Crafting and delivering a brand promise is like a mountaineer navigating treacherous terrain with the help of a sturdy rope. Just as the mountaineer relies on the strength and reliability of the rope to conquer challenging cliffs and slippery slopes, a brand must rely on careful stakeholder’s collaboration and insightful exploration to create a robust brand promise. It's a sturdy rope, weaves through every 'moment-of-truth' in the journey, providing stability up till the ‘end point.’ In essence, your brand promise is the lifeline of your brand's existence.
How do you craft one? Start with your 3 most important internal stakeholders:
Unify Your HR, Marketing, and Operations
- Take a collaborative approach involving HR, Marketing, and Operations. While Marketing often takes the lead, it's crucial to have cross-functional buy-in for your brand promise to succeed.
- All key functions must take ownership and commit to delivering on the promise. (This may require CEO support to break down silos, but that's a discussion for another time).
Next, explore the process of articulating a brand promise that truly captures your brand's essence and appeals to your employees and customers as well.
Define Your Brand Positioning & Pinpoint Key Touchpoints
- Begin by crystallizing your brand positioning— the distinct stance your brand takes—and the value it represents to your target customers.
- Then, dive into your customer experience insights to identify the key touchpoints—moment-of-truth and end point— that are valuable to customers.
Now, let's go a step further and talk about something that's often misunderstood about brand promise. And no, it's not just some fancy tagline that makes us chuckle or raises eyebrows!
The Limitations of Taglines & The Power of Slogan
A tagline may be catchy, amusing, or even a bit cheeky, but it rarely captures the essence of your brand. Marketers may like taglines because of their brevity and adaptability, especially on social media or when attached to a logo. But most of the taglines miss out on answering the all-important question - “Why should a customer choose us?”
A slogan answers to that question! By reinforcing your brand positioning, a well-crafted slogan could transform into a brand promise. If done thoughtfully.
Craft Your Brand Promise
Here are tips to write your brand promise statement:
- Keep it simple: A good brand promise should be so crystal clear that an eighth-grader can read and understand it.
- Make it stick: A memorable brand promise is a winning one. Use techniques like alliteration, repetition, reversal, or double-entendre to make it memorable.
- Less is more: Try keeping your brand promise under 15 words. It'll make it easier to recall.
- Live it out: Accompany your brand promise with real examples that help employees understand how they can deliver it in their daily interactions.
Example:
Imagine that you work for a bank. You and your colleagues from HR, Marketing, and Operations have been brainstorming and have come up with this brand promise:
"Your friendly neighborhood bank. Where friendliness meets financial expertise".
Despite the alignment of this statement with your bank's brand positioning, and its brevity, at merely 9 words, it lacks a certain punch. Let's create a lasting impression! See this one:
Brand Promise:
Friendly faces, helpful hands, we'll guide you through all financial plans.
This brand promise, when conveyed in 11 rhyming words, becomes easily understandable and memorable for your bank's front-line employees, who can translate this into behaviors that deliver the brand promise. It communicates the bank's commitment to offering friendly, approachable services with a strong emphasis on financial expertise. This can be brought to life in various ways, such as:
- Greeting customers warmly
- Actively listening to their needs
- Providing clear and helpful explanations
- Offering personalized financial solutions
- Building strong relationships with clients based on trust and expertise.
When these behaviors are consistently displayed, they ensure that your brand promise is reflected in every customer interaction.
Deliver Your Brand Promise. Let’s go!
Finally, it's time to deliver that stellar brand promise! Your key touchpoints—moment-of-truth and end point— are your golden opportunities to deliver on your promise and create ‘wow’ moments. You don't need to hit every touchpoint – that wouldn't be practical.
Instead, focus on aligning your key touchpoints with your brand positioning to deliver the promise. Check out the ‘Positioning Touchpoint Model’ for a deeper dive into this topic.
While the journey may seem complex, by following these actionable steps, you're well on your way to crafting a memorable brand promise that truly resonates with your audience. The next step is to motivate and captivate your team for to deliver unforgettable branded customer experience. Stay tuned for the upcoming article.
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Did I miss something important? Let me know if you have any ideas, thoughts, or questions.
Learn related concepts here:
How to Deliver on a Brand Promise? The Positioning Touchpoint Model
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