Your clever Brand Promise is the commitment that you make to potential customers that meet their needs and is both unique and measurable. When you consistently deliver on this commitment, it should help you to win more Core Customers by having a deep understanding of what it means to deliver on their needs. It represents a clever brand promise example.
Brands are verbs, what they do matters more than what they say.
What makes a clever Brand Promise ‘deliver’ is that it is unique and makes you different from the competition. Because if you can’t define what differentiates you from the competition, a reason that potential customers should buy from you rather than the competition, you are most likely in a commodity situation and susceptible to price shopping.
What’s makes a clever brand promise?
A brand promise is what the company commits to the people who interact with it. It’s not a description of what a company does in a literal sense. It’s a description of the company’s character. To some extent, it’s a mission; it’s how the company creates and delivers value. Also, it’s the feeling the company conveys to its stakeholders.
Two restaurants, for example, may have similar menus, but provide different atmospheres, different associations, and different customer experiences based on their brand promises.
A brand promise is: “This is what we will deliver to you.” Pretty simple, right? Maybe.
Your Brand Promise is the promise you’re making to your customers that both matters to them and differentiates you from your competition. It should help you win more of the right customers by helping you focus on how you sell your product/service to your Core Customer.
What makes a Brand Promise “good” is not only its appeal to your Core Customer and its ability to help you close sales with them but also your ability to deliver on that promise consistently.
Once you have determined your Brand Promise and you believe it is unique, meets the Core Customers need and is measurable you can begin to work on the systems, processes, and activities to ensure that you can consistently deliver it.
But beware! If you make a Brand Promise and don’t deliver on it, you create a Credibility Chasm which is the difference between what you say you will do, and you do. Then you are probably better off doing nothing at all.
A “bad” brand promise might be one that does not capture what your customer wants and therefore doesn’t attract new business. In his 2013 Forbes article, Steve Olenski talks about a New York Sushi restaurant who came out with a brand promise that they would no longer take tips. However, part of what guarantees great service in the food and beverage industry is the customer’s decision to leave a tip or not, and how much the tip should be.
Further, tips are a way for the restaurant industry to conduct performance appraisals on servers. Rather than draw in more customers who are happy not to have to think about the tip, this promise could backfire by removing the mechanism by which great service is delivered and rewarded.
Once you have a Brand Promise, be sure that you have the processes and key activities in place to consistently deliver on it (and the KPIs in place to measure whether you’re delivering or not).
Clever brand promise … brand connectors
Once you have your Big Idea, you should then use it to frame the different connectors needed to set up a very strong bond between your brand and your consumers.
The brand’s promise sets up the positioning, as you focus on a key target with one main benefit you offer. Brands need to be better, different or cheaper. Or else not around for very long. ”Me-too” brands have a short window before being squeezed out. How relevant, simple and compelling the brand positioning is impacted by the potential love for the brand.
The most beloved brands create an experience that over-delivers the promise. How your culture and organization set up can make or break that experience. Hiring the best people, creating service values that employees can deliver against and have processes that end service leakage. The culture attacks the brand’s weaknesses and fixes them before the competition can attack. With a Beloved Brand, the culture and brand become one.
Set your team up for success in delivering your Brand Promise before you put it out there on your website and in your marketing efforts. Being able to deliver is key. Otherwise, your promise could turn ugly!
We’ve collected some of the greatest brand promise examples we’ve ever seen. Some of these brands you’d expect to make a list, and others may come as a surprise, but it goes to show that a successful brand is a lot more than a logo, icon or memorable slogan.
Coca-Cola: “To inspire moments of optimism and uplift.”
Coca-Cola’s brand promise takes a bit of a different route. It does not mention the product or service but instead aims to convey a mindset held by all of those that are a part of the company. With a brand promise like this, Coca-Cola positions themselves as a lifestyle brand that is about much more than just manufacturing popular drinks.
Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
Similar to Coca-Cola, this brand promise doesn’t even mention Nike products but instead tells the consumer how they think and what they aim to do on a much larger scale than sports clothing and equipment.
Harley Davidson: “We are Harley Davidson.”
Harley Davidson has had some different brand promises through the years, but all of which revolve around the simple fact that there is nothing like a Harley. The cultural icon needs little explanation, and so their most recent brand promise doesn’t attempt to be anything but simple and to-the-point, promising a consistent experience with their company every single time.
Fail to deliver promises
News Corp – “legally investigate and report the news” (We all know what happened here; the phone hacking scandal was legendary.)
AT&T – “deliver the extraordinary experience our customers deserve” (In the news right now, AT&T is taking heat for promising “unlimited data” and then delivering internet speed slower than the days of dial-up. This is not delivering consistently on their promise!)
Marriott: “Quiet luxury. Crafted experiences. Intuitive service.”
This brand promise example is all about a consistent experience. Whether you stay at a Marriott in New York City, California or Utah, you expect the same experience and service. If Marriott did not live up to this promise, they wouldn’t be one of the most successful companies in the hospitality industry today.
Walmart: “Save money. Live better.”
It’s no surprise that Walmart makes the list of great brand promise examples. By combining the obvious promise of low prices with emotional benefits, Walmart offers its shoppers a better quality of life with easy access to the necessities
Winning promises
“On time or it’s free” – GA Perry (electrical contractor)
The NFL: “To be the premier sports and entertainment brand that brings people together, connecting them socially and emotionally like no other.”
Virgin: “To be genuine, fun, contemporary, and different in everything we do at a reasonable price
Google Chrome – “The Web Is What You Make Of It”
It’s hard to argue with anything from Google, Apple or any other behemoth of innovation. They are delivering tools and services in the simplest form. What I like about this is the spirit of innovation and self-discovery it suggests. It is entrepreneurial and sounds like something we all can do if we have the passion.
t was only after pulling into the parking lot at Kris and Kate’s Ice Cream Treats on the return trip that something even more incredible than the building’s design jumped out: the best brand promise ever.
“If you can think it, we can make it.”
I don’t know if Kris and Kate’s Ice Cream Treats thinks about this as a brand promise, a slogan, or something else. It doesn’t matter, because it is the best brand promise ever – and not just for an ice cream stand in St. Joseph, MO.
If your organization specializes in one particular area, your branding strategy discussions should include the question: “If our customers can think about it, can we make it?”
Creating your brand promise
Now that we’ve taken a look at brand promise examples from some of the most successful companies let’s discuss what aspects make up a strong brand promise.
Make it measurable
With many brand promise examples, the promise becomes too many things in an attempt to be everything to everybody and ends up being nothing to anyone. For your brand promise to be effective, it must be measurable.
What does friendly mean? How do you measure that? What does safe mean? Does safe only mean that the driver has never been in an accident? We all know people who don’t necessarily drive safely but have not been in an accident – yet.
If you can’t define what your promise means, you can’t measure it. If you can’t measure something, you can’t manage it.
Take FedEx for example. When FedEx first started out, their brand promise was, “We will get your package to you by 10:30 am the next day.” Time is a measurement we all agree on. If the package arrives before 10:30 am, the brand promise is kept. Starting at 10:31 am, the promise is broken. A strong brand promise is easy to measure against.
Make it meaningful
This is where the old cliche “actions speak louder than words” is particularly true. A brand promise is nothing if it’s not followed through with action. The one thing strong retailers do well delivers on their brand promises consistently.
You commit to your customers, and if you don’t deliver, you’ll lose them. The problem is that many companies have one big barrier to consistently delivering on those promises – their employees.
Your store associates are the faces of your business. They are the ones who interact with your customers daily, and they make the strongest and most lasting impression on your customers.
It’s their job to be the point of contact between your brand and your customers. But you know what’s scary? Most employees don’t even know what their company is promising. Instead of helping to improve your brand, they may be harming it.
The bottom line
Educating your employees about your brand message is the key to ensuring that your company keeps its promises to your customers. Training programs should include clear messages about what your brand stands for, what you are committed to delivering to your customers and why it matters.
When you give employees a deeper understanding of what you promise your customers, and how their performance fulfills that commitment, your employees are better able to provide the great brand experience your customers expect consistently
And that’s how you deliver on a brand promise.
