When asked about the biggest challenges they face, brands will typically list rising costs, inflation’s impact on consumer spending, ensuring supply chains are responsive and resilient, meeting increasingly tough compliance standards, as well as other issues.
All are valid and pressing problems that are keeping executives up at night.
What rarely makes the Top 10 list is customer acquisition and retention. Not that anyone would deny that this is a critical part – perhaps even the key – to staying alive as a business.
When the issue is put on the table, the focus is on innovation (newer and better products), technology (more tech apps on web sites or in stores) or being more visible where GenZ hangs out.
However the bigger issue that brands and retailers need to tackle – not just this year but going forward – is that of trust.
Unquestionably, for consumers across all demographics trust – in anything – is at an all time low.
“A 2021 survey of 1,000 consumers concluded that more than 80 percent consider trust a deciding factor in their buying decisions, despite the fact that only 34 percent trust the brands they use,” said Harvard Business Review.
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