing now focuses more on communicating the AirBnB experience and how different they are from their competitors, rather than on marketing that specifically drives clicks, likes and bookings.

With their ‘Made Possible by Hosts’ campaign, sales increased by 5%.

“Our strategy is to increase brand marketing and use the strength of our brand to attract more guests via direct or unpaid channels,” Airbnb added in a letter to shareholders.

2. Lego

According to CEO Magazine, this beloved brand took the top position as their most trusted brand in 2021 for the second year in a row.  Lego’s CEO stated that “During a difficult year, we prioritised doing what’s right and lived our values,” supporting those in need and inspiring play among children and parents.

Despite how devastating the COVID-19 pandemic has been for many in the toy industries, LEGO’s sales rose 14%. Much of this success can be attributed to staying trye to their brand identity that they established since inception in 1932.

One key marketing strategy is the implementation of their LEGO Life app aimed at children under 13, allowing users to share photos of what they made and leave comments on other’s creations. The online community today has over 10 million members.

3. PayPal

PayPal’s new product, PayPal Zettle, came along in 2021 at the right time for both merchants and consumers. It gives small businesses an integrated solution that enables them to accept a range of payments in-person with the PayPal Zettle card reader, helps them start selling online, and also helps them manage sales, inventory, reporting and payments across channels, all in one place.

During a year when there have been more new businesses formed than in any other year – literally ever – this product could not be more timely.

In 2021, the number of small businesses in the U.S. reached 31.7 million, making up 99.9% of all businesses and contributing to 65% of new jobs created.

Jim Magats, PayPal’s senior vice-president of Omni Payments said, “PayPal’s focus of creating better opportunities for small businesses to transact with customers online and in stores. Customers want to experience the same shopping journey regardless of whether they are online or in a store.”

4. Nike

To address Covid-19, Nike got straight to the point with a campaign started in 2020 called “You Can’t Stop Us.”  Through an inclusive lens of disability, racial justice, LGBTQ+ lives, and most importantly, sports, the campaign illustrates the brand’s commitment to DEI, strength and perseverance.

Other similar campaigns have since follows, all of them stemming from their one main underlying message that we all know and love well:

Just do it.

That is, step up and do something.

Don’t be a victim.  Don’t be a pawn.

Be a player.  Be a champion.

By sticking to their branding guns, during the pandemic Nike has successfully built upon their legacy — while also tapping into the pandemic zeitgeist.

5. Ikea

The Ikea brand stands for making everyday life easier for everyone.  So when the pandemic first hit, they created their #togethewithkindness campaign which encouraged store co-workers around the world to do and share kindnesses — small, medium and large — in their local communities in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

This led donating store plants and furnishing flats for frontline workers unable to go home between shifts.

Meanwhile, the home giant became an overnight omnichannel success.  Before Covid-19, Ikea’s digital footprint had been lagging.  So when online sales started soaring in early 2020, they saw an opportunity to transform their digital strategy by revamping their website and launching their app.

“We are embracing this combination of merging our digital and physical ecosystem and at the same time to deliver a personalised Ikea experience – we have done just about everything,” says Belén Frau, deputy retail operations manager at Ikea Retail (Ingka Group) to InternetRetailing.net.