New data from this year confirms what many marketing leaders quietly suspect: Consumer trust and emotional relevance have become critical differentiators, and the brands that embrace them are gaining significant advantage.
The latest Edelman Trust Institute Trust Barometer Special Report—2025 reveals a noteworthy shift: Consumers are no longer primarily buying into a brand’s societal purpose or broad mission, but rather into personal relevance, emotional connection and support. In short, people aren’t just asking, “What do you stand for?” They’re asking, “What does this brand mean to me?”
This shift is especially relevant for brands targeting parents and families. The research suggests that emotional resonance, authenticity and consistent values are becoming more powerful than ever among consumers seeking trustworthy, dependable brands.
The mechanics of trust: What research reveals
A recent academic study published just three months ago took a closer look at what actually drives brand trust. The study—based on a sample of 1,280 consumers—found that perceived value, customer satisfaction, service experience and brand image all exert a “positive and significant effect” on consumer trust.
What’s especially interesting is how this applies to the so-called “sustainable brands” in the study. For those companies, clear communication, service excellence and brand integrity were more influential than aggressive performance marketing or discounts. In other words, for certain audiences like values-driven parents, the experience and values behind the brand outweigh flash sales or optimized ad campaigns.
Another 2025 global consumer-behavior survey from Qualtrics underscores the stakes: Respondents across 23 countries said that “trust” was their number one priority when interacting with a business. Consumers who trust a brand are 1.7 times more likely to purchase more from it.
Trust isn’t a soft, intangible benefit anymore—it’s a measurable driver of loyalty, lifetime value and sustainable growth.
What this means for family-focused brands
Putting these findings into the context of family marketing, a few clear implications emerge:
1. Parents are intentional
Yes, they’re buying products, but they’re also buying trust, safety, reliability and alignment with their values. If your brand delivers consistent experiences, clear communication and emotional resonance, it becomes part of their parenting toolkit.
2. Trust builds long-term value
For families, purchasing decisions often repeat every few years, whether they’re baby products, school supplies, toys or household goods. If a brand earns trust now, that relationship can span multiple life stages. That makes brand equity a long-term asset, not a cost.
3. Performance-only marketing is incomplete
Optimization and efficiency will still matter. But in a context where trust is rising as a fundamental expectation, brands that lean exclusively on performance (ads, discounts, retargeting) risk building shallow relationships that erode over time.
4. Brand investment becomes a performance multiplier
When consumers trust a brand, every channel from social media to retail to word-of-mouth performs better. Conversion rates rise. Retention improves. Loyalty grows.
The larger trend: From transactional to relational
What unites these data points is a clear thread: Consumers don’t want just products. They want relationships.
When media and attention are fragmented, the brands that win are the ones that move beyond transactions. They build identity, deliver consistency, live their values and offer parents something deeper than convenience.
