Forrester says people don't trust company blogs. I think they missed the bigger picture. While company blogs may be least trusted, every form of brand-to-consumer communication gets a failing grade. People don't trust companies; period! Since one of the main objectives of MR is to help those companies develop their marketing messages, I guess that makes us the lowest of the low.
Here's the kicker, people are right. We (companies) don't deserve their trust. For decades we have profited from developing ways to brainwash them into buying things. We didn't really care if the products were good of if these people needed them, we just wanted them to consume as much as possible. No matter how many declarations of love we put in our advertising, we care a lot about the bottom line and very little about our customers ... and they know it. We didn't anticipate the internet would provide them with the tools to expose our hypocrisy and now we're caught with our pants down.
Some companies get it, and they're starting to do things about it. The solution is simple. Get real. Get a sense of humor. Upgrade your consumers to customers. Open the doors and windows, and let your customers in. Hire employees who will be ambassadors, not sheepwalkers. Start having real, two way conversations with your customers. Basically, start doing what you claimed to have been doing all along: care about your customers and show them some respect.
We have to start treating our survey respondents better and our clients have to start treating their customers better. Our clients pay us for market insight, and this is a bit of insight they desperately need. Companies who can't or won't do these things deserve to wither away, and they will.
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