Dr. Mohammed Laeequddin, Dr. K. Abdul Waheed and Dr. Ramkrishna Dikkatwar
Brand trust is considered to be central in brand building, both in the cases of B2C, when customers face risky situations and costly purchases and in B2B where purchases are based on rational decision such as product functionality, quality, price and reliability considering the personality traits and imagery irrelevant. When customers perceive risk in their buying decision they tend to play safe and forgo the perceived benefits. Customers adopt trust as a shortcut to avoid complex decision processes that carry risk. After reviewing 148 research articles from reputed journals on brand trust and brand risk, it was found that, the perspectives of brand trust and brand risk are the same for brand characteristics, brand rationality and brand loyalty. Connecting the literature, a conceptual model was developed for understanding the perspectives of trust and risk of high value brands. The model reveals that risk reduction from brand’s characteristics, rationality, safety and security (structural assurance) builds brand trust, rather than trust building reducing brand risk