Brands must deliver what they promise

A key tenet of my view on brand success is that is is vital that a brand delivers what it promises.

There is an excellent article in Forbes.com (written by Kerry Bodin at Forrester) about how brands need to carefully match what they promise in their communications with what they are capable of delivering.

The article talks about two airline ads:

A United Airlines ad run a couple of years ago showing a dad (depicted as a cartoon character) being transformed into an unreal world where he slays dragons, receives a crown from 2 beautiful girls, etc. The implicit promise being - "You're going to feel like a king on our airline" - is one that United has had trouble living up to. 

There is clearly a massive gap between the promise and the reality. 

In contrast a recent JetBlue ad pokes fun at airlines competitors by imposing buggage fees on unsuspecting New York taxi passengers who rapidly become irate. The ads explicit message is - "if you  would't take it on the ground, don't take it in the air" - also has a promise behind it.

This approach is totally in-sync with what the airline delivers.

It isn't complicated. Check-out the PDD™ 

• If you over-promise it will result in disappointed consumers - who may not buy again.
• If you deliver what you promise then you are more likely to have happy consumers who will buy again.
• The winning approach however is to over-deliver your promise in a way that delights consumers. Delighted consumers are more likely to buy again and even tell their friends. This is a powerful way to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

The Forbes article goes onto explain that brand organisations should map out their consumers' journeys and design ways to deliver at every stage. 

This echoes my thoughts on what I call the path to advocacy framework.

Why not use it and collaborate with the appropriate leaders in your organisation to ensure that great brand experiences are designed for each stage of the path; and that the whole organisation is focused on delivering and delighting.

Brand experience is a strategy, not a slogan

I’ve borrowed (and slightly changed) this quote from an article in a new Peppers and Rodgers on-line journal

It is a great article; take a look [Customer Strategist]

It supports a number of points I've made before...

Delivering great brand experience will grow the bottom-line:

“.. several recent studies confirm the link between customer experience and bottom-line performance”

Emotion contact is more effective than rational communication. It’s about what you do and how you treat consumers, not what you say, that is more influential:

“Customers feel first and think second—and interactions with a company strongly influence their heart and produce a longer lasting impact than communications directed toward their heads.”

Training and culture are key:

“Many companies lack the employee training and automated processes necessary to create the insight, interaction, improvement, and orientation necessary for a successful customer experience program.”

“Simply revising structure and technology doesn't suffice; company culture has to be changed for improvement."

If you want to build a competitive advantage consider seriously how you can work with others in your organisation, maybe using the PDD framework, to find ways to deliver compelling and relevant brand experiences that will genuinely WOW consumers.

What is Brand Experience?

A brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of a consumer that has been shaped by the accumulation of every encounter that consumer has ever had with the brand.

I call each of these encounters a Brand Experience.

Brand Experiences are therefore delivered by all touchpoints, e.g. traditional advertising, packaging, shop staff, memories of previous usage, customer service, word of mouth, etc.

The aim of all brands is to gain competitive advantage. To sell more stuff, to achieve greater loyalty, to get talked about and build sustainable profitability.

Brands should be aiming to gain a competitive advantage by delivering brand experiences that are better than their competitors.

Not only that, brands should ensure that their operation delivers brand experiences that embody what the brand stands for (brand personality, character, values, etc) each and every time a consumer encounters it.

The Path to Advocacy (and PDD Framework) is a useful way to look at how consumers’ are encountering/interacting with a brand and to help brand organsiations work-out how to deliver better Brand Experiences.

Is Jeff Jarvis right to say ‘your customers are your ad agency?'

I have just started reading an excellent book called ‘‘What Would Google Do?’ by Jeff Jarvis.

In chapter 3 there is a section called ‘Your customers are your ad agency.’ In it Jarvis says: “Customer service is the new marketing,” citing Dell and Google as evidence of the vital role customer services plays in building a successful brand.

I think he is half right.

There is no doubt that customer service is a critical stage of the consumer path to advocacy. Delighting consumers must be the goal. However, it is not the whole story, particularly for a lot of low involvement brands (Fast moving package goods, financial, white goods, etc).

The brand promise (to get noticed and encourage trial) is a start-point for these brands.

Then there is brand delivery (at 1^st and 2^nd moment of truth) which also has to be brilliant [read previous posting about Apple stores and service is marketing].

If you are working in a brand organisation look for others involved in delivering brand experience and find ways to work with them to break-down silos. It is a business imperative in this new connected world to ensure all parts of the Brand Promise, Delivery and Delight (PDD framework) are joined-up.

Microsoft takes some control of the ‘first moment of truth’

I was interested to hear that Microsoft is planning to open its own branded stores.

A spokeswoman has said that the company is targeting "a small number of high-profile experience stores in a few major cities around the world."

They say “they want to create deeper engagement with consumers and continue to learn firsthand about what they want and how they buy,"

This is a good plan.

No doubt mindful of Apple’s retail successful this indicates to me that Microsoft recognise the power of brand experience and the benefits of taking control of brand delivery at the first moment of truth.

They will have some challenges, given a weak economy and the fact they don’t make PCs, however, they have recently been building their expertise in this space. They set-up a store-within-a-store concept in various major store groups and created "Microsoft Gurus” borrowing from Nordstrom's personal-shopper concept, to help people select specific products to suit their needs.

It is a bold move but one that I hope they can make work.

All brands should look at whether they are achieving winning brand experiences at the delivery stage of the Brand PDD framework. If they are not they should fix it as it’s a vital step on the consumers path to advocacy. 

On-line retailers should consider how to add some magic to the consumer buying experience

I bought a new laptop from ebuyer.com this week. The experience was okay but it could have been so much better.

I went through a typical computer buying process. (I asked a friend, searched on-line, went into a couple of stores, and then eventfully bought on-line.)

So, how did I feel about the final on-line buying experience?

To be honest I felt pretty ambivalent.

The on-line transaction process was easy (which it often isn’t). The laptop arrived when promised. It works. I have a free support number I can call for one week.

Is ‘feeling ambivalent’ a good result for ebuyer.com?

I don’t think so.

They really missed a trick. They could easily have telephoned me to ask whether the laptop had arrived and whether I was happy with it. It would not have been hard to organise given they have my mobile number and they would have known that I’d received it (through the parcel tracking system).

I would have been delighted.

It would have delivered the kind of brand experience that would have made me a fan and possibly even an advocate.

A good delivery service is clearly important. However, my suggestion for all organisations is to think about the brand experience from a consumer point of view and work-out how to incorporate ways to delight after the delivery. Use the PDD framework to help. It often does not require much time & effort and the ROI pay-back - as a result of having more fans and advocates - can be huge.

This year marketers should prioritise Delighting existing customers

We are living through extremely challenging times.

It is hard to believe that less than 12 months ago we were in a period of abundance. Today we face a future of pretty bleak austerity.

So how should brands plot their survival as consumers are dramatically changing their spending habits?

What brand experiences should be protected as marketing budgets are being cut?

One thing to protect is your efforts with existing customers. It is well known that it is much more cost effective to keep existing customers than recruit new ones. Existing customers should become the primary focus for brand organisations.









I came across a report from RSR Research entitled: 2009 – The Year of the Existing Customers.

They make two points that really work for me:

1. Know your (existing) customers well

Retailers have got good at collecting information about their customers through loyalty cards, etc. It is vital to use this insight smartly to work out how to deliver customised brand experiences that delight customers.

2. Pay attention to customers wherever they are

It has become more important than ever to truly listen to your customers. Ignore what they are saying at your peril. The internet has given consumers an extremely powerful platform to talk to others if you deliver poor experiences.

So, as you consider marketing plans for this year, and beyond, a good start point would be to think hard about how you can delight with your existing customer service processes. Winning the delight part of the PDD framework should give you a huge competitive advantage.

Brand organisations that deliver joined-up brand experiences will win.

Key to delivering great brand experiences at all stages of the PDD framework is an organisation that is totally joined-up.

Brand Marketing, Sales and Customer Service departments need to have a strong relationship and an integrated process that ensures they work together.

Why is it that they often do not?

I have lost count of the number of times that I have worked with brand marketing people that do not involve sales in their brand experience planning. I have also worked with successful brand organisations that do.

It is hard to provide hard ROI evidence to show that one is better than the other, but the quality and innovation of the planing work produced is always much better when sales are involved.

Advocacy must be a focus for the whole brand organisation, not just marketing

One of the most powerful ways to persuade a consumer to become an advocate is by delivering compelling brand experiences every time they encounter a brand.

I have been playing around with a conceptual framework (below) that aims to help with mapping the main moments that consumers' encounter a brand.

The Brand PDD™ framework is a useful way to help teams to identify the brand experiences that an organisation needs to deliver to move consumers through the following stages on the Path to Advocacy:

Notice is when a brand gets on the radar of a consumer; when they see/hear about it and consider whether it is right for them.

Choose is the process the consumer goes through when trying to decide what brand(s) makes it to their short list – usually based on ability to meet functional and/or emotional needs.

Buy is when the consumer enters the store (on or of-line) and goes through the process of purchasing the brand – sometimes referred to as the first ‘moment of truth.’

Use is when the consumer uses the brand; not just when they unpack and use it for the first time (second ‘moment of truth’), but every time it is used.

Be Loyal is when the consumer buys again.

Be a Fan is what a consumer becomes when they have been well treated and feel valued by a brand organisation

Advocate is when a consumer proactively talks about the brand in a positive way to friends, families, etc.

Once the optimum brand experiences have been identified for each stage then gap analysis can provide insight into levers (opportunities to explore) and blocks (issues to fix).

The process of doing this, that I call Brand Experience Management (BEM), is a good way to get silo departments to collaborate so they understand the contribution they can make to drive advocacy; and why it needs to be joined-up with other department’s efforts to be most effective.

One of the main purposes of this blog is to share my views about brands that are delivering winning brand experience strategies and brands that are not; using the PDD framework to highlight why.

Bad service and grumpy britons put UK jobs at risk

This headline in the UK newspapers today is shocking.

I’m not surprised but I really hope that UK hoteliers sort themselves out.

The concern weak hoteliers must have is the deeper problems their business may have as a result of the current recession.

However, the opportunity [and being positive is vital] provided by the weak sterling means that all hotels should have a good year thanks to more tourist (enjoying cheap deals) and more Brits (not travelling overseas).

If I were in the hotel businesses I would be focusing on Delivery and Delight parts of the PDD framework.

Delivery will require some investment in a lick of paint and some new fluffy towels.

Delight will require a more customer friendly approach that genuinely delivers winning brand experiences to consumers.

It is simple. Delight consumers and they should return. They may even tell their friends about you.

To get teams to deliver winning brand experiences to the consumer should not require heavy investment.

What it requires is strong leadership and good Brand Experience Management.