We don’t choose brands entirely rationally. We make judgements from how something looks or sounds, how clearly it communicates, how considered it feels and whether all those elements appear to belong together.
In sectors where credibility really matters, those signals can be particularly important.
Developing a brand when trust is non-negotiable isn’t simply a more complicated version of building a brand elsewhere.
The fundamentals still apply. But the conditions are different.
Whether in financial services, insurance or healthcare, a regulated business operates within tighter boundaries. What you say has to be credible. What you claim has to be supportable. What you change has to stand up to scrutiny.
There are other important considerations.
What’s at stake for the people you’re asking to trust you?
Understanding what matters to your audiences, what they’re being asked to trust you with and the consequences of that decision can reveal the emotions at play.
Understanding those emotions is an important part of understanding the brand.
So rather than starting with “What should our brand be?”, start with:
What should the brand make them feel?
Identify the emotional responses that can help create the confidence to choose you.
The brand should then play into those emotions.
Not by manufacturing them or making claims the organisation can’t support, but by making the right things easier to recognise, understand and believe.
This is where the challenge becomes more interesting.
The opportunity isn’t simply to create a brand that looks credible. It’s to find a distinctive position that reflects what the organisation can genuinely be known for, while understanding what it needs to do to make it part of how people experience it.
That might mean putting more discipline behind internal behaviours. Making the client experience more consistent. Aligning culture and leadership. Repackaging capabilities and products. Or simply being clearer about what the organisation is uniquely good at.
When trust is essential, credibility shouldn’t be something the brand claims.
It should be something every part of the brand makes people feel.
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See how we did just that for financial services business Carne Group.
