As Stephen MR Covey (son of the Covey you know) said “Trust is the one thing that touches everything.”

If you think about it, trust is so often relegated to the domains of PR or CSR. It’s never seen as critical to the development of the bottom line.

But, if you consider that “communication is a function of trust not technique” as pointed out by Covey senior, then you’ll also need to consider that the effectiveness of all your corporate dialogue with youth is a function of the level of trust.

For example - compare the fortunes of a largely trusted vs untrusted brand. In this instance compare the PR fortunes of Apple vs Microsoft. One only has to hint at the possibilities of future products to generate significant column inches. The other is treated as the pariah of the blogging world. One is forgiven and generally overlooked when it comes to proprietary standards, the other faced lengthy legal challenges.

And the same applies with young customers. Trusted brands find their products more accepted with better coverage, lower return rates and a lesser need for customer education - they educate each other. Low trust brands find it difficult to launch new products and see interest after the initial spike waning quickly.

So what drives trust?

Walk the Walk. Trusted brands do rather than say. Boost Mobile and Virgin don’t simply donate whimsical elements of their profits to causes they actively commit their marketing teams to engaging youth in the movement.

Authenticity. There’s a great post here by Ged Carrol that explains the lengths to which brands will go to reaffirm their authenticity with youth. Authenticity is exactly that; the degree to which this brand can be trusted. Is it a fly-by-night or has it been producing jeans for the last 20 years like Evisu? When presented with a plethora of options, youth will also trust the authentic brands because authenticity implies reliability, value and a product that has been filtered through countless customer testimonials to stand the test of time.

Consistency. The old business school professor’s saw “Can you make a better burger than McDonald’s?” holds true here. Of course you can, but McDonald’s is the most successful retailer in the world where your burgers have to make do with an annual outing in your kitchen. McDonald’s is a trusted brand because it’s consistent; McDonald’s in Jakarta serves up more or less the same fare with a few local variants as it does in Johannesburg. It’s an amazing feat considering that McDonald’s is run by teenagers.

The same very much applies to your brand messages, as explored tentatively in this post on “Holistic Marketing“. Youth trust consistent brands - brands that stay true to their word. Does Tiger Woods really drive a Buick? Probably not… Do youth really believe that Britney drinks Pepsi when media snap her slurping a Coke in public? The inconsistency smacks of distrust - youth don’t trust the brand because they don’t believe what the marketers are saying.

Red Bull is an unpopular brand. Let’s face it, there are more people that dislike Red Bull than like it. But that’s the beauty of the brand marketing - they’re not marketing to you - they’re marketing to them. They’re focusing on the 10% vs the 90%.

Keeping it real. As the man Ali’ G says. It’s not just a snapline from the movie but a theme that has pervaded youth culture for 2 generations. Punks, new wave bands and indie rockers would cringe at media criticism levelled at theme for “selling out”. Hip hop artists would labor at length to demonstrate how they were “keeping it real” and even hippies back in the 60s and 70s would be acute to the peer pressure of avoiding the sell-out. It’s a theme that pervades youth movements today; when grass-roots brands The Hundreds announced growth plans, the community media let them know what they thought.

Outlining some of the key thoughts from the upcoming book “Customers Are The Brand” here’s a quick video by Graham Brown on the subject:

The video links to the original presentation here.

Most pressing insights from my upcoming book “Customers Are The Brand”

The file in PPT format is available for DOWNLOAD HERE on mobileYouthNet (signup reqd)

I’ll be sharing these insights from the presentation in future mobileYouth tours.

There’s an old maxim describing 4 blind men discovering an elephant. The blind man who feels the leg says the elephant is like a tall tower of stone. The man who feels his tail disagrees saying the elephant must be a long, thin but flexible rope. And the irony is they are both correct because our realities are ultimately shaped by our world views.

An industry colleague once said “if customer service doesn’t generate money how can it be anything other than a cost center?”

And he is entirely correct because his world view is shaped by the 90 day cycle. 90 days represents the window in which all activity can be measured. A long term strategy that bears fruit in 100 days is, by definition, a distraction.

How you view customer service, therefore, is entirely dependent on the metrics employed by your organization. Change agents need a degree of separation from these Street driven metrics in order to effect any change of value.

When O2 decided to cut back on product managers in 2007 and channel the resources into customer service the approach was counter-intuitive. This was a time when operators were placing their bets on content and application services as the key to catching the next hockey stick.

But O2’s decision paid off; churn rates fell, market share increased.

Walk into any Apple Store and you’ll be greeted by someone who, at first, you’ll think is a volunteer. What’s this girl doing asking me about Apple products? It’s only later on that you realize she’s part of the Genius group that provides valuable customer service, service which for the most part is the brand.

Just released! Following our successful 2009 tour, we’re putting together a tentative tour itinerary to share mobileYouth updates on trends and youth marketing insights for 2010. Here are the initial dates. If you want mobileYouth to speak/present at your conference/company or seminar then contact us here in first instance and let’s get talking. As you can see, time is going to be limited to 2 engagements per city so contact us early.

Feb Week 1

• Turkey

Feb Week 2

• Bahrain (1 space left)
• Dubai (fully booked)
• Delhi/Mumbai (1 space left)
• Kuala Lumpur (1 space left)

Feb Week 3

• Jakarta
• Singapore (1 space left)
• Hong Kong
• Taipei
• Shanghai

Feb Week 4

• Tokyo (fully booked)

Mar Week 1

• Seattle (1 space left)
• San Francisco
• New York
• Toronto

Use Twitter to contact Josh or Graham directly.