Special Report: Brand Growth in an Insular World Saudi Arabia Edition

Trust + Relevance: A New Equation for Brand Growth in Saudi Arabia

The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Growth in an Insular World finds that brand choice in Saudi Arabia is increasingly connected to consumers’ identity, values and sense of belonging. What a brand represents is becoming as important as what it delivers. In this environment, trust and relevance work together to create the conditions for growth. Relevance creates fit. Trust creates confidence.

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Relevance is Multi-Faceted

In Saudi Arabia, relevance is about more than pop culture. Consumers look for brands that are useful, reflect who they are, foster connection and create emotional resonance.

Earned is the Most Powerful Way to Build Trust

In Saudi Arabia, what people who are not paid by a brand say about it has a greater impact on willingness to trust than what the brand says about itself.

Trust and Relevance Create Permission to Grow

Globally, consumers are almost 2x more willing to support a brand as it expands to serve new and different audiences when that brand has earned both trust and relevance.

Discover the Trust insights shaping 2026

A full look at this year’s findings — and what they mean for businesses, leaders, and society.

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Brand Playbook for Growth

1. Integrate trust and relevance into a growth strategy

Relevance creates fit, but being relevant at scale means you inherently risk alienating some. Pair every relevance move with trust proof, so the brand has permission to stretch without losing confidence.

2. Use trust as a leading growth indicator

Do not wait for trust to show up as a reputation issue. Track where trust is creating or constraining premium, loyalty, adoption, advocacy, forgiveness, and permission to stretch across audiences.

3. Choose the right relevance levers

Relevance isn’t only culture or fame. Diagnose the growth problem, then activate the right dimension of fit: utility, identity,community, emotion, or pop culture fluency.

4. Lead with earned, scale with paid

Start with ideas credible enough for others to validate, translate, share, review, and carry forward. Make those proof points discoverable in LLM-driven search. Use owned and paid to substantiate and amplify what earned makes it believable.

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Methodology: The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Growth in an Insular World is the firm’s 8th annual Trust and Brands survey. The research was produced by the Edelman Trust Institute and consists of 25-minute online interviews conducted between April 23 and May 11, 2026. Learn More >

17,688

Respondents

Countries

1,200 +/-

Respondents/Country

What does this mean for your brand?

Please reach out to learn more about the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Growth in an Insular World.

25 Years of Trust