A Matter of Trust

Trust is not something given freely anymore. Why? Because since Gordon Gekko famously declared, “Greed is good” in the 1987 movie Wall Street, we’ve been inundated with negative pop-culture portrayals of the global financial sector. The US real estate meltdown of 2008, which served as an inspiration for many of these Hollywood dramas, unearthed the complicity of banks in what is considered the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The Panama Papers narrative continues to attract worldwide media attention. It shines a light on how unfettered greed drove global power players to set up offshore accounts, and the cost of these tax havens to economies of many countries, including our own.

No wonder an entire generation who have been exposed to this type of behavior throughout their formative years have come to question their trust in institutions, governments, and brands.

To quote Scott Cooke, Chairman of the software company Inuit and strategic consultant at Bain & company, to reality is “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is. It is what consumers tell each other it is”.

Trust

Moreover, what consumers “tell each other” is all about trust. Trust in what the brand does and says, regarding its efficacy and how it behaves. As human beings, we understand the importance of trust.

Trust may seem a soft metric in the world of KPIs. However, unquestionably, it delivers real results for brands and companies. A North American study by the Next Consulting Group found that when people trust a brand:

• 83% will recommend it to other people
• 82% will use the products and services more frequently
• 78% will give new products and services a chance from the company or brand
• 50% will pay more for products and services

So if you want to get consumers to buy more, try more, and pay more, driving the TRUST metric is the key to success. The variable of trust is too big to ignore. The question is how do we create TRUST in an entirely connected world where transparency exists whether you like it or not.

What’s the secret sauce?

The answer is to move from a “story-telling” company or brand to a “story-doing” company or brand. So what’s a story-doing company or brand?

1. It has a story to tell
2. The story is about a larger goal; to make the world or people’s lives better
3. The behavior of the company or brand must be totally transparent
4. Every action must ladder back to the story
5. All parts of the company must be focused on the goal and the transparency of the journey

This thinking is what motivates the launch of impak Finance and then, impak Bank. The company has one, and one goal only: to impact the lives of Canadians and their communities in a positive and profitable way.

We will be investing 100% of our funds into the Canadian impact economy. And our customers and investors alike will have clear visibility to the progress of these investments, both regarding their respective profitability and their impact on society.

This has never been done before. Join us and help make it happen. We can be a model to the world.

Andy Krupski,
Co-Founder and Trust Marketing Officer