The new dynamic of insularity is confronting brand marketers selling to consumers unsettled by inflation, geopolitics, AI, and misinformation. The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Growth in an Insular World, covering 15 nations and 17,688 respondents, finds two thirds of consumers are hesitant or unwilling to trust those with different core values, information sources, cultural backgrounds, and solutions to societal problems. These insular consumers are twice as likely to be unwilling to use brands that are associated with people who are different from them, compared to consumers with open trust mindsets.
Growth requires attracting and retaining customers, but insularity threatens it in ways that marketers are not currently addressing. That’s because brands are being judged on the identity of who uses them, not just what they do. Brands have taken on greater social significance: over half of our respondents (54%) say that they feel a connection to people who use the same brands that they do, up eight points in the past five years. Because of that, 4 in 10 Gen Z and Millennial consumers are using brands in secret in order to avoid social stigma. Nationalism is a further extension of this tribalism, with two thirds of respondents saying that a brand being domestically headquartered is an important or critical purchase deal breaker.
In this new context, relevance is broadened beyond utility and presence in pop culture, to include community connection, emotional resonance, and identity. In fact, our data reveals that pop culture fluency is the least effective way to achieve relevance, and yet it is often a brand’s go-to relevance ploy. Brands are failing to achieve relevance among those with an insular mindset, with a 26-point gap between performance and effectiveness on identity reflection and 21-point gap on community connection. Brands must incorporate these dimensions into their relevance strategies in ways that address consumers’ needs for security, belonging, and peace of mind.
The combination of trust and relevance effectively doubles a brand’s growth potential in a way that neither can alone. When consumers don’t trust brands and don’t find them relevant, only 36% say they are willing to continue to use a brand that decides to start selling to people who are different from themselves. With trust alone, that number goes up to 48%. With relevance alone, that number goes up to 53%. But when consumers both trust brands and find them relevant, acceptance of selling to those who differ from them goes up to 71%.
An earned approach is the best way to leverage an integrated trust and relevance strategy. Unpaid voices are 5x more powerful than paid brand voices for the insular when it comes to driving trust. Nearly half of the insular (46%) say that unpaid voices have the biggest impact on their willingness to trust a brand. Conversations must start within narrow trust circles. When it comes to sharing brand information, the insular trust friends and family (82%) and Someone Like Me (76%), but distrust celebrities (42%). In an insular world, brands don’t have the license to declare they are relevant and trustworthy: it must be proven out by experience.
The central paradox of growth in 2026 is that consumers increasingly want brands to feel more personal, while brands need to become more broadly accepted and global. The answer is not micro-targeting through advertising, it is to have enough trust and relevance that consumers see the brand as a reflection of themselves while being open to sharing it with other people who are not. It is done through leveraging an earned strategy, acting as a polynational, and making an outstanding product. Brands that solve this paradox will turn insularity from a barrier of growth into a source of competitive advantage.
Richard Edelman is CEO.
