14 — Building trust with Christo Van Wyk

I had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Christo Van Wyk, Regional Director, Meltwater, India & Middle East, at the 8th Edition of PRAXIS held on the 27th & 28th of September 2019 in Goa. Christo, a South African, living in Dubai for almost 10 years likes to introduce himself as — Christo Van Wyk, father of two children and husband of one wife. He has 10+ years of experience in emerging markets and went to business school at Oxford.

His key note at PRAXIS’8 was about how to build brand trust. He started off by showing an image of MS Dhoni as a prime example of trust, and then further going on to explain how important it was for consumers to trust a brand and the fact that the brand will deliver on it’s promise at every interaction because if they don’t consumers are going to find someone who does. Corporate crisis is on the rise and consumers crave for trustworthy relations now, more than ever.

According to Christo there are four main ways on how you can build a brand’s trust:

a) It’s not about you, it’s about them — How one positions and markets their brand

b) Be radically empathetic — He shows Dove’s beauty campaign as an example of empathy

c) A commitment to improving lives — Consumers now look for brands that drive social changes

d) Be real — Connecting with clients will help speaking with the audience better.

He goes on to say that a brand should define what a brand’s trust means and to reach for smarter goals, get the right kind of technology and to measure brand trust. He also showed us the Nordnet Transparent banking campaign and the Sodexo campaign. Concluding his keynote with a quote “A brand is simply trust” by Steve Jobs.

Lakhshita Singh