Trust: It’s built slowly and spent quickly

Trust is built slowly, one small decision at a time. It can be spent in an instant.

Target spent years building emotional trust with consumers — not just as a retailer, but as a company people felt reflected their values, communities and identity. Then came a series of highly public reversals on Pride merchandise, DEI commitments and cultural pressure campaigns. Now consumers, employees and advocates on multiple sides aren’t sure what the company actually stands for.

That’s not just a brand problem. It’s a trust problem. And trust is much harder to rebuild than it is to lose.

Key takeaways

• Trust is built slowly through consistent action — not mission statements or marketing campaigns — and can be depleted quickly through reactive decisions.
• Consumers are often willing to accept disagreement. What they struggle to accept is uncertainty about who a company really is.
• Organizations that appear to move based on pressure instead of principle erode trust faster than those that hold a position people disagree with.
• The quiet moments — how you treat people when the spotlight fades, whether you show up after public attention moves on — are often what build trust most durably.
• A recognizable logo can make a company famous. Consistency is what makes people trust it.

Target spent years building emotional trust with consumers — not just as a retailer, but as a company people felt reflected their values, communities and identity.

That kind of trust is built slowly. One decision, one action and one moment at a time. Like pennies in a piggy bank. You put them in without giving each individual coin much thought until one day you realize you have enough to buy the coveted item that once seemed out of reach. 

Minnesota-based retailer Target Corporation has spent the past several years making withdrawals from its piggy bank through a series of highly public reversals and reactive decisions tied to Pride merchandise, DEI commitments and cultural pressure campaigns.

The problem isn’t the position — it’s the inconsistency

The problem isn’t necessarily that everyone disagreed with Target’s positions, as Akshay R. Rao, professor of marketing at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, points out in this Star Tribune opinion piece. 

The problem is that consumers, employees and advocates on multiple sides no longer seem sure what the company actually stands for. People can disagree with your position and still respect consistency. What’s harder to recover from is the perception that your values change depending on who is yelling the loudest.

Trust erodes when organizations appear to move based on pressure instead of principle. And once the piggy bank is emptied, it becomes much harder to make meaningful deposits again. It takes a lot more pennies — and time. 

Where trust is actually built

Trust isn’t built through mission statements or carefully crafted marketing campaigns alone. It’s built in smaller moments that often don’t make headlines like how organizations treat people when the spotlight fades. Or when companies do the right thing when nobody is looking and continue to show up long after the public attention has moved on.

Those are the quiet deposits into the piggy bank of trust that usually matter most. 

Rao hits the nail on the head in the Star Tribune piece: consumers are often willing to accept disagreement. What they struggle to accept is uncertainty about who a company really is.

A recognizable logo can make a company famous. Consistency is what makes people trust it.