I recently gave a presentation to a local business group on the subject of trust in the marketplace and how consumer behavior is changing in what some have coined a “fear economy.” I touched on the following points:

• Among American consumers surveyed for a recent BBB/Gallup Trust in Business survey, trust in business has fallen in 13 out of 15 industries.

• According to Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations firm, which conducts an annual Trust Barometer survey, trust in U.S. business is at 38 percent - down from 58 percent last year - the lowest in the Barometer’s 10-year tracking history.

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From this “fear economy” comes “fear fatigue,” say experts. Fear fatigue equates to customers actively seeking to do business with companies that can offer them solutions without stress and uncertainty. So what are they doing? They are researching before buying.

I explained to my captive audience that at BBB, we’ve seen this first-hand. The 4 million reliability reports maintained by BBBs on businesses across North America were accessed more than 63 million times in 2008, a 15 percent increase over the previous year. Locally, we’ve issued nearly 100,000 of those reports so far this year alone.

What is most important to consumers in their quest for a trusted company? According to the Gallup survey results:

1. Dependable/reliable products and services

2. Stands behind the quality of its products and services

3. Responsive to customers’ needs

4. Stands behind what it says in advertising

5. Delivers on its promises

I paused at this stage in my presentation for good effect to deliver the next line, “Price was ninth out of 14 survey categories.”

The effect I had hoped for (raised eyebrows, a collective “wow!”) was lost when a hand went up in the crowd and I was asked, “Don’t you think consumers who were surveyed are lying?”

Actually, no that had not occurred to me. But, I suppose anything is possible.

Perhaps today, versus when the surveys were conducted, price has climbed up on the list, maybe even making it to the top five. Does it matter? No, because the issue of trust will almost always trump the question of price.

If you read many of the business and marketing articles circulating out there right now, a good portion of them focus on how companies - and we’re not just talking about banks – are scrambling to persuade consumers they can be trusted. They might be adjusting prices and implementing a number of different strategies, but not without taking into account the issue of consumer trust.

An article I read recently in Business Week dissected what some companies are doing to strengthen their business in the face of a consumer sentiment that places so much value in trust (assuming those consumers aren’t lying).  The Business Week article explained that although banks may be enemy number one for consumers when it comes to trust, companies across many industries are retooling their business models to provide greater transparency for their customers.

“In the world of branding, trust is the most perishable of assets,” writes the author. The article cited the same Edelman survey I had referenced in my presentation.

It seems that survey among other indicators has spurred some of America’s most well established corporate icons to reassess their time-tested marketing techniques, including McDonald’s, American Express and Ford Motor Company.

Ford has actually taken money normally spent on vehicle discount programs and funneled it into a new public relations offensive meant to portray the company as better run and more trustworthy than its domestic rivals.   

Since implementing the new public relations program Ford has seen its sales climb 1 percent this year, despite the fact they’re charging on average $1,300 more per car because they’ve phased out so much of their vehicle discount program. This just goes to show that price is not always the deciding factor in consumer purchases.

The article expands the concept further, saying that while corporate marketing departments have traditionally focused on driving brand awareness through “unique selling propositions,” that approach doesn’t work so well now: “…and not just because recession, job insecurity, and hammered home values have made consumers disinclined to part with their coin…Even before the economic meltdown, companies with trust issues began realizing they couldn’t keep talking past the problem with slick television commercials.”

Are consumers lying about the importance of trust in today’s economy? Maybe. I think the more important question is, what if they’re not?

Contact Kim States, CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona, at kstates@tucson.bbb.org or (520) 888-6161 or 1-800-696-2827 toll-free outside of Tucson. The BBB website is: http://www.tucson.bbb.org. The BBB of Southern Arizona serves Pima, Cochise, Santa Cruz, Graham, and Greenlee counties in Arizona and all of the state of Sonora in Mexico. Offices are at 434 S. Williams Blvd., Suite 102.