Purpose vs. profit: Can brands build genuine trust through advertising?

As consumer knowledge of advertising increases, trust is less likely to be established through messaging alone and more by earned credibility.

Brands which rely solely on positive ideals without backing them up risk losing credibility, with customers increasingly expecting tangible proof rather than promises.

Advertising Council Australia Western Australia State Manager Melissa Vella said although industry standards helped ensure accountability, trust was ultimately shaped by behaviour.

“Consumers don’t take brands at their word anymore – they’re looking for consistency and real action,” she said.

If brand faith depends on measurable outcomes, can purpose-driven communication ever establish legitimate trust, or will it always be seen as baseless self-promotion?

VML Perth Managing Partner Barry Walker said the answer lay outside the brand and with the company itself. He said brands could not be purpose-driven unless they originated from genuinely purpose-led businesses, where credibility was defined by actions – not messaging.

VML’s work with Brownes Dairy exemplifies this principle. The company underwent a significant internal transformation strategy, channeling a desire among Brownes Dairy staff to produce products healthy enough to feed their own families. This saw it rework ingredients, improve supplier arrangements and implement the A Natural Silence campaign, which featured during the 2015 AFL Grand Final.

Of those who saw the campaign, 70 per cent felt Brownes was the best yoghurt to give their kids, while purchase intent indexed at 162 per cent against normative category data.

Grounding purpose-driven campaigns in real consumer needs can also deliver strong commercial results.

For example, Ms Vella said ALDI Australia’s Shop ALDI First campaign from 2023 encouraged Australians to prioritise ALDI for their weekly groceries amid cost-of-living pressures. Rolled out across television, digital and social media outlets, the campaign won the Grand Effie at the 2024 Effie Australia Awards.

Mr Walker said there were two key risks in purpose-led marketing – losing connection to the business’s core motivation and failing to remain truthful in how this purpose was communicated. He said purpose must be embedded long-term and reflected across all aspects of the business, not just campaigns.

“The more you build, the better your brand and business perform,” Mr Walker said.

Author: Melissa Isabel Martens is a second-year Bachelor of Information Technology and Design student at the Technical University of Lübeck, Germany. She is currently on exchange at Edith Cowan University.