You’ve done your research. You know that your product or service delivers real value and meets a genuine market need. So, why isn’t your message landing, and why aren’t you achieving sales targets?
In an era of fake news and exaggerated claims, audiences have become harder to convince. With budgets stretched and skepticism at an all-time high, why should they take a chance on you?
The Three Goals of Brand Marketing and PR
Marketing spend won’t directly translate into sales, at least not as soon as most leaders would like. You must take time to deliberately build:
• Brand Awareness,
• Brand Credibility, and
• Brand Trust.
These three pillars are the Brand ACT goals. By investing in them and demonstrating consistency in everything you and your leadership team do, you can build a brand that thrives.
So, how do you do this? First, we need to explore each goal.
Awareness
When done right, PR does more than raise awareness and foster earned media; it shapes how people think, feel, and remember your brand. It builds the emotional connections that guide buying decisions long before your sales team gets involved. That’s what makes PR and earned media such powerful levers for leaders looking to secure long-term success (and helps them rapidly pivot when market demand shifts).
It’s tempting to expect PR and earned media to drive instant sales. You aren’t, however, going to see revenue in the same quarter you distribute a press release or gain media coverage. You may see an increase in leads, but Awareness is just the first step toward credibility. Now you must also walk your talk.
Credibility (over Confidence)
While some thought leaders interpret the ‘C’ in Brand ACT as Confidence, at Calysto, we believe it should stand for “Credibility.” This is because you can have confidence in a brand without having evidence. Credibility, however, can only be earned once a company has provided evidence that it is doing exactly what it says. From a PR perspective, it means managing transparency and accountability at every stage. This more accurately captures what stakeholders, including customers, require from a company. By building credibility in your brand, you can also build a bridge from Awareness to Trust.
Earned media does exactly that. It’s not GEO, SEO, or owned (paid for) media. It is publicity written by a credible third party who understands your market, audience, and (hopefully) your products. That third party is creating credibility for your company. Of course, earned media can also be negative, lowering credibility and trust. This depends on a company’s actions, its transparency and accountability.
The Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” campaign is a prime example of credibility erosion in action. VW positioned diesel engines as an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional diesel, with significantly lower harmful emissions. Customer confidence in the brand meant claims were initially believed. Later, it was found that VW had used a sophisticated algorithm that detected when a vehicle was undergoing official emissions tests and activated full emissions control. However, it wasn’t enabled during normal operations.
The result? By 2021, Reuters reported the scandal had cost the company nearly $40 billion in vehicle refits, fines and provisions for future claims, and nearly all US owners of affected cars agreed to participate in a $25 billion settlement in 2016. While confidence in the VW brand, in general, slowly began to return even as legal fixes and recalls were underway, once the evidence had removed credibility, the company halted sales of diesel cars in the US. The scandal had a long-lasting effect. US sales remained weak for years because audiences could no longer take the company’s narrative at face value.
Conversely Schneider Electric, a leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, is leading the way in demonstrating credibility. It was voted the World’s Most Sustainable Corporation for a second time in 2024, reflecting not only the innovative solutions it provides but also its internal approach to sustainable practices, including the gender diversity of executives and board members. Customers voted with their money, and that year the company reported record revenues of over $44 billion (€38 billion). In 2025, it exceeded its 2024 sustainability goals.
Trust
While it’s clear from Schneider Electric’s example that trust in a brand results in increased revenue and customer stickiness, it can take years to build. However, once trust is lost, it’s your competitors that will benefit. Nearly 40% of Americans will never use a brand again that they no longer trust, while another 40% will look to the brand’s competitors. Only 20% would consider the brand again.
One example of how quickly trust can erode, and how difficult it is to regain, comes from Peloton. The brand, a go-to for many during the pandemic when gyms closed, faced a major backlash in 2021 after delaying the recall of its Tread+ treadmill despite safety concerns, injuries and a child’s death. Its defensive response and failure to act swiftly damaged its trust with customers, regulators, and investors alike. The result? A plummet in stock value, subscriber loss, and long-term brand recovery efforts.
Peloton’s case highlights that awareness without credibility and trust can make the most visible brand vulnerable. In times of crisis, a well-crafted PR strategy that incorporates transparent communication and swift actions can determine whether trust can be rebuilt.
Of course, analyst and media trust will also go a long way in instilling trust within your customer base. Earned media has always conveyed more credibility than paid placements, according to Edelman. The 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer places earned media at a trust level of 67%, and paid-for media at 41%. The 2025 B2B Thought Leadership Impact report suggests that the trust of hidden buyers must also be gained through thought leadership. That means investing time in building strong relationships and crafting unique stories.
The case for building Brand ACT
The need to build brand awareness, credibility and trust is already well-documented. In a conversation with Calysto, Mark Stouse, Founder and CEO of Proof, explained how Brand ACT not only supports revenue but accelerates it, resulting in greater and bigger sales deals and faster sales velocity, only once the brand foundation is in place.
Brands with high awareness, credibility and trust can earn higher premiums and retain customers, building resilience that will prevail against market volatility. However, in an era where earned media earns greater trust than paid placements, and hidden buyers can influence your sales as much as the stakeholders your sales teams talk to, brand transparency and accountability have become ever more vital.
This is no box-checking exercise. Do you want to be seen as a sustainability market leader? You must ensure your business holds up to scrutiny, from the suppliers you work with through to your circularity policies. You say you are integrating AI? You need to demonstrate how, so stakeholders don’t see you as just jumping on the bandwagon.
Why PR Is the Lever
PR is the most underleveraged strategic tool in creating Brand ACT and increasing GEO. It shapes not just perception but belief; across media, influencers, analysts, customers, partners and internal stakeholders. It builds context for marketing and sales to draw upon. And crucially, it enables brands to respond to shifting expectations without losing coherence or credibility.
Every enterprise wants long-term customer loyalty and market resilience. However, this can only be built over time. That’s the role of PR, creating the link between what your brand says and what stakeholders see. At Calysto, we understand how to build Brand Awareness, Credibility and Trust, and know that all three must be in place to meet your business, marketing, and sales goals.
We will investigate the three pillars of Brand ACT in more detail over the coming months and explain how, at Calysto, we are working closely with customers across each to build a brand that will stand the test of time.