How brands lose trust

In the past few days we have heard how Apple (a brand I have never been in love with but have admired for its strategy) has been secretly collecting user information, an offence which a federal judge ruled should go to court.

According to an article in Techweek, “The case will combine 19 lawsuits that have been filed against Apple, accusing it of secretly allowing applications to track users’ activities and collect information including location, address, age and gender”.

Steve Jobs publicly denied this was going on in 2011 but there is mounting concern that this was actually a lie.  At the same time, Google is under investigation for the personal data it collected illegally when collecting images for Street-view in the UK, data it stated it did not collect deliberately. This week the Guardian revealed that US investigators discovered emails inside Google from an engineer confirming that contrary to their testimony to the EEC, the data had been collected deliberately in contravention of European law. They also now have a case to defend.

Google is proud of its values. Number 6 is “You can make money without doing evil” a lovely boast so long as it is true. For them, their value seems very hollow today. Apple on the other hand make no pretence of their “niceness” preferring us to focus on their products. But herein lies the problem for Apple. Over decades they have built up a following from people who even if Apple has never said it, WANT to believe that Apple acts in a good way and assume Apple does.

They will probably forgive Apple for operating an I-Phone system that illegally collects information about customers  but this practice is shocking. And  the bigger problem for Apple is that if their employees think this behaviour is OK, then they are likely to be found out again. The more this happens, the more they will destroy the trust they have built up in their brand.

Google on the other hand is rather cornered by its “without evil” principle that it has trumpeted for years. Now that its behaviour has been revealed to be at odds with its values,  it exposes itself as a liar. What else is it doing that we don’t know about? Already there are questions about browsing history and the use of such data for advertising purposes, all of which is performed without the user really understanding how their personal data is being collected and used. Google’s business model rather depends on being able to do this and so is vulnerable to legal or public concern.

There isn’t a immediate competitor in sight so I’m sure they are not sweating quite yet. But if there was, one which really lived its values rather than pretended it stood for something it did not, then they could find themselves in trouble. No one likes being taken in by a fraud and if there was an as good alternative, Google would go the same way it arrived – quickly.

Interestingly, their value number 4 says “Democracy on the web works”. This is something that could come back to bite them if people lose trust in them.

Follow