Wells Fargo: The Cost of Broken Trust
Wells Fargo and the Fallout from Ethical Missteps One major brand that faced serious ethical and legal issues is Wells Fargo. In 2016, the company was exposed for creating over 2 million unauthorized customer accounts to meet unrealistic sales goals. Employees were pressured to hit targets that rewarded quantity over quality and customers were misled and billed for services they didn’t sign up for. This scandal had a lasting effect on how consumers viewed and interacted with the brand. Consumer Perception and Engagement Once the scandal was exposed, public trust in Wells Fargo dropped dramatically. The bank had long marketed itself as a trusted institution, but the revelations made many customers feel deceived and exploited. Wells Fargo dropped from 70th to 99th place out of 100 companies in consumer reputation rankings. (Inside Wells Fargo’s Plan to Fix Its Culture Post-Scandal,(n.d.). Many customers closed their accounts, and the company faced ongoing skepticism even after taking cor...