Delivering on the brand promise
20th February 2006 by Anders Gronstedt
I agree with Shel, let’s set the stage by defining brand beyond the myopic terms of traditional “branding” activities of colorful logos and witty tag lines, creative commercials and unique packaging. Traditionally, brand with lowercase “b” was defined by the shiny, cosmetic make-over job that communication professionals applied as an afterthought to products. In contrast, Brand with capital “B” is defined as the brand experience along all customer-brand touch points. This change has dramatic implications for brand management because marketing communications is no longer the key link to consumers; instead it’s a broad interface of the operations and the front line workers that connect the brand with the consumer. This critical shift redefines brand management as a cross-functional dynamic that, if it is to succeed, must orchestrate the activities of the front line in order to assure a winning, end-to-end service experience. Brand managers need to start measuring the effectiveness of their brand delivery in these customer touchpoint-oriented terms if they hope to effect genuine results for the bottom line.
This strategic view defines the brand as the distinctive promise of customer value that differentiates its associated product, service and organization from the competition. The challenge for the brand stewards is to keep the promise made in the brand’s advertising and other marcom activities consistent with the brand delivery. As in promising great customer service in the ads and putting customers on hold for half an hour when they call. I’m interested to learn what examples you’ve seen recently of brands that do a particularly good OR poor job of delivering on the brand promise?