Roger--

A fair question indeed!  Thank you for the comment. I shared your comment with my colleague (Sue Hines). Shes was very helpful in guiding me to what I believe is a fair answer to your question. Here it is:

Here are three ways to measure trust that are trackable through sales and/or measures marketers use to collect from existing or incoming customers:

1. Repeat purchases (are they getting a good portion/more return customers? They can also measure their customer buy rates against industry average buy rates and see if they are getting their fair share and/or ever greater proportions of the buying occasions from their customers. Both these would indicate loyalty, which suggests trust or at least confidence in the brand.)

2. Brand extensions (how good is the adoption rate and speed of adoption from existing customers to new products; are they deepening relationships with new products or generating lots of "brand trial" through attracting potential new customers... curiosity is not a trust issue, but deepening existing relationships with current customers is evidence of trust, as is quick adoption by existing customers of new or additional products.)

3. Word of mouth (what proportion of new customers are coming in from WOM versus ads or discount offers, etc? If they have solid WOM referrals generating a "good" or increasing proportion of customers and/or sales, it is evidence that people are comfortable recommending the brand, and by implication, trust the brand will not embarrass them with the people to whom they refer it.)

Hope that helps shed some more light on the subject!