Потребители требуют от брендов прозрачности и доказательности, а не только соблюдения закона

By: Manisha Kapoor, CEO and Secretary General, ASCI For decades, businesses have treated legal compliance as the essential test of responsible communication. If an advertisement met the requirements of the law, carried the necessary disclosures and avoided prohibited claims, it was broadly considered to have done its job. That assumption no longer holds. Legal compliance remains a necessary condition for consumer trust. But increasingly, it is not a sufficient one. Consumers today evaluate brands against a much wider set of expectations. They want to know not merely whether a claim is technically permissible, but whether it is clear, meaningful and fair. They ask what lies behind words such as “natural”, “sustainable”, “healthy”, “responsible”, “premium” or “better”. They are more alert to qualifications hidden in fine print, to selective presentation of facts, and to the difference between what a communication literally says and what it reasonably leads them to believe. The old language of advertising often relied on broad promises. A brand could describe itself as “trusted”, “green”, “good for you” or “India’s best” and raise no eyebrows. That language is increasingly losing its power. When information can be checked instantly, consumers expect specificity. If a product is described as sustainable, consumers want to know: in what way? Is it the packaging, the sourcing, the manufacturing process or the entire product lifecycle? If a food product claims to be healthier, healthier than what, and on which nutritional parameters? If a company says it supports a social cause, what exactly is it doing and at what scale? There is an inherent expectation of evidence and consistency in the companies’ claims and actions. It is here that trust and compliance begin to diverge. A communication that satisfies a legal requirement can still leave consumers feeling misled, confused or manipulated. Conversely, brands that voluntarily communicate with greater clarity provide context and substantiate their claims can create confidence well beyond what regulation demands. Trust now requires the right information, communicated at the right level of prominence, in language that consumers can understand. For businesses, this demands a change in mindset. It is not enough any more to only ask “Are we allowed to say this?” It must also be “Will a reasonable consumer understand this in the way we can prove, can we stand behind that understanding?” As advertising moves into newer formats. Influencer content, short-form video, conversational commerce and AI-enabled communication that blur the traditional boundaries between advertising, entertainment, recommendation and information, trust will depend even more heavily on transparency and clarity. Regulation will always establish the floor for responsible conduct. Industry standards and self-regulation must help raise the ceiling. Ultimately, consumers do not build relationships with brands because those brands have successfully complied with the law. They build relationships with brands they believe are telling them the truth.