While Canadians remain generally trusting of government and business, a new report from Edelman suggests that trust is shifting and increasingly conditional.
Richard Edelman, the New York-based president and CEO of the global public relations company, presented this and other findings from its latest annual Trust Barometer report yesterday at a luncheon hosted by the Canadian Club of Toronto.
Overall, Canada ranks fifth on the Barometer’s trust composite score–an average of a country’s trust in business, government, non-government organizations (NGOs) and media. Canada exceeds the U.S., which sits in the bottom three with the U.K. and Russia.
Canadian respondents said they trust NGOs more than business (72% versus 50%), and eight out of 10 of Canadian respondents believe corporations must align with society’s interest in creating shareholder value.
“Historically, business and NGOs have usually been on par with one another in this country, but we’re now seeing a 22-point trust gap between these two institutions,” said Heather Conway, CEO, Edelman Canada, in a release. “There is a greater expectation in business to be aligned with social interests–and NGOs are not only perceived as stable and trusted, they obviously put social interests front and centre.”
Trust has tangible benefits, said Edelman. In Canada, 64% will believe negative information about a company they do not trust after hearing it once or twice. However, if Canadians trust a company, only 22% will believe negative news about it after hearing the news once or twice.
In Canada, search engines ranked as the top go-to source of information about a company, followed by online news sources (19%) and print (15%).
Transparent and honest business practices (83%) high quality products or services (81%), trustworthiness (78%), and treating employees well (72%) are the most important factors to corporate reputation, according to the Barometer.
Other key Canadian findings included:
• Canadians are most trusting of companies headquartered in Canada but also have high levels of trust in companies headquartered in most European countries and Japan
• During a company crisis, Canadians trust third-party experts most to deliver honest information
• During a product recall, both the CEO and company technical expert are the preferred spokespeople
• In the last year, 94% of respondents have bought the products or services of a company they trusted, while 92% say they refused to buy products or services from one they did not trust.
The 12th edition of the study, conducted by research firmStrategyOne on behalf of Edelman, surveyed 5,075 respondents between 25-64 in 23 countries.
All participants met the following criteria: college-educated; household income in the top quartile for their age in their country; read or watched business/news media at least several times a week; follow public policy issues in the news at least several times a week. The 30-minute interviews were conducted in January.
