Leadership perspective: Mariana Rodriguez on trust, thought leadership and the future

If you’re anything like me, trust lies at the core of why you find some content more valuable than others. How we perceive a brand, what our experiences have been with a person posting on social media, what was said in a panel at a conference, or what we read in the news about an industry, it all plays a role in developing trust. And when we have trust, we’re more likely to find content they share meaningful. 

According to Edelman's Trust Barometer, people need to hear about a company three to five times before they start believing in it. At Avery Dennison, we’ve been sharing insights, conducting research, and offering expert opinions for close to 100 years. Yet, even with a history like that, it isn’t always enough. Especially when we see how extensively industries are changing and how quickly technology is enabling new solutions.

For example, did you know that Avery Dennison’s product portfolio includes more than 200 products for automotive applications alone? And of those, about 25% are used for sustainability-related purposes. In the past 10 years alone, we’ve introduced about 50 new products for applications and industries that didn’t exist before. 

Fascinating, I know, but thought leadership, as we envision it, is not simply about telling you all the things we do. It’s about listening to the needs of the end user and providing value and insights to help solve those problems. With our new content hub, Electrified with Avery Dennison, we can do that through things such as articles, white papers and case studies. 

With more than 35,000 employees around the world, someone on our team is talking to a customer literally every second of the working day. Even with that kind of diversity and that much in-house knowledge, sometimes we still find ourselves online looking for answers.

So, if we were looking for information, we knew you were too. We know the future is electrified and you, our customers, are working hard to achieve sustainable futures. That’s why we knew now was the right time to create our content hub, Electrified with Avery Dennison. It is the first of what we hope are to be many sustainability focused and user education initiatives. 

Obviously, authenticity and factual communication play a vital role in this initiative, which is why every piece of content you’ll see on the Electrified with Avery Dennison content hub is curated by a multidisciplinary team of experts across the company.

We also understand that while modern leaders want and need access to information, quality is more important than quantity. When thinking about how we would go to market, these were the top tips from recent INSEAD research that we took to heart:

• Be consistent: Have a cadence and create engaging and innovative content.

• Establish a connection: focus on what problems customers are facing and work to address them through our content

• Demonstrate impact: show how we’re contributing to positive change, in our field and those that are in proximity to us

• Engage across the business: encourage and amplify a diverse set of voices and intergenerational perspectives to make sure what we’re saying resonates with readers at all levels and stages of their career

When done well, thought leadership delivers knowledge throughout the customer journey, not just when you get to talk with someone. By delivering valuable content and insights with this content hub, we believe that Electrified with Avery Dennison will become the go-to resource for our community.

We’re just getting started, but I know big things are coming and we’re really excited for the future. I hope you join us on this journey.