Sixty Second View

Trust in Indonesia

David Brain — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:43:02 +0000

The trust climate in Indonesia remains very bright. Business is trusted by 78% to ‘do what is right’, the highest figure in the world and a remarkably consistent one over the years of the study. Similarly, at 80%, trust in media is also the highest in the world (only China comes near), though trust in NGOs did drop a little to 53% a comparatively modest global score and trust in government has now dropped to global norms of around 40%.

For business, things are very much brighter. Interestingly banks are the second most trusted sector scoring an amazing 86%, given their global score is just 47% after the financial crisis and the European euro crisis. Banks and financial services in much of the region have escaped this contagion although brewing and spirits at 59% regionally and 27% in Indonesia is the least trusted sector. Work to be done by that industry for sure.

But media is highly trusted at 80% and within that, at 44%, traditional media was cited as the most credible source of information.

More here from Chadd McLisky Chairman of IndoPacific Edelman:

And here’s the deck:

About the Study

The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer includes responses from over 30,000 people across 25 countries. The survey, which is in its 12th year, now also includes responses from 1000 general publics (as distinguished from informed publics) in each surveyed market. Steve Lombardo, the CEO of StrategyOne – Edelman’s Independent Research Firm – explains in this video how the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer was designed, and the opportunities to analyze trust around the world, and across a variety of industries, that the survey data provides.

Trust in South Korea

David Brain — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:43:47 +0000

The wall to the Park just by the Blue House in Seoul, home of the President of South Korea

It has been a bad year for trust in Korea pretty much across the board. Not as catastrophic as Japan where Trust has imploded in the aftermath of the disasters there, but pretty significantly. Korea is the 17th most trusting of the 25 nations we survey. Only Japan is now less trusting in the whole of Asia Pacific.

So…that decline by the numbers: trust in business had gone from 46% last year to 31% this year; media from 53% to 45% and government trust has collapsed from 50 to 33% (bear in mind the data was collected in October/November). Only NGOs have seen a rise in their trust score from 62% to 67%.

But that’s not the worst of it. When we unpack the trust in business question a little more we find that trust in consumer packaged goods companies has declined by 21%; Telecom has declined by 32%; financial services by 25% and Banks by 29%. The only sectors to escape large scale declines in trust were automotive and technology so I guess that means Samsung (client) and Hyundai can relax a little, but the rest of Korea inc really needs to address this issue to effectively promote and protect their interests.

So why the big changes given that the Korean economy has largely weathered the economic storm buffeting most developed countries? Probably a number of small stories rather than one big one. The foot and mouth epidemic and the fear of contaminated produce from Japan can’t have helped confidence in food safety; unlike those in the rest of the region, Korean savings banks continued to suffer from their lending splurge prior to 2008 and cost of the constant re-structuring and suicide of three CEOs will have done nothing to raise confidence that the sector was well run. There were fears about energy security in the wake of two nuclear generators ceasing to operate and all of this was overshadowed by the controversy around the free trade agreement with the US which highlighted where protected Korean industry had perhaps not been offering the best of deals to customers and consumers.

And probably the single stat that symbolises this discontent with Korean business is the fact that the CEO is now only the sixth most trusted of information on his or her own firm dropping 35% from last year.

And in politics the head of an NGO became the mayor of Seoul; surely highlighting discontent with the existing parties and leadership.

In this environment of skepticism, it is perhaps not surprising that 64% of Koreans now need to hear a message between 3 and 5 times to believe it.

But there is also a clear lesson on how to rebuild trust in Korean companies from the study. When we asked people to rank the most important attributes for building trust in a company they emphasised societal more than operational features. The list reads:
1.) Listens to customer feedback,
2.) takes actions to address issues or crises,
3.) high quality products or services,
4.) treats employees well,
5.) has transparent and open business
6.) places customers ahead of profits,
7.) communicates frequently and honestly,
8.) has ethical business practices,
9.) works to protect and improve the environment,
10.) ranks on a global list.

A pretty good engagement agenda for any communicator.

SB Jang, General Manager, Edelman Korea

About the Study

Trust in Japan

David Brain — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:53:29 +0000

Tokyo, just outside the Edelman office

My colleagues Ross Rowbury and Alan Vandermolen launched the Trust Barometer findings for Japan in Tokyo today.

It is difficult to know quite where to begin when discussing the Trust Barometer results for Japan this year. Japan was always one of our more stable trust markets, but this year in the wake of the earthquake, tsunami and the Fukashima fallout, trust has plummeted. Some headlines:

Trust in Government has halved and is down 25%, probably not surprising given the anemic (at best) communication and rebuild efforts in the wake of the disasters
Trust in NGOs is down from 51% to 30%, possibly driven by anger at their perceived inefficiency in getting relief to the disaster victims and some issues around administration fees being deducted from donations
Trust in media fell from 46% (already one of the lowest in Asia Pacific) to 36%
Trust in business also fell but less dramatically, but certain sectors saw huge drops. Least surprising was the fact that Energy went from 75% trusted ‘to do what is right’ to 29%; trust in media (as a business rather than an ‘institution’) went from 54% to 33% - just reward perhaps for what some perceived as slow reporting of the disasters in comparison to what was being offered by international media at the time; and Banks from 71% to 51%. These are big drops in the history of our study.
But the biggest of all is the fact that only 8% of Japanese trust Government officials to tell the truth. Or put another way, 92% expect to be lied to. This equals the lowest score ever in the 12 year history of the Trust Barometer.

Globally trust in Government has come down significantly but nowhere can match this figure. The European political struggles to deal with the Euro crisis and the spectacle of the naked partisanship of US politicians getting in the way of passing a balanced budget meant that the global score for trust in government come down to 38% (on the public part of the poll). In Japan the equivalent figure was 24%.

Skepticism is at record highs in Japan, with 82% saying they need to hear a message between 3 and 5 times before they believe it. This is significantly more than the Asia Pacific average of 64% requiring that much repetition. The implication for communicators is stark….you simply have to ensure that campaigns and engagement is continuous to build trust.

It is a real challenge finding good news in terms of media channel choice this year as there was red ink across the board; traditional media declined by 17% points to just 16% saying they trusted it; online sources declined by 8% to 11%; social media is only now trusted by 2% and corporate channels like company web sites is trusted by 7%.

And as for the CEO as a spokesperson to build trust in his or her company, well think again. They declined from 67% last year only 24% this year. This is truly a European level of skepticism and cynicism and genuinely stand out from a market that has usually returned high scores of respect for spokespeople of authority.

Though finally, in an effort to be positive, when we asked people to score the attributes they looked for before conferring trust on a company, the Japanese public opted very strongly for societal or ‘soft’ values, rather than traditional and ‘hard’ values like profit and innovation. ’Listens to customer needs’; ‘treats employees well, has ethical business practices and puts customers ahead of profits all made the top 6.

Japan is without doubt the toughest market in the world for any business to build trust right now.

Ross Rowbury, GM Edelman Japan

About the Study

Trust in Malaysia

David Brain — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:02:22 +0000

This is the first time we have ever conducted the Trust Study in Malaysia and given an interesting political back drop in recent months we were very interested to see the results.

Over-all Malaysia does fit an Asia-Pacific norm and is generally more trusting. Of the 25 countries we survey it ranks 10th most trusting (57% of opinion formers trust its institutions to do what is right), but it is behind close neighbours Singapore (67%) and Indonesia (63%) and other Asia Pacific markets like China (76%), India (65% ) and Hong Kong (61%).

Specifically, NGOs and business are the most trusted institutions both with opinion leaders and with the public. Both are trusted to ‘do what is right’ by 58% of the public compared to 46% for media and 52% for government. Globally of the four institutions, government saw the biggest falls this year and is now trusted by only 38% of consumers worldwide so the Malaysia score for government whilst being on the lower side for Asia, still remains higher than the global average. The study was in the field in October / November so recent political events will not have affected this number and of course we have no trend data for Malaysia, but for those of us who have been working with this instrument for a few years now, the number seems to make sense.

The gap between business and NGOs versus government and media is a significant one in Malaysia. Government ‘control’ of media in countries like Singapore and China does not stop media in those places being trusted (in fact the opposite seems to be true) so the trust score for media of only 47% of opinion formers is an interesting one. I look forward to discussing the reasons for this with our panelists at our launch event and will update via the comments section.

Business definitely has an opportunity to lead in Malaysia and especially technology (85% trusted by opinion formers), telecommunication (81%), banking (78%) and financial services (77%). Technology has been the most trusted sector globally ever since we have been doing this study, so no surprise there in Malaysia, but banking and financial services are globally the least trusted sectors and yet in Malaysia are very well regarded. The banking crisis of 2008 was a western phenomena and the role of banks and bankers bonuses in society is not an Asian phenomena (with the possible exception of Korea).

Like most markets, Malaysians need to hear things repeatedly from multiple sources before they believe them these days; 64% need to hear things three to five times, meaning that for companies and brands, continual engagement and communications is required if they want to build trust.

Corporate web sites and sources of information are more highly trusted in Malaysia (29%) than the global (16%) or Asia Pacific (18%) average and as much as traditional media sources (29%) which does give business and communicators who provide regular and quality content via there own channels a big opportunity to build trust and relationships.

When it comes to choice of spokespeople in Malaysia, companies need to be aware that the CEO is only the fifth most credible source of information (51%) on his or her own firm! More believable to Malaysian opinion formers are company technical experts (72%), academics (70%) a ‘person like yourself’ (62%) and a financial or industry analyst (61%). We still believe the CEO has a big role in communications and especially on strategic and financial issues and in a crisis, but every firm in Malaysia that wants to build trust needs to make sure it has a variety of spokespeople and endorsers.

Malaysian leaders in both government and business do enjoy one huge advantage in communication terms however – the public in Malaysia believes they tell the truth… or conversely only 24% believe that government leaders and only 9% believe business leaders lie to them. Only leaders in UAE and Singapore are more believed by their people.

That being said… business and government in Malaysia should not rest on its laurels. When we asked specific questions on how business and government were delivering on expectations there appeared some big gaps. On the most important three actions a government can take to build trust in Malaysia; listens to needs and feedback; transparent and open practices and effectively manages financial affairs the gaps between delivery and expectation were 45%, 45% and 46% respectively. These scores are broadly in line with global norms… but given what is happening in Europe with the Euro crisis and in the US where politics openly conspires to thwart rational budgeting and economic planning and 99% movement, Malaysia’s scores do seem a little low.

But… not low enough to stop 54% of opinion formers believing that government should do more to regulate business. Malaysia is indeed a land of contradictions when it comes to trust.

And finally, the ‘magnificent Malaysian seven’ – the attributes the Malaysian public as a whole believe is important in building trust in a company are 1) high quality products and services, 2) listens to customers, 3) has transparent and open business practices, 4) has ethical business practices, 5) takes actions to address issues and crises, 6) places customers ahead of profits and 7) treats employees well.

Here’s the deck.

And here’s Raymond Siva, our GM for Malaysia talking about the highlights:

About the Study

Trust in Asia Pacific

David Brain — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:40:08 +0000

Osaka, windows, taken from the office of our client Astra Zeneca

Today we released the findings of the twelfth annual Edelman Trust Barometer, the global results of which were covered in the FT. And this year it is bigger and better in that there are more countries included (Hong Kong and Malaysia for the first time) and the sample has been boosted so we are now measuring not just opinion formers but also consumers. More than ever, the Edelman Trust Barometer is the biggest single survey in the PR industry and delivers more data that PR professionals and communicators can build strategy and plans around. And though we give so much of it away….we also keep a bit behind so if you like what you are seeing in all this and would like a sector or market deep dive, then we have what you need!

And as ever i will start with my health warning that ‘there is no such country as Asia Pacific’….and so whilst there are some very interesting regional and global trends in the data from this year’s Edelman Trust Barometer, the real stories and the ‘actionable insight’ to borrow an over-used phrase is in the national data. Here is the regional deck, to go with the global one. Some highlights that caught my eye:

Over-all, trust in China, India and Australia went up, it was stable in Singapore and it went down in Indonesia, Korea and Japan
Of the 23 markets we surveyed globally, only seven can now be classified as ‘trusting’ and four of those are Asian
Of the four ‘institutions’ (government, media, business and NGOs) we measure, only Government went down in Asia Pacific. Measured globally, the only institution that gained in Trust was media. Asia Pacific remains considerably less gloomy than the ‘West’.
The decline in trust in government in Asia Pacific was led by significant declines in Japan (-26%), Korea (-17%), China (-13%) and Indonesia (-22%). The reasons for these range from perceived corruption or cronyism, economic mismanagement, incompetence and lack of transparency and I will discuss each on separate posts on each market as we release that data over the next few weeks.
Business trust remains high in Asia Pacific though it did fall in Japan and Korea
The most trusted industry sectors in the region are (in order) technology, automotive, telecommunications and banks. Globally, banks and financial services are the least trusted sectors so the region’s lack of a large scale banking crisis, sovereign debt issue or controversy over bonuses means we remain a comparatively welcoming place for financiers (with the possible exception of Korea)
Trust in media rose in India and Singapore and declined (with everything else) in Japan. Again, compared to global numbers, trust in media in Asia Pacific remains high and (counter-intuitively perhaps) especially high in countries where government plays a strong role in media like Singapore (65%), China (79%) and Indonesia (80%)
We need to hear something (good or bad) about a company an average of three to four times before we believe it in Asia Pacific, which is why one-off ‘campaigns’ rarely work and a commitment to continual engagement does
Traditional media remains the most trusted channel of information about companies, but online sources (up by 27%) and social media (up by 89%) are catching fast. There are some big national differences in this we will unpack over the next few weeks
NGOs remain the most trusted institution in the region and so our advice remains they are important to partner with and if you end up in a public argument with them, be sure to have a better case because they are more likely to be believed. Again, there are some interesting national variations in this to come such as China, where trust in NGOs is now at a record 79% (nb; when people answer this question in many Asia Pacific countries, we believe they have in mind local NGOs that address very real local issue rather than the ‘finger pointing’ western global ‘branded’ NGOs)
Spokesperson credibility is becoming democratised in Asia Pacific. A ‘person like yourself’ (60%) is now more trusted as a source of information on a company than the CEO (46%) and a regular employee has surged to 41%. This is hugely important for communicators and again we will go into the markets differences on this in the near future. One example; a CEO in Japan now scores just 22% as a credible source of information on his or her company.
Neither governments or business in the region are meeting the public’s expectation in areas like ‘listening’ and having ethical and transparent business practices.
Despite some trust issues with government there remains an appetite for regulation to protect consumers and mandate responsible corporate behaviours in the region. Business still needs to prove it can do as it ‘should’ not just what it ‘could’ to paraphrase Goldman Sachs.
And finally the study will show what business needs to do to build trust in each market. Regionally the list is headed by i) listen to customer’s needs and feedback, ii) Produce high quality products and services, iii) treat employees well, iv) Places customers ahead of profits, v) Have ethical business practices. Other than point two, all of these have engagement and communication at the heart of them

Edelman offices in all Asia-Pacific markets will be holding detailed presentations and panel sessions over the next few weeks on their country specific findings and so if you would like to attend please contact ‘your local Edelman representative’.