Trust is invisible but invaluable. It can be your greatest competitive advantage, or your fastest route to crisis.
Long before mission statements and marketing plans, humans needed trust to survive. Evolutionary psychologists explain that early human communities thrived because members could rely on one another. Trust wasn’t optional, it was existential.
Fast forward to now, and the stakes haven’t changed. According to the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer, trust remains the deciding factor in how people engage with institutions. Whether it’s choosing a brand, voting for a leader, or donating to a cause, brand trust is the invisible hand that guides our decisions.
The erosion of institutional trust
The Edelman report also offers a wake-up call: trust in traditional institutions – governments, NGOs, and media – is in decline. NGOs, once seen as ethical and dependable, are now met with growing scepticism.
Why? Edelman points to several causes:
- Perceived incompetence and ethical failings – Institutions often overpromise and underdeliver.
- Mistrust of innovation – People feel left out of decision-making on fast-moving technologies.
- Wider economic anxiety – Fear of job loss, inequality, and societal instability erode faith in leaders.
The result? People are retreating from big systems and looking for trust in smaller, more local, more human relationships. It’s no longer just about what you do, it’s about how, and for whom.
This chart from the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer shows a stark trust imbalance across institutions. Business is perceived as both competent and ethical, while government lags significantly behind in both areas. Media and NGOs occupy the middle ground, with NGOs rated highly ethical but only marginally competent. The 52-point gap in perceived competence between government and business highlights a growing crisis in institutional trust.
Defining trust: not just a feeling
Trust isn’t a vague ideal. It’s been rigorously studied across disciplines. One influential academic definition frames trust as a psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based on positive expectations of another’s behaviour. In simpler terms: trust is the risk we’re willing to take because we believe in someone or something.
For brands, brand trust is built on whether people believe you’ll do what you say, the way you say you will. Consistently.
According to a Harvard Business Review article by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, trust is shaped by three distinct pillars:
- Competence – Are you good at what you claim to do? Can you deliver?
- Integrity – Are your words and actions aligned?
- Empathy – Do you genuinely understand and care about the people you serve?
These aren’t soft skills. They’re strategic levers. And they’re measurable: by employee retention, customer loyalty, donor retention, and more.
How trust breaks, and how it holds
Trust breaks fast. But here’s the thing: people are more forgiving than we think, if trust was strong to begin with.
Studies show that organisations with a track record of competence, integrity, and empathy can survive a crisis, because stakeholders give them the benefit of the doubt. But if those foundations are shaky, even a small slip can spark a cascade of disillusionment.
Let’s see what that looks like in the real world.
Volkswagen’s emissions scandal
In 2015, Volkswagen admitted to using software to cheat emissions tests on over 11 million cars. It was a textbook scandal: deception, public health risk, regulatory evasion.
But remarkably, VW didn’t collapse. Why?
- It acknowledged wrongdoing early.
- It replaced leadership and restructured accountability systems.
- It pivoted to a bold electric vehicle strategy, showing real change.
Volkswagen lost billions, but regained trust. Why? Because it rebuilt competence and integrity quickly and visibly. The scandal became a turning point rather than a death sentence.
Oxfam and the cost of silence
Compare Volkswagen with Oxfam. In 2018, reports surfaced that senior staff had exploited women in Haiti while delivering aid. Even worse, the organisation had known, and stayed silent.
The fallout was severe:
- Donations plummeted.
- Government funding was suspended.
- Trust in the entire NGO sector took a hit.
The failure wasn’t just the abuse, it was the cover-up. Oxfam lost trust across all three dimensions: it failed to act (competence), to own up (integrity), and to show genuine remorse (empathy). Years later, it’s still rebuilding.
Treating trust as strategy
Trust isn’t PR. It’s not a message you push, it’s a relationship you nurture. And the most strategic organisations are building systems that make brand trust measurable and maintainable.
Here’s what that looks like:
- Operational consistency – Do what you say, every time.
- Truth in real time – Own your mistakes. Fast.
- Human-centred systems – Embed empathy into decision-making, not just marketing.
- Values in action – Don’t just publish your values, show how they drive your day-to-day work.
In an age of deep scepticism, brands that are transparent, dependable, and human will win.
The bottom line
Brand trust is your organisation’s most valuable asset. It’s also the most vulnerable. Built over time, lost in a moment, and only recoverable through action.
The Edelman Trust Barometer might paint a bleak picture, but it’s also a call to lead differently. To build better. To be the kind of organisation people want to believe in.
As Warren Buffett once said: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”