Making and keeping a brand promise
How to consistently deliver on your word
A brand promise is a business strategy that guides decision-making and engages employees
A brand promise is a pledge to deliver in terms of customer needs and expectations. It underlines an organization’s position within a marketplace and within a hierarchy of competitors. It also highlights why the brand’s combination of features and benefits creates a unique value proposition — a customer experience or emotional reward that sets it apart.
Your brand promise should guide other business efforts
Your brand promise is more than an advertising campaign or a catchy tagline or marketing slogan. Indeed, for the majority of organizations, the brand promise is an internal document. It is silently transmitted to, decoded and understood by customers through the organization’s actions, rather than its words.
The brand promise articulates what an organization does, who it does it for, how it does what it does and why. It represents differentiation and serves as a point of credibility that, over time, fosters the trust needed for long-term customer relationships.
This is why organizations should treat their brand promise as part of their business strategy. It should guide marketing and messaging, inform the decision-making process concerning customer service and experience, and motivate and engage employees as it provides the objective they’re working towards.
All of this should highlight not just the importance of having a clear brand promise but also the direct relationship between customer experience and delivering on said promise.
A brand promise is a business strategy that guides decision-making and engages employees
A brand promise isn’t necessarily set in stone. As a brand grows and changes, and as its products and services evolve, its position within the industry can change and in doing so attract a new type of customer.
But whether it grows or becomes even more focused, that brand promise must serve to reflect and benchmark a customer experience that aligns with the value a brand’s products or services are supposed to represent. The CX benchmark for a low-cost short-haul airline will be significantly different from that expected from an airline offering long-haul business class flights.
However, in both instances, the need to keep the brand promise is of equal importance. Falling short of customer expectations will undermine credibility and differentiation. And, if not addressed, it could tarnish brand perception.
Therefore, the key to keeping and building on that promise starts with delivering a consistent customer experience.
