For decades, strong brands could shape trust through reputation, messaging, and familiarity. Today, consumers can test those promises almost instantly.

Kathy Chi Thurber, Managing Director at TwinPoint Collective, brings more than two decades of experience across companies including Macy’s, Starbucks, L’Oréal, Saje Natural Wellness, and Culligan International.

In this PIECES conversation, she reflects on a fundamental shift in consumer behavior: trust is moving from something brands create to something consumers independently verify. For companies, that changes more than marketing. It changes how products are built, how experiences are designed, where investment goes, and ultimately how long-term growth is created.

Q. Having led consumer businesses across different categories and stages of transformation, what is one fundamental change in consumer behavior that you believe companies still underestimate when building for long-term growth?

One fundamental change I believe companies still underestimate is the shift from brand-led trust to consumer-verified trust.

Consumers have always had choices, but today they can validate almost every promise a company makes—in real time.

They compare products, read reviews, watch other consumers use them, and quickly determine whether the experience lives up to the claim. As a result, a strong brand can create consideration, but it can no longer compensate for a mediocre product or experience.

That changes how companies need to think about long-term growth. The traditional model often started with the brand and worked backward to the consumer.

Increasingly, the strongest businesses start with a real consumer problem and build forward—creating a product that delivers a meaningful advantage, an experience that removes friction, and a brand promise that consumers can independently verify.

For leaders, this means consumer obsession cannot simply be a marketing principle.

It has to shape how we innovate, how quickly we learn, where we invest, and even how we operate our supply chains. In a world where consumers continuously validate our promises for us, the product experience ultimately becomes the most powerful expression of the brand.

Innovation and proof are especially important here. I believe this is one reason established brands can begin to lose share to indie brands.

Kathy’s perspective points to a simple but significant shift: a strong brand may earn attention, but it can no longer compensate for an experience that fails to deliver.

As consumers gain more ways to compare, review, and validate what companies promise, trust increasingly has to be earned through the product itself. In that environment, consumer obsession is no longer simply a marketing principle—it becomes an operating principle.

The brand promise still matters. But increasingly, the consumer decides whether it is true.

Kathy Chi Thurber, Managing Director at TwinPoint Collective

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