Quantifying trust: What’s in a logo?
How we took a struggling review site to one of the most visited websites in the world and quantified the value of their brand assets.
Quick stats
Quantified the value of Trustpilot brand assets
unique monthly visitors, making it a top 1% website
on the London Stock Exchange in less than 2 years
About
Trustpilot is a customer review management website geared towards technology, business services, and e-commerce.
Their platform is free for consumers and for businesses to claim and manage a page.
However, their paid accounts allow businesses to access features such as integrating reviews and creating co-branded ads with the Trustpilot branding.
Objectives
Quantify Trustpilot’s varying brand assets (logo, trust mark, number of stars, etc.)
Quantify their trustworthiness compared overall to that of their competitors
Develop a value proposition for paid accounts to convince customers to upgrade
Key Approaches
Fake ads + strategic survey development
Measuring a seemingly subjective concept such as a brand was simpler than expected. We built a series of fake ads for fake companies followed by several surveys.
To produce accurate data that encapsulated Trustpilot’s breadth of offerings, we also tested the surveys across a variety of industries and countries.
Establishing a “baseline of trust”
To establish a control group (i.e., “baseline of trust”), our first survey asked participants to rate the level of trustworthiness of the company on a scale of 1-5.
From there, we found the delta between the treatment – Trustpilot logo, Trustpilot trust mark, 4 stars, 5 stars, Yotpo logo, etc. – and the control group by running a number of comparison surveys.
Outcomes
Quantified brand equity
We provided concrete data demonstrating Trustpilot's awareness and trustworthiness in the minds of consumers.
We also uncovered exactly which version of Trustpilot’s branding mattered most, the trust levels between ratings (i.e. 4-star vs. 5-star ratings), and how this data broke down across industry, country, age, and device.
Succesful sales enablement
After our work together, Trustpilot's sales team could now successfully demonstrate to customers how switching from free to paid accounts would positively impact their business.
Our insights also helped them achieve what few companies have been able to: alignment between marketing and sales.
Skyrocketing website traffic
Trustpilot quickly rose to one of the top 1% most visited websites in the world according to its Alexa Ranking, with over 50M unique monthly visitors. It has continued to grow since.
Clarity on pricing and features
Trustpilot’s product team was able to price their account tiers more effectively (i.e., “we charge X, because we know you’re going to get Y”).
We also helped them identify which features bring the most value to their customers.
Branding, maximized
In addition to quantifying the value of Trustpilot’s logo, trust mark, and product ratings, we also discovered the most effective way for Trustpilot’s customers to use the brand assets on their marketing, practices which are still in place today.
IPO
In March of 2021, just over 2 years after we wrapped up our work with them, Trustpilot went public on the London Stock Exchange at a market cap of $1.1B.
Results
Content
Press
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