Approaches to Re-Building Trust Between the Public, Business and Government

Marketing is all about building relationships and establishing trust.

Every organisation has a clearly defined target market, which can now be abstracted down to the level of the individual.

Digtial Marketing offers the the promise of one to one communications.

Technology provides insights  into the effectiveness of marketing communications and a depth of knowledge about individual customers – including their preferences, interests, buying patterns and capacity to spend – that is way in excess of anything that was possible before.

The analogue approach to marketing could be described as a scatter gun, while digital marketing is more like a laser sniper, which can pick out individuals from afar.

Years of mis-directed, high volume marketing bombardment lead to a relationship breakdown between corporates and consumers – a deterioration of trust.   The advent and maturation of digital marketing technology was timely for an industry that needed some new ideas.

Marketers are presented with an opportunity to more efficiently invest in relationships that are likely to provide a return.  The Internet gives them the tool set to do so.

The theory is that customers are more likely to trust and respond to an organisation that can demonstrate that it understands their interests, wants and needs.

9/11 represents a watershed in relation to civil liberties.

Governments in Western democracies responded to a catastrophic event by tightening their control over civil liberties and placing more power in the hands of the law and Government agencies.  This event provided an opportunity for Governments to reinforce their position of control.

The concept of ‘Innocent until proven guilty’ was much more prevalent when I was a kid than it is today.  I can’t really remember how or why this concept would come up but its was definitely at the front of my consciousness as a fundamental entitlement.

Anti-terrorist laws in the UK, America and Australia have ridden roughshod over the concept of innocent until proven guilty.  They grant authorities a range of new powers  including all-seeing surveillance,  the right to preventitive detention (arrest without charge) and warrant-less searches, as well as placing further restrictions on the media.

In 2006, Tony Blair argued that his British Government should be entitled to detain suspects without charge for 80 days under the terms of the 2006 Terrorism Act.  This passed into law as 28 days.  The British Parliament is currently debating an increase to 42 days.

Significantly, Anti Terrorism Laws allow Governments to pass their own legislation when fighting terrorism, under the grounds of necessity.  Laws which often remain in place once the threat has passed.

Civil libertarians argue convincingly that recent Anti-Terrorism law mean that some of our basic rights are up for grabs and this general theme permeates other areas of our lives.

Internet Filtering legislation (Australia; UK) represents the convergence of our increasingly digital existence and the direction that our Governments are taking when it comes to civil liberties.  They argue that its in the public interest many believe that it is an invasion of privacy.

Its interesting to me that we have seen a deterioration of trust in two distinct spheres of our society and that the actors in each sphere are taking steps to re-establish trust and assert their control.  What’s noticeable is the role of technology in helping these ‘institutions’ achieve their outcomes.

In both cases, we see resistence and a lack of consensus as well as questions being raised about the public good yet things move forward apace.

These thoughts – partly unformed – have been bumping around in my head for a while.  Hopefully getting them down on ‘paper’ will help me make sense of them.

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