"The Language of Trust" Review

The Language of Trust provides communicators with a comprehensive account of how to command language in order to engage with a skeptical global audience in the “post-trust era” (PTE). Whether communications professionals are seeking to sell products, services, ideas or simply themselves, they must first acquire the audience’s trust — something that’s become exponentially more difficult to do in a digital age.

Authors Michael Maslansky, Scott West, Gary DeMoss, and David Saylor conduct their communications and operate on the premise that “trust is dead.” (Maslansky, 2010, p. X). Long gone are the days when salespeople could win over customers with baseless claims about the superiority of their product or sell on the basis of sophistication by awing people with complex, industry-specific jargon. Today’s consumers have evolved. They’ve seen through the marketing tricks of the past and no longer give companies the benefit of the doubt. Nowadays, consumers seek to find contradictions and exceptions in brand communication before they look for reasons to believe (Maslansky, 2010, p. 4)

The essence of successful communication in the 21st century can be boiled down to one key concept: building a relationship. Relationships are the cornerstone of successfully reaching an audience in the PTE and the central principle around which The Language of Trust crafts its lessons. In our digital world, people seek authenticity. There is simply too much information, too many platforms for voicing opinions, and too many product alternatives for customers to buy the messaging of an organization that they don’t perceive as credible. In order to garner the attention of modern-day audiences, brands must put the consumers’ needs before their own and show a demonstrated interest in things greater than the bottom line.

The Language of Trust is built upon relationships, and good relationships have common ground. Finding areas of alignment between the company’s and the audience’s worldview is a vital step to engaging consumers. Ideally, brand ideas and communications should both start and end with the consumer. Rather than trying to sell their services to an audience, brands need to focus on what they can offer that will be of benefit to the consumer and present that information in a credible manner. Nowadays, one of the best tactics to sell is to not sell at all (Maslansky, 2010, p. 28). Rather, communicators are learning to have conversations with their audiences in which they lay out facts in an objective, neutral manner and let the end-user decide if it’s right for them.

The metaphorical glue which ties these concepts together is language itself. According to The Language of Trust, the four principles of credible communication are to be: personal, plainspoken, positive, and plausible. These “four Ps” serve as the framework for how we as communicators should approach conversations with our publics.

Being personal relates back to the aforementioned concept of putting the consumer first. Communicators must be able to take on the perspective of the audience members that they’re trying to reach and analyze situations from that alternate point of view. Finding ways that your brand’s goals tie into the consumer’s needs and seeking to frame messaging in ways that are relevant to that consumer is essential in getting their attention.

Plainspokenness is a fairly straightforward concept that many professionals lose touch with as they dive into the complexities of their fields and become more knowledgeable about the things that their companies deal with. The thing is, the audience isn’t as learned as the communicator with regard to a given subject. Again, departed are the days in which consumers gave brands the benefit of the doubt. People now expect to be spoken to in language that they can comprehend, and if they don’t understand you, well — it’s your fault (Maslansky, 2010, p. 71) Avoiding confusing, industry-specific jargon and choosing plain words/phases over their more complex synonyms is a must for brands that want their messaging to actually resonate with ordinary people. The burden is now on communicators to ensure that their messaging is cohesive and comprehensive, a suitable length, and includes enough information that it’s relevant but not so much that the essence gets lost in the clutter. A tall order indeed, but one that is now a necessity in the PTE because if your brand isn’t doing the job, another will fill the void that your company leaves after it goes out of business.

“Positivity is not Pollyanna” (Maslansky, 2010, p. 96). In the PTE people are highly skeptical of things that even remotely border on too good to be true. Being positive is about “[turning] real facts into an optimistic or positive view of the world,” not portraying a brand or service as perfect (Maslansky, 2010). The authors describe brands that are successful in the PTE as ones that are forward-looking and speak realistically, albeit with an aura of optimism, and don’t focus on negative factors. People don’t want to be reminded of how bad a given situation is, but they also don’t want to hear that everything will be just fine once they invest in your services. There’s a fine balance between evoking a sense of optimism within consumers and turning them off completely, and it’s all in the words that we choose.

Plausibility partly ties into positivity in this context as it covers using realistic language and avoiding hyperbole. A core component of plausibility is neutrality. Providing information objectively and acknowledging both pros and cons goes a long way with regard to credibility. Skeptics in the PTE realize they aren’t living in Wonderland. Nothing is perfect and it would be a mistake to present a brand’s products as so. Being able to acknowledge and even validate consumer concerns is a key component of resonating with many skeptical consumers.

In reading The Language of Trust I both gained a lot of insight about how to reach people in the PTE and also received validation that some of my existing knowledge and intuition about such is on track with modern standards of communication. Recapping the entirety of what I learned would require a summary twice as lengthy as the one above, but the following are some of the most salient points that I picked up.

Consumer, consumer, consumer...did I say consumer? Successful messaging begins with the target audience and maintains that focus throughout. People don’t want to be talked at; they want to be talked to. Brand communications should be crafted around how the brand can facilitate the needs of the consumer. A major communication pitfall detailed by numerous examples in this book is when brands frame a situation to be about itself in times when it should really be about the end-user. A great example of this regards crisis communications. When an organization messes up, audiences don’t want to hear about how outstanding the company’s track record is or the principles upon which it was founded — they want to feel understood. Acknowledging mistakes or flaws and validating consumer concerns is a huge part of establishing a brand as credible, honest, or trustworthy.

Truth is subjective in the post-trust era. Regardless of how much research backs your campaign, how many facts you have to support actions, or how much experience you have dealt with a particular issue, people won’t always agree. In fact, much of the time your audience holds a drastically different worldview than your own and the key to resonating with them is to understand their perspective. Oftentimes, the harder a brand tries to fight and present itself as holding an objective perspective, the less credible it becomes. Perhaps the best nugget from this book is “it’s not what you say, it’s what they hear” (Maslansky, 2010, p. 24). The key is to find “the communication ‘truth space’” in which the audience’s beliefs “align with what you are saying” (Maslansky, 2010, p. 27). Rather than going against the grain and trying to change the audience’s worldview, which is impossible, by the way, brands must find ways to adapt their messaging to work within such.

“The path of least resistance is often not to sell at all” (Maslansky, 2010, p. 28). I learned a lot from the knowledge about objectivity and neutrality found in this book. Skeptics are skittish. Oftentimes people bolt for the hills as soon as they sense that they’re being sold to. A vital part of establishing a trusting relationship with consumers is giving them the information they need to make their own decisions, without making them feel pressured to buy. This step is facilitated by the research that a brand does in order to understand its audience’s desires. If the idea is on target, it will essentially speak for itself. This isn’t to say that brands don’t need to put effort into selling themselves, rather, they must do so in more subtle ways.

This book provides a host of knowledge about how to utilize language in order to produce communications that resonate with consumers. The Language of Trust gives communicators many essential tools for navigating the post-trust era, especially as technology has exponentially accelerated the bombardment of advertising that people receive on a daily basis over the last decade. From a bird’s eye view, the fundamentals of reaching publics aren’t too complex: focus on the consumer, be authentic, be objective, establish trust, etc. However, the authors do a fantastic job of establishing nuance and supporting concepts with detailed examples that serve to contextualize the knowledge presented. This text is extremely useful for anyone looking to use their words in order to inspire, influence, educate, or otherwise persuade an audience.

The tips I’ve learned from this book provide several implications for how my team might go about crafting its messaging for the Moji campaign project, with particular regard for the consumer benefit. As our campaign is centered around driving sales in the online store, it’s vital that we present our communications in ways that focus on the consumer and don’t push the sale too overtly. Among many other aspects of our campaign, we will seek to target individuals in ways that engage their beliefs and demonstrate why Moji’s products are unique in the realm of coffee.

References

Maslansky, M. (2010). The Language of Trust: Selling Ideas in a World of Skeptics. Prentice Hall
Press.