67 - 'Talking to Strangers': Trust and Transparency in Brand Comms

How do misunderstandings happen? What actually went wrong when someone didn’t pick up on your message, or even worse, interpreted your words in a way that was completely different than you intended? It happens to people, of course, and these days it’s happening to a lot of brands, too, who find themselves facing consequences as a result.

A new bestseller from Malcolm Gladwell tackles the challenges of communication. His book is called “Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know,” and it was the selection for the latest installment Overbooked, the March book club.

In this episode, Marchers Kelsey Johnson and Molly Masi recap the major themes from ‘Talking to Strangers’ and talk about issues of trust and transparency in marketing and communications. EVP Jodi Petrie also joins to answer an important question: how can brands earn trust from consumers who are increasingly skeptical?

Overbooked continues in 2020: Every quarter, we’ll select a book with a technology innovation theme to read together, and we’ll be announcing our next selection soon. If you have any ideas or recommendations on great books to read, tweet us @MarchComms.