edelman trust barometer 2011 australian executive summary
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The Australian Executive Summary for the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer.TRANSCRIPT
2011 EDELMAN TRUST BAROMETER
Australia: Credibility of CEOs and trust in business and
government strengthens despite a year of corporate and
political turmoil.
Australian’s trust in government and
business has reached heights similar to
the days before the Global Financial Crisis.
While government underwent fierce
criticism and reform last year, more than
half (52%) of Australia’s opinion influencers
trust government to do what is right. This
represents an increase of eleven
percentage points, bringing trust in
government back to 2009 benchmark
levels.
The credibility of CEOs jumped
considerably in 2011. CEOs now rank
amongst the most credible spokespeople
in Australia, a striking rise from two years
ago when they were at the bottom of the
rankings. Half (49%) of opinion influencers
now say CEOs are credible spokespeople,
a 30 percentage point increase over 2009.
The return trust in CEOs coincides with the
continuing health of the Australian
economy and general mood of business
confidence.
CEOs are now seen as trustworthy
spokespeople. However, engaging
credible experts from either within the
company, or from third parties such as
academics, analysts, NGOs or government
officials, strengthens trust.
However, despite a steadily growing trust
in business (43% in 2009; 47% in 2010;
54% in 2011), 73 percent of Australian
opinion influencers support government
regulation of corporate activity to ensure
business is behaving ethically and
responsibly.
Figure 14: In a reversal of last year’s sharp declines, Australian’s trust in institutions has stabilised
How much do you trust [Institution] to do what is right?
Informed Publics (25-64) in Australia
Figure 15: In Australia there is a search for authority and expertise
How important are these factors to reputation?
Informed Publics (25-64) in Australia
43
47
5456
41
5255
51
65
35
30
32
20
30
40
50
60
70
2009 2010 2011
Business Government NGOs Media
31%
34%
44%
48%
49%
50%
67%
69%
Person like yourself
Regular employee
NGO representative
Government official
CEO
A financial or industry analyst
Technical expert within the company
An academic or expert
2011 EDELMAN TRUST BAROMETER
Ensuring ethical behaviour is a clear
necessity for Australian companies as
transparency and honesty topped the list
of reputation attributes. Price also matters:
Australians are looking for companies to
price brands fairly and competitively, an
important attribute for trust and reputation,
up 17 percentage points since 2010.
Australians are using search engines first
when sourcing information about an
organisation, followed by online news
outlets. Company websites are now also
seen as an important information source,
ranking third. Although Australians are
going online first for information, they view
traditional media sources such as business
magazines (27%), newspapers (23%) and
radio (23%), as the most trusted sources
of information about a company.
Australians say they need to be exposed
to something about a specific company
three to five times in order to believe that
the information is true.
Trust in most industries is up globally,
including in Australia. Technology remains
in top spot for the third straight year.
Australians distrust financial services,
banks and media.
Telecommunications, which ranks as the
third most trusted industry globally (68%),
is not as well regarded in Australia, landing
at number 12 of 16 industries on the
ranking, at 38%.
Figure 16: Transparency and honesty key reputation
attributes
How important are these factors to corporate reputation?
Informed Publics (25-64) in Australia
Figure 17: Online search is the ‘go to’ source, but traditional media most trusted Where do you generally go first for news about a company?
Informed Publics (25-64) in Australia
4%
5%
7%
11%
16%
22%
35%
Social media
Broadcast (radio/TV)
Friends and family
Print (newspapers/magazines)
Company website
Online news sources
Online search engine
30%
31%
33%
46%
51%
55%
57%
60%
63%
64%
Innovator
Financial returns
Widely admired leadership
Good corporate citizen
Communicates frequently
Prices fairly
Treats employees well
Company I can trust
High quality products or services
Transparent and honest business practices