How privacy impacts brands and customer loyalty
Our connections to brands can be viewed through the lens of human relationships. Just as we would expect a personal friend to keep information about us to themselves, we expect the brands we trust with our data to do the same. The smartest companies understand this and embrace their responsibility to their customers.
MBLM’s top ranked brands range across every aspect of customer engagement, from entertainment to products, and from shopping to dining. Trustworthy brands like Disney and Apple top the list, whereas two brands with recent privacy issues place lower on the list, Facebook at 112 and Marriott at 116.
Within a company, privacy is often relegated to a legal or compliance function rather than as an integral part of customer relationship management. This is a lost strategic opportunity to build and differentiate a brand and its offering — and if ignored, may undermine other customer-facing investments across the company. Few companies prioritize privacy as part of their planning process even though for their customers, their privacy record is a driver in how much they trust the brand, just as they would in any relationship. The risks are clear based on recent surveys:
- 75 percent of consumers will not buy from a company if they don’t trust the company to protect their data (Harris Poll)
- 73 percent of consumers think businesses are focused on profits over addressing their security needs (Harris Poll)
- 83 percent of consumers are aware of recent security breaches of personal data shared with retailers (Deloitte)
In every part of our lives, we are sharing data about ourselves, our preferences, and our friends. How the people we are relating to use this information feels very personal and we form strong opinions based on how they treat our confidences. Evolving consumer perceptions of privacy can be seen as a risk exposure or an opportunity to build brand relationships and customer loyalty.
Market leaders will not wait to react, they will seize the opportunity to differentiate their brand with a smart, integrated privacy strategy.
