Marketing departments must look beyond making the Brand Promise

For years marketing department focus – in terms of time and money – has been on promoting the Brand Promise (typically via traditional media).

This is the stage where the brand is making a promise to the consumer about what the brand will deliver.

This stage has two parts. The first part, and the very least a brand wants to do, is to get noticed, to get on the radar of the consumer (i.e. they see it/hear about it) so they will give some though as to whether it is right for them.

The next part of this stage is to persuade the consumer to select their brand. This is the part where consumers are actively making choices about which brands they want to buy.

Successful marketing people have a clear view, and are involved with, the delivery and also the delight part of the business because they know consumers will not be duped. It’s simple, if consumers don't get what they are expecting, they will not buy again.

Successful marketing people also know that when a brand delights a consumers it they will talk about it. The explosive growth of the internet has given these advocates a platform that makes them even more powerful.

The worry is that many marketing people don’t consider the delivery and delight parts of their business. They leave it to the sales and customer service people (who have different KPIs).

The world has changed. This provides a great opportunity for brands operations to re-evaluate their operational processes and if necessary to change.

A good place to start is to review your operational balance using the PDD framework, and consider ways to collaborate closely with other parts of the business that play a role in moving the consumer through the path to advocacy.