As you know, the brand is the identity of a specific product, service or business (Wikipedia). While it seems that everyone is talking about branding these days, I’m getting the impression that among some, branding still feels like an abstract and something they are doing because they should rather than to garner any sort of benefit.
When people talk about a brand promise, they are referring to statement or a sentence that communicates the one thing that the brand represents or intends to own in mind of the target consumer. Meaning, something the target consumer will associate with your company that communicates what unique benefit you deliver to the consumer. A brand promise needs to be clear, concise, believable, unique and catchy.
Here are a few questions that might help you when developing a brand promise:
- What unique benefit does your brand provide?
- Who is your target consumer?
- Is the benefit mentioned valuable to the target audience?
- What makes your organization uniquely qualified to provide it?
- Looking at your competition, are they touting a similar promise? If so, time to re-work.
According to Businessdictionary.com: “Benefits and experiences that marketing campaigns try to associate with a product in its current and prospective consumers’ minds.” is a brand promise.
It’s important to note that in many cases it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to differentiate a brand based on functional attributes alone. For that reason, a shift in focus to more relationship oriented benefits, such as ease of process or customer service may be a stronger direction to take for developing a brand promise. That’s why it’s essential that the message you communicate to your target audience, needs to be communicated with and believed in by employees at every level as ultimately it’s the front-end staff that need to be able to deliver the brand promise to the customer.
In the end, it’s a strong brand that’s more likely to experience growth and higher returns because people know what they can expect to receive and how it will affect their lives. Successful companies have discovered that brands are their most valuable asset (along with their people) for numerous reasons – but the key is that you have to make promises you can really keep. In the end, if you do your job and keep your promise, customers will be loyal to you and your brand.