Trusting a brand

requires the engagement of a consumer in a long-term relationship, one that hasn’t failed expectations sufficiently to warrant reconsideration.

Gee thanks, Steve. Didn’t know that.

Okay smarty, so howsabout I throw in a wrench? What would you say to revisiting Marshall McLuhan’s golden rule — The Medium Is the Message — and applying the authenticity of the media upon which brands stake their consumer touchpoints?

Throughout history, messengers have pleaded not to be killed for the bad news they’ve been tasked to deliver. But couriers, usually, are people. What happens when almighty television is the conduit of crap?

Oh, it’ll be killed dead.

At least the TV we know today will be. Ya know, it’s funny to see traditional brands and their marketing agencies fighting the metamorphosis that’s been upon us in earnest for a few years already. Oh, losers, stop whining and start running. The time to catch up is nigh.

With the opposing bullet-trains of the web’s (re-gaining of) credibility and television’s loss thereof, we’re knee-deep in a dilemma we’ve been reading about with increasing frequency: is this the death of the :30 spot? Why o' course it is.

But here’s where my opinion differs from the industry — it’s neither the technology nor the consumer that’s expediting the death of traditional, ad-supported TV. It’s the brands which once supported TV that hasten its demise. Et tu, Brute?

The fumes rising off the incessant b.s. delivered by television (particularly cable) have become so noxious, the clean can barely stand in the same room. The tables have turned because, now, the web is the medium Americans use most when seeking information on their own time and terms, while TV’s standards — lowered by everything from CBS News’ non-validation of the Bush memos to constant Girls Gone Wild ads to innumerable miracle weight-loss pill peddlers — are being exposed.

Wherever consumers are in control (most of the web), brands find an environment conducive to interacting with fans and prospects on an equal playing field.

The web’s improprieties, and there are many, largely aren’t caused by the big players (brands, networks, news organizations), but by other private citizens with malicious intent. (And as long as people are in control of the content, that’s going to happen.)

These major players know that if they’re caught lying on the web they’re done-for, because the web’s a two-way medium. Act any other way and the repercussions will be as swift as they are damaging and final.

Television, on the other hand, is a one-way street. So when an action that a consumer deems unacceptable is taken by a brand or content provider, the only recourses are to change the channel, to complain to the FCC, or to send an email to a complaints department which responds with the ever-effective form letter/email.

So now it's fair to extrapolate: the trustworthiness of the medium conveying a brand to its audience members has as much effect on its own credibility as it does on the brand’s.

TV, kinda like fascism, isn’t democratic. It has a mouth and no ears. The web, like democracy, is by and for the people. Neither is perfectly good or perfectly evil, but which system does a better overall job of communicating in a believable manner?

Think about it this way: when was the last time you took seriously a headline from the Chinese Ministry of Information? Even if the words you read were absolutely accurate, you (as a prudent consumer) are forced to second-guess integrity for obvious reasons. Just like we're forced to do anymore with television. Last time I checked, that ain't trust.

These examples are by design extreme, for they shed light on why the web has already surpassed television as the arena of choice for brands that seek trust from their audience members. The old system absolutely must perish by its very nature, and it’s well on its way to doing so. (See also: USSR in its final years.)

Consequently, brands catalyze the process by moving their offline messages (and budgets) online, rendering TV the domain of singles chat phone line advertisements, Fox News, and anything else that doesn't invite honesty and candor.