Blog

Since 2012, we have studied trust in depth, conducting the BrandSpark Canadian Trust Survey™ to recognize brands that consumers trust most which are announced as the BrandSpark Most Trusted® Awards winners. This year, the annual study gathered data from over 32,000 consumers across 292 categories, asking which brands they trust, why they trust them, and […]

Increasing brand value is a key objective for most marketers. While the exact metrics used can vary, the ultimate objective does not – strengthening the brand to make it more likely that your product or service is selected by shoppers over available alternatives. Do that successfully, ideally including an increase in brand trust and advocacy, and business success will typically come.  

New technologies and platforms are continually evolving that change the way shoppers evaluate brands, and how marketers can influence them – thus impacting brand value. Of these, at BrandSpark we believe online ratings and reviews are among the most important, and often don’t get the attention they deserve.  

The reason they are so important is that they’ve fundamentally altered the brand value calculation – particularly by eroding the functional product and service quality cues that brands used to convey, and in turn taking much of the brand trust calculation out of marketers hands. Both online, and thanks to smartphones at the store shelf as well.