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.

Cadbury’s plan to open cafes that should delight consumers

Cadbury's [according to a recent post by Business Spectator] are going to open a chain of cafes in the UK - called Cadbury Cocoa House.

I love this idea.

It will be a brilliant way for Cadbury’s to deliver their consumers’ with brand experiences that delight.

I go on about this all the time...but for me it is obvious, when a brand delivers an experience that delights consumers they will buy again and tells others about it.

Business Spectator talks about how other categories could adapt this concept. I totally agree.

My recommendation for any brand organisation is to build a collaborative team (marketing, sales, customer service, etc) and work out how you can deliver brand experience that will WOW consumers.

That’s how to drive advocacy and business success.

Social media accelerates need for greater collaboration

I found this useful presentation that was posted on Slide Share one month ago (which I guess in social media years makes it is a little out of date).

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

It has loads of good stuff.

One quote by Josh Bernoff particularly resonated with me (check page 49):

“The people in charge of talking are in the marketing department.

The people in charge of listening are in the research, or service of sales department.

They hardly ever talk to each other….”

I’ve talked about this before. It is vital that teams collaborate.

It is time to break down department silos, particularly between marketing and research, service and sales; and work together to deliver consistent and joined-up brand experiences that delight the consumer and make them advocates.

Now more than ever before this is vital because ‘social media is like advocacy on steroids’ (check out the great visual on page 12).

It will be the brand organisations that understand the importance of collaboration and delighting consumers, and the power of social media and advocacy that will win.

Brands can build a sustainable competitive advantage by showing they care

Why is it that customers are often treated so badly, even in these challenging times?

I read recently that research conducted by Better Business Bureau in US revealed that customer complaints had increased 7% - 2008 vs 2007.

This is pretty shocking.

The same post quotes Professor Michael Solomon, director of the Centre for Consumer Research at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia:

 "Too many companies have their eye on the short-term bottom line and they're sacrificing tremendous amounts of goodwill by becoming more 'efficient’...

....I believe this is a true source of competitive advantage for companies that choose to stand out by showing they care about their customers -- and this is exacerbated in a deep recession where consumers shed their brand "acquaintances" and remember who their true "friends" are."

This is great advice.

To survive and thrive brands’ must show their consumers they care.

If you work in the marketing department at a brand organisation don’t focus your time only on developing brand experiences that make a promise saying that you care. It is vital to also invest effort making sure the organisation collaborates to deliver brands experiences that genuinely delight existing customers.

That is how you will build loyalty and maybe positive advocacy for your brand.

Building advocacy is a proven way to win.

Why aren't on-line retailers closing the sale?

I read in Mark Lowe’s blog (Google UK Country Manager) that around 65% of on-line shopping baskets are abandoned at the check-out.

This is a shocking number.

Bricks and mortar retailers worked out long ago that in order to keep customers loyal it is essential to deliver a great brand experience in store. A key part of this experience happens at the check-out. I think it was Tesco that once did a campaign saying they would not permit queues of more than 3 people - and then, presumably at vast expense, changed their operation and retrained staff to ensure this promise was delivered.

Why don’t on-line retailers sort it out? They must be looking at the conversion data. They must be calculating the impact on their bottom lines. The cost to fix shouldn’t be huge? The ROI isn’t complicated.

Think about Amazon. They know the importance of the transaction phase to help achieve a seamless (and profitable) brand experience. They understand that when you make a brand promise, deliver it and then find ways to delight consumers, consumers are likely to buy again and may be even become an advocate.

I can see why Mark is frustrated and calling out for change.

If your on-line conversions are disappointing I strongly recommend that your organisation (both large and small):

• Read Mark’s tip.


• Get the right people to collaborate to work out a fix.


• Review whether people have the right KPIs, as conversions should not just be the responsibility of the ecommerce department but everyone with responsibility for brand experience management.

Collaboration is key to building a successful brand

All too often brand organisations operate in departmental silos.

Marketing departments rarely talk to sales and no one talks to the customer service department. Digital are the new kids on the block and no one knows how to talk to them.

Then there are the agency partners. Clients ask their agencies to work together but they usually because they don’t know how to, and/or too insecure; and/or not rewarded, and/or are desperate to protect their miniscule margins, etc.

The recession will change everything.

I hope one good outcome will be that brand organisations and agencies will learn how to collaborate.

If they do it should result in improved brand experience being delivered to the consumer.

This is a vital step to move the consumer along the path to advocacy.