A brand attribute that always surfaces in the 50 or so branding workshops I’ve conducted is “trusted.”

Workshop participants feel pleased broaching it. They passionately relate how their customers trust the brand to meet their needs, get it done, do it right, solve the problem, etc.

Rightfully so, they feel proud. Who doesn’t want their brand to be perceived as trusted?

But it’s not the brand essence.

Brands by definition deliver consistent experiences. (See my post on the “9 criteria for brand essence.“) And the more reliable the experience, the stronger the brand. Think Starbucks, Apple, Harley-Davidson, etc.

It is this consistency of experience that causes us to trust a brand. We trust that each experience will be the same, e.g, each trip to Walt Disney World will be magical.

By delivering a consistent experience, brands gradually earn our trust and loyalty.

Trust is knowing someone or something can hurt you and giving them the power to do it anyway. (See “How to rebuild confidence.“) While this may sound a bit dramatic as it applies to branding, consider how we depend upon FedEx to get our packages where they need to be on time. And how we expect our favorite restaurant to never disappoint us.

Generally, we trust our banks, cars, cell phones, packaged goods, and corner dry cleaners to do what they have always done. If they let us down more than once, we may switch brands.

All brands, regardless of category, are trusted, because all brands must deliver or die. To claim that one brand is more trusted than another in the same category is simply to say that it delivers more reliably.

“Trusted” is not a brand differentiator. It’s a requirement.