The Brand Promise
The Brand Promise
Your brand is the promise you keep with your customers, and part of that promise is simplicity. As you give the customer more power to manage the relationship—as you learn more and more about what they want from you—you will make their lives simpler by eliminating choices you know they don’t want.
I often use the example of Hilton Hotels. They have made it their business to know enough about what I want and what I don’t want that they don’t bother me with things of no interest to me, while keeping their promise on things I consider important. For example, they know I want a smoking room near the elevator with a king-
When you have reached this kind of close relationship, you have built a strong defense of forgivability. There will always be a time when something goes wrong with a product, a service, or your customer communication. The customer who considers your brand “My Brand” will be more
It’s not just product, service, or communication goofs that can hurt a brand. Sometimes it’s the corporate leader. William Arruda, founder of Reach, a global branding company,
In this day of celebrity brands, it is becoming essential for senior executives to build and communicate their personal brands to expand both individual and corporate success. An executive’s brand is his/ her promise of value. It separates executives from their peers and allows them to expand their personal success while building greater success for their organizations. Executive branding is not about building a special image for the outside world; it is about understanding an executive’s unique combination of rational and emotional attributes—his/her strengths, skills, values and
passions —and using these attributes to stand out. [5]
We don’t have to dredge up former Enron Corp. CEO Ken Lay; there are less egregious examples of
The survey also identified public relations as the most effective way to market and create demand for technology brands in a tight economy, followed by customer relationship management and brand advertising. [6]
How could CMR have helped these executives? Listening to customers—the dialog part of CMR—would have told these executives they were miscommunicating with their constituents. With the kind of sharing friendship Lois Geller describes combined with empowered customers and
[4] “From the Store to the Web and Back Again,” 1to1 Magazine, January/ February 2002, p. 24.
[5] William Arruda, “The Brand Connection—The Link Between Corporations and the Executives That Lead Them,” www.marketingprofs.com, August 2002, pp. 1–2.
[6] Kate Maddox, “Survey Finds HP, Compaq, Cisco Most ‘Bruised and Battered’ Brands,” BtoB, January 2002, p. 2.
