Brands & Culture

This could be the most complex time ever for brands. We are enduring three interconnected crises: the global pandemic, economic downturn and systemic racism. The U.S. election has exposed the deep fault lines in society leading to populism and protest. The result of these simultaneous shocks is a rapid escalation of fears and a reordering of values that is driving people to the trusted and familiar.

With consumers going back to brands they know, trust has emerged as a fundamental driver of purchase. Fears shift what people value; sixty percent of consumers now buy brands they trust. In exchange, consumers expect brands to take a stand on societal issues while solving personal challenges. Brands must recognize that consumers are now living inside out, with a world that starts at home, with top concerns now personal health and family instead of image or status.

For the evidence of this shift for brands, we must turn to the data. We have just come out of the field with an Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report entitled Brands Amidst Crisis, that surveyed 8,000 people in the last week of October in eight countries (Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, UK and U.S.). We can make the following assertions from the research:

The Fear Level Has Escalated Massively—From our first study at the beginning of 2020, fear levels have risen and become more closely related to the pandemic. The most profound fear is physical health, followed by mental health. Economic concerns and status are also at the top of the list of fears that have increased, notably the potential for compromised education of children and anxiety for their family’s welfare and security. Brands that alleviate fears are trusted four times as much.
Values Have Morphed—What matters most is spending time with family (+38 percent), making smart purchasing decisions (+36 percentage points), and helping other people (+24 percentage points). What matters less is my image as reflected in brands I buy. I care less about being a tastemaker or trendsetter (-9 percentage points) or enjoying the finer things in life (-10 percentage points).
Brands to the Rescue—Brands are expected to solve both societal and personal problems (86 percent). That includes proper treatment of employees and making the product in domestic market. Brands need to support me (68 percent) and support my community (63 percent).
Brands More Creative and Effective Than Government—Fifty-five percent of respondents believe brands can do more to solve social ills than government. That same percent of respondents said that brands are more accountable than government and faster to take action to change things for the better.
Trust Now Third Purchase Criterion—The Five Ps of Marketing are amended to include a T (Trust). Price and quality are just ahead of trust. But other trust attributes are deeply important in purchase, including reputation and purpose. This is true across geography, gender and age group as the universal and consistent advantage (88 percent importance in purchase).
Brand Trust Key to Engagement and Repurchase—High trust consumers have more brand loyalty (75 percent), engagement including sharing personal data (60 percent) and advocacy including recommending or defending the brand (78 percent).
Action Builds Brand Trust—By a two-to-one margin, brand trust increases when actions help workers and communities, instead of making commitments on what a brand will do in the future. Brands are 4 times more likely to gain trust than lose it when they act on an issue such as systemic racism. A warning signal for brands is that nearly two-thirds of respondents said that they are seeing more ‘trust-washing’ from brands in the last three years, with large rises in the UK (+9 percentage points) and Germany (+9 percentage points).
Solve, Don’t Sell—More than half of respondents (56 percent) want brands to downplay the holidays this year. Nearly 70 percent want brands to display proper social distancing and mask-wearing behaviors in their marketing. Respondents are split on tone, with 51 percent seeking to escape pandemic-related worries through humor.
Earned Media, Personal Experience Are Battleground for Trust—Paid media finishes last among channels (23 percent), while personal experience matters most (59 percent) followed by earned media (44 percent) and peer conversation (39 percent). In fact, nearly 7 in 10 people are using advertising avoidance strategies, including ad blockers (48 percent) and paying for streaming services (45 percent).
Peers and Experts Most Credible Sources—Regular users of brands (58 percent) and experts (52 percent) are far ahead of celebrities (35 percent) or influencers (36 percent) as trusted sources of information on what a brand is doing to allay concerns. Friends and family do the most to ease my fears.

The world is being reset. It's becoming smaller and people have shifted to protecting their health, their jobs, and their families. The result is a dramatic redefinition of what drives purchase decisions, and a reset for brand marketing. It’s crucial that marketers recognize this new reality: traditional brand magnetism has been reduced; now people expect brands to act to solve personal and societal needs. Brands that step up, ease fears, show positivity and hope, and empathize with consumers sentiment will gain loyalty.

Determining when to step up on a societal issue is critically important because brands must avoid becoming overtly political. To differentiate between societal needs and partisan politics, brands must ask themselves the following questions before taking action: Does it solve a societal need that aligns with our values? Does it have a clear connection to our company or brand? Does it satisfy our employee demands? Does it meet our stakeholder expectations? Last year, Heineken made the right decision when it designed a program that helped to reduce drink-driving by redesigning the bar experience. Similarly, Ajinomoto was well within its swim lane when it sparked action with a “Take Out Hate” campaign that called for Americans to order takeout from local Asian restaurants that were battling discrimination at the onset of Covid-19 and going out of business faster than other cuisine categories.

It is time for a brand marketing reset. We can see that there is room for brands to not only redefine their role, but to support society in unprecedented ways. This is the moment of Great Expectations; brands are now seen as powerful advocates and effective partners in change. There is no ducking of this responsibility; consumers are holding brands to account and will reward the bold and penalize the pusillanimous. In the Battle for Truth, brand marketing budgets are an effective counterweight to misinformation and destabilization. In Maslow’s hierarchy, we are now back to the basic needs of safety and physiological. It is time for brands to lead, answering fears with facts, trauma with truths, anxiety with action.

Discuss the report with an Edelman advisor

Things were turbulent for marketing leaders and accelerated during Covid. The role of the CMO had become extremely volatile, with the average tenure reportedly being the shortest of all C-suite roles and major companies like Johnson & Johnson and Uber doing away with the position altogether.

Then, the pandemic came along and things got even more complicated. Budgets were slashed, major campaigns were delayed and canceled, and marketing leaders had to make one pivot after another to nimbly respond to evolving scenarios and consumer needs.

Despite all of this, the core job of all marketing leaders remains unchanged—they must understand, anticipate and deliver exactly what consumers want and need. And regardless of service or product, it’s imperative that customers trust your business and your brand, a truth that has been underscored by the extraordinary tumult and challenges of 2020.

The Covid-19 pandemic, global economic crisis and ongoing turmoil over systemic racism and social injustice are changing the way consumers think, shop, spend and interact with brands. For one, consumers have never had more reasons to try out new brands and potentially make a switch. They’re coping with lost income and stricter budgets, and they’re online shopping more than ever. Many have also had a harder time accessing their usual preferred products, due to supply chain issues and social distancing requirements.

Widespread social upheaval is also leading more and more consumers to take an active interest in brands’ ethics and business practices. Those that don’t pass the sniff test are losing longtime customers to companies that take an authentic stand on societal issues.

These changes and trends are challenging but also pose opportunities for brands and marketing leaders.

Edelman has been studying trust for 20 years and our research shows that it’s never been more crucial for brands to build and earn it. Our Brand Trust in 2020 report found that in this environment, people want brands to play many roles, perhaps many more than was ever expected before: they want brands to address individual problems and needs, they want brands to step up and help solve societal problems, AND they want brands to enrich their personal lives. Brands are expected to do more and say more, and consumer trust has the power to make or break a business.

To build brand trust and be successful in the current climate, marketing leaders must be hyper-empathetic with consumers as they cope with financial struggles, health and safety concerns, social injustice, natural disasters and a host of other major crises and disruptions to their lives. The consumer journey has become more complex and sentiment changes daily, so it’s essential to use data and real-time analytics to tap into consumers’ ever-changing mindsets and quickly adapt strategies to meet their latest needs.

And while it’s all well and good to talk about the importance of building and earning trust, the path to doing so is different for every brand. To determine the way forward and tailor effective strategies for our clients, we developed Edelman Trust Management (ETM): Brand, a new suite of powerful analytical tools and advisory services that interpret and measure the power of trust to make it actionable and unlock its power to drive business success. We look at what you want to achieve for your brand right now, what persistent challenges it’s facing, and then determine how you can build stronger connections with consumers and best earn trust across the products and services you make.

Trusted brands are better equipped to navigate disruption, seize opportunities, engage and act responsibly, so finding your brand’s unique journey to building and earning consumer trust is critical to sustained success, even in the best of times. 2020 has delt one blow after another and the year isn’t over yet. Trust could very well be the lifeboat your brand needs to weather the storm.

Michele Anderson is U.S. Chair of Brand.

Brands have entered a brave new era, where trust rules. In a world upended by the Covid-19 pandemic, natural disasters produced or exacerbated by climate change and a global outcry over systemic racism, brands face heightened demands to do and say more. There is an urgent need for brands to solve for both personal and societal problems, and trust, within that context, has become the make or break. Our Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust in 2020, uncovered that trust in a brand is second only to price when consumers decide to purchase or pass on a new brand.

Yet human trust is complex and nuanced. It is the foundation upon which human relationships are started, grown, and sustained. Once broken, it can be lost completely, but surprisingly, when earned, trust can act as a halo and a shield for brands to take more risks and protect against headwinds. In today’s turbulent and, often, frightening world, people are craving human connection and meaningful engagement more than ever—and they bring these expectations to brands. Brands, in turn, need a more sophisticated understanding of consumer trust that goes beyond tabulating the same transactional data points that everyone has: they must be able to build, manage, and grow trusting relationships through a deep understanding of humans.

Introducing Edelman Trust Management: Brand

This puts trust at the helm and demands that brands apply a new way of thinking, measuring, and activating trust—shifting to creating data, instead of just consuming it. To meet this, we’ve engineered a new, proprietary framework called Edelman Trust Management (ETM): Brand. Built on our twenty years of research and experience in defining and measuring trust, and validated in partnership with renowned academics and business leaders during Covid-19, ETM Brand is designed and ready for the landscape today.

ETM Brand is a proprietary suite of integrated advisory tools and services that interpret and measure the power—and implications—of trust. It marries our longstanding leadership in brand marketing and communications with our new, advanced capabilities in research, data, and machine learning. ETM Brand enables us to create a strategic roadmap that leads to actionable communications so brands can build relationships with people in which trust is the core.

The result is the ability for brands to connect with people, as people. We begin by taking this people-centric approach—one that captures the complex components, dynamic nature, and individual variations around how trust manifests, how it is built, and how it can be maintained for a specific brand—at the level of a specific person.

Our framework is based on five trust-driving dimensions that diagnose strengths and weaknesses to build a comprehensive and actionable view for brands: Ability, Dependability, Integrity, Purpose and Self.

In addition to these fixed dimensions, we also create custom metrics based on a brand’s specific business, challenges, objectives, and opportunities. These metrics provide sharp and precise diagnostics based on a brand’s unique operating environment.

Harnessing the Power of Trust to Create Real Impact

Most distinctly, ETM Brand activates trust at the individual level to create trust profiles so we can analyze how the same trust dimensions can be uniquely driven by different individual needs, hopes, desires, and fears. Through this process, ETM Brand identifies the most effective trust levers to maximize ROI on a brand’s media spend and market activities. These levers range from which language and imagery to use, to which influencers and spokespeople best tell the brand’s story. It is also built to quantify the impact of trust as it moves, being able to measure in real-time and creating value equity by improving overall brand trust across consumer segments at scale.

Brands today can’t just talk—they must act on the issues that matter to their consumers. Knowing how someone trusts, however, points the way for how brands can communicate about their actions in ways that earn trust. Earning trust through meaningful and unique content, experiences, and communications around brand actions, in turn, gives brands permission to learn even more about consumers and what they care about, and to then act and communicate in ways that build even more trust. It’s a virtuous circle: where trust yields data and data drives trust. This is how brands can articulate their purpose to consumers define purpose, create differentiation, and build connections today.

New York Times bestselling author and human relationships expert Esther Perel says: “Trust is the active engagement with the unknown. Trust is risky. It’s vulnerable. It’s a leap of faith.” That is the superpower successful brands need to survive, compete, and grow today. And that’s what ETM Brand hopes to build with current and prospective clients: trusted, lasting relationships among the people they want to reach.

Megan Van Someren is Global Brand and Food & Beverage Chair and Yannis Kotziagkiaouridis is Global Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Edelman Data & Intelligence (DxI).

On August 26, 2020, four years to the day that Colin Kaepernick first took a knee to protest police brutality, NBA and WNBA players and other athletes across multiple sports leagues held a strike after a Kenosha, Wisconsin police officer shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times in front of his children.

Athletes are loudly echoing the sentiment of members of the Black community and beyond: All lives cannot matter until Black lives matter.

This issue cost Colin Kaepernick his job. But our latest research shows that the majority of Americans now believe professional athletes and celebrities have an obligation to use their status and influence to focus attention on the issue of systemic racism even, if that means refusing to play or perform.

How did we get here?

First, our research shows what Black Americans have long known to be true—institutions have earned the mistrust of the Black community.

It comes as no surprise that Black Americans are specifically and substantially less likely than other people of color to trust American institutions, with mistrust of NGOs (49 percent trust), Media (48 percent trust), Business (45 percent trust), and government (34 percent trust). Black Americans also have little trust in small businesses (51 percent) and their employers (59 percent), in comparison to their counterparts of other ethnicities.

Second, business and government both continue to fall short in addressing systemic racism. Only 36 percent of Americans say that the call for racial justice is being heard by government, with federal government getting particularly low marks at 33 percent. And while 55 percent of Americans expect CEOs to be actively anti-racist, 44 percent believe that the business community has “done very little” to address systemic racism. For Black Americans specifically, there is a 45-point gap between expectations of business to create change—and business’s actual performance on this front.

And third, the media has failed Black America and helped perpetuate bias. 62 percent say that, in covering the demonstrations against racial injustice, the news media has focused on rioting at the expense of peaceful protests. And 54 percent of Americans say that there has not been sufficient focus in the news media on the underlying issues that sparked the current protests for racial justice. These numbers are more pronounced for Black Americans, at 67 percent and 62 percent respectively. It follows that Black Americans are now more likely to get their news from advocacy organizations (36 percent) and activist organizations (38 percent) than the mainstream news media (28 percent).

The current call for change is one that’s built up over decades, and Black Americans are leveraging the power of their dollars, labor, and voices to make it widespread. As employees withholding their labor to demand justice, the NBA players made a powerful statement about their expectations of their employers, who profit from Black talent, to meaningfully address systemic racism. Equipped with a list of specific demands, they joined a chorus of protestors in cities across the world calling on institutions to hold law enforcement accountable for excessive force that has much too often ended Black lives like those of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks.

Like these athletes, employees and consumers across industries are looking to corporations and brands to lead society through the path of justice in the absence of trust in government. For business, our research reveals a few concrete action items:

The expectation for business is one of long-term, structural change. Americans expect more from business than a black square posted to Instagram. The expectation and long-term path is toward absolute zero-tolerance policies towards racism (61 percent of Americans agree), racial representation at all levels of the organization (60 percent agree), and the removal and replacement of racist symbols, language, products, traditions or images (56 percent agree).
Brands have a role to play in dismantling racist tropes. Marketers can take a lesson from the media: Without a critical eye toward your imagery and stories, you can unintentionally perpetuate racism. The next era of brand storytelling means taking an active role in dismantling unconscious bias.
Lines between corporations and brands have blurred. Consumers make purchasing decisions for brands based on how their corporate parents reflect diversity in their operations; employees choose where to work based on how brands have used their platforms on this topic. For business—and specifically, for CEOs—a unified authentic front between marketing, HR, and communications is critical in addressing the issue.

One thing is clear: Just like Colin Kaepernick taking a knee was more than a moment in time, the current call for brands and corporations to meaningfully address systemic racism will echo for years to come. Our research shows that the call for change is substantial and gaining ground. For leaders, it’s a moment of challenge—but also one of significant opportunity. In an environment of belief-driven buyers and cause-driven employees, those that step forward will be rewarded with trust and loyalty.

Jackeline Stewart is vice president.

It was once unimaginable for many brands to even consider weighing in on societal issues or take a definitive stance on anything as racial justice. Like the separation of church and state, businesses and brands were expected to steer clear of taking a stand on any issues perceived to be controversial or politically divisive.

But here’s the thing: brands are inherently political, as any analysis of the many now tone-deaf campaigns from the 20th century will tell you. And, as Edelman’s Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust in 2020 shows, brands can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines. But their stands must be authentic, they must back their words with actions, and they must first get their own houses in order. Specifically:

In the U.S., trust is the third biggest factor influencing consumers as they decide which brands to buy and support, and the level of trust a consumer has in a brand is significantly impacted by how that brand responds to societal issues.
The potential for brands to earn trust by addressing racial injustice is four times greater than the risk of losing it by doing so—82 percent of Americans said brands would earn their trust by taking a stand on racism, while only 20 percent said brands would lose it. (2020 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brands and Racial Justice)
In the U.S., six in ten people want brands to invest in addressing the root causes of racial justice issues, or to engage in public policy discussions to effect change.

In other words, a few vague social media posts declaring broad support and other forms of “woke-washing” aren’t going to cut it with today’s consumers. And for brands that don’t publicly declare their values, and back them up with actions, the consequences are significant. Case in point—the recent slew of overtures and gestures made by the NFL.

A $250 million donation to "support the battle against the ongoing and historic injustices faced by African-Americans" and a blanket statement condemning racism rung hollow coming from the organization that, not so long ago, shamed and shunned Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee during the National Anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice.
A major football team well-known for its racially charged name posted a black square on Instagram to participate in the #BlackoutTuesday social initiative aimed at calling attention to racism.

In the court of public opinion, all wrongs can move toward being righted, and it’s never too late for brands to join the conversation. But today’s consumers are demanding an authentic and committed journey to real and lasting transformation from brands, one that uses their full power to address systemic racism. Without other actions, a black square on Instagram or a lackluster pledge of support is the stock-photo version of “taking a stand.” And our data shows what many marketers know to be true: Consumers will clock these efforts from a mile away.

Trust is critical, but no brand can win trust until it gets its own house in order. Brands need to actively demonstrate that they are advancing social progress—both inside and outside the organization.

This means the role of the CMO is more important, and more influential, than ever before. Yes—the past few months have been a strange journey for marketers. But with brands increasingly measured by their public commitments, and increased scrutiny on public commitments and authentic action, the CMO can become an organization’s change-maker—translating the demands of consumers into a real, tangible roadmap for systemic change.

It’s an opportunity that shouldn’t be lost.

Michele Anderson is U.S. Chair of Brand.

We just released our Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust in 2020, uncovering a new era for brands – one with trust at the helm and expectations of brands to do more, be more, say more and solve more than ever before. Amid the seismic shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic and the societal outcry over systemic racism in the wake of the senseless murder of George Floyd, the need for trusted brands is at an all-time high. In fact, 85 percent of people around the world are looking to brands to solve for their individual needs, be it protection, innovation, information or connection. Moreover, 80 percent are seeking societal solutions from brands as a visionary, problem solver and a force in shaping culture.

I had the great privilege of hosting a panel discussion with a distinguished selection of voices and perspectives reflecting the psychology of human relationships, brand activism at its best, industry-wide change-making and the power of creative excellence. All together, they offered an inspiring blueprint for brand trust-building today.

Business and Humanity

Matthew McCarthy, CEO of Ben & Jerry’s, when asked what is most needed from brands and business today, summed it up: “crisis is piercing the false veil between business and humanity.” He talked about compassion being a business priority and how brands have always been in the trust business. At the same time, Matthew spoke about the need to do more and how he is leading “a root cause analysis of what we need to do to make Ben & Jerry’s truly a place of equity. The process we are following is results-based accountability, not just soul-searching. As a business, as a team, what are the results we can set for ourselves leveraging the power of business to make change.”

From Transaction to Trust

According to Esther Perel, psychotherapist, New York Times bestselling author and human relationships expert, trust is vital right now and brands are filling a void: “Trust becomes a force to enable us to cope with all that uncertainty and vulnerability.” She went on to say that we don’t form relationships simply from buying something. “Never have we put more expectations on our relationships,” she says. “We want a brand to solve the problems of society and to have meaningful actions.” She continued to share how the realms of personal and business relationships are blurring, “The world of business has brought the language of emotion like it never has before; we are talking about psychological safety in the same breath that we’re talking about performance indicators.”

This shift from transaction to trust is especially true in younger people, with 77 percent in the 18-34 age group saying that trusting a brand is more important today than in the past (compared to 70 percent of all respondents). According to Mathew, “badge values in brands is a very outmoded idea and young people are constructing their identity in ways that are different than those that are older...I am not going to be in a transactional mode with a whole bunch of brands that I don’t even know what they stand for.”

Action Over Optics

Sarah Greenidge, founder of WellSpoken, spoke of the convergence of two inequalities: the white centricity of wellness, where “white and thin has become the epitome for what wellness looks like” and inequality in health literacy. Together, these are creating a dramatic impact on access to and understanding of information that enables people to be empowered wellness consumers. “Wellness is a great example [of trust] because brands can have direct links to health outcomes if we do it right.”

When we spoke of solutions, Sarah warned against “optical ally-ship – showing solidarity but not action from brands, virtue-signaling or savior complex,” behaviors that some brands tend to fall back on. “This is not an issue where a brand can be a lone wolf. We all need to be working to the same goals.” Which is why Sarah and her organization are leading this change with a diversity charter for the wellness industry, which addresses five key issues: education, accessibility, representation, corporate diversity and fair wages. A brilliant reflection of what we know consumers need and expect today.

Creativity, More Than an Output

In the spirit of Cannes Lions Live, we could not overlook the power and responsibility of creativity to build trust and drive change. Judy John, Edelman’s Global Chief Creative Officer, summed it up by saying “Creativity is not just an output. Think of creativity as how we solve business problems; it’s storytelling, it’s emotion and connection; it’s how we make people care and share.”

Mathew added that creativity is an opportunity. “Business has to be part of the solution. Business must be in the game.”

Megan Van Someren is Global Chair of Brand and Food & Beverage.

On 25 June, Edelman launched the Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust in 2020.

The report revealed that brands face a fundamental reordering of priorities amid a global pandemic and societal outcry over systemic racism prompted by the murder of George Floyd. In this environment, consumers are looking to brands to act and advocate for change.

Edelman spoke to a panel of distinguished leaders to examine the necessity of trust in unlocking buying power and advocacy for change, as well as the role that brands must play, and solve for, in consumers’ lives today. Our virtual panel included:

Esther Perel, Psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author
Matthew McCarthy, CEO, Ben & Jerry's
Sarah Greenidge, Founder, WellSpoken
Judy John, Global Chief Creative Officer, Edelman

The panel was moderated by Megan Van Someren, Global Chair of Brand.

Richard Edelman, CEO, and Lee Maicon, Global Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, gave an introduction to the data.

Data Presentation

Panel Discussion

Highlights

Covid-19 has shaken our society, economy and entire way of life. It has distinctly illustrated what matters, our basic needs becoming increasingly important as ongoing restrictions impact our ability to live the life we knew a few months ago.

Our Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Brand Trust in 2020 shows just how critical it is for brands to play a vital part during this pandemic. To be able to trust a brand, 85 percent of respondents want that brand to solve their personal problems; similarly, 80 percent of people feel it is important for a brand to help solve society’s problems. This is demonstrated in purchasing patterns too, with 44 percent recently using a new brand because of the innovative or compassionate way they have responded to the outbreak, a seven-point increase since April. Brands are judged and bought depending on how supportive they have been. People don’t want a brand to sell to them; they want a brand to offer a solution to help make sense of our current normal.

In these times of acute stress, where supply chains are challenged and our movement restricted, our focus has returned to fundamentals—our loyalty and respect given to brands who support us. Seventy percent of people say trusting a brand is more important today than in the past. Indeed, a substantial 64 percent say that how well a brand responds to the pandemic will have a huge impact on their likelihood to buy the brand in the future. This is particularly salient for those aged 18 to 34, where 77 percent of respondents value trust more highly than they ever have.

So, solving big and small problems for the individual and society is what matters most for brands today. We love the brands which help us live our best lives in our current ‘normal.’ And some brands have absolutely stepped up—The Super Solver Brands. Their goods and services are accessible—not only do they turn up on our doorstep, but they also have stock or collateral and content that can satisfy our home-orientated demand. They are affordable, their value is their contribution to solvability in life, rather than monetary definition alone, delivering (literally) with integrity. And they help us become self–sufficient because we have shifted from a society that relies on outside services to a society where we serve ourselves. The purpose of brands moves from ‘nice to have’ to a ‘need to have.’ We found in our 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer Spring Update: Trust and the Covid-19 Pandemic that 89 percent of people want brands to shift money and resources to producing products that help people meet pandemic-related challenges.

As online traffic mounts, the frustration to secure a regular supermarket delivery slot is overcome by the new Sainsbury’s Chop Chop app and Waitrose Rapid, offering delivery within hours: our new Super Solvers.

On a bigger scale, Jamie Oliver is the epitome of a Super Solver Brand. His brilliant “Keep Cooking and Carry On,” a 20-episode TV show produced in only a few weeks, uses his brand power and influence to give people tangible solutions to put food on the table and support local food providers. He gave everyone permission to throw out the rule book and cope. I asked him what inspired him to create the program so early in lockdown. “As I felt the Covid-19 cloud of uncertainty looming fast,” he told me, “I could see so much control being taken away from the public. I wanted to arm them with helpful tips, swap-outs and information to offer them some control.”

It didn’t take long to see the impact. “The feedback from the public was immediate and very powerful,” Oliver told me. There was “gratitude to having a familiar face busking mealtimes like they had to, with random ingredients, using food to lift everyone’s spirits. Now, more than ever, I know the power of food.”

Joe Wicks had families all over the world exercising at home together with almost 70 million views during lockdown, giving structure to their day and lifestyle support in such a magnanimous way.

Super Solver Brands can be large or small—their impact is what raises their status. The London-based community hall singing teacher who now performs on Instagram Live daily at 10:00 am has increased her audience from 30 families to over 10,000 and growing. The Kent-based Copper Rivet Distillery have made 13,000 liters of alcohol-based hand sanitizer for emergency services. In the UK, Smiths Group Plc has ramped up the manufacture of its own medical ventilators, which are in short supply, and has made the intellectual property to produce them available to other companies; the government has asked engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc and McLaren Automotive to help build them. Alibaba delivered 100 million food packages a day to distribution points in China, while the World Central Kitchen did the same in the U.S., providing 250,000 fresh meals daily for The Next-Door websites connecting communities and neighbors who have previously never leaned on each other.

Our day-to-day life is smaller, while the world is facing the realities of bigger problems. Where brands bring solutions and are accessible, valuable and drive self-sufficiency, we will trust them, buy them and be loyal to them. Super Solver status is what all brands should be striving for.

Jackie Cooper is senior advisor, Edelman, and non executive director, Jamie Oliver Group

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