The brand promise is the unique, enticing, captivating, and enduring idea behind the purpose of the brand’s existence which customers can expect from the brand experience. It’s the fundamental value that the brand holds to connect with the customer.
A brand needs a prominent brand promise to convince the audience about its goods and services. A brand promise should be central to the company, and it should remain constant as the brand grows and evolves.
What is Brand Promise?
Definition: A brand promise is defined as the expectations that consumers might have from every brand experience. It is a short and simple statement that tells the customers what to expect from the brand. In a line, a brand promise defines a brand’s scope in terms of product category, organizational values, quality, and price level.
The more the company is willing to work on its promise, the more vital brand value the customers hold for the brand. A brand promise should effectively hold at its core, and it should define the purpose of the brand and touch every aspect of the company. A brand promise works strategically into captivating the minds of the customers. When customers see a brand that promises to fulfill their wishes and demands, it’s natural for them to incline towards it.
Building Blocks of Brand Promise
Brand promises create value and make a credible, simple, different, memorable, and inspiring brand presence in the market. A brand needs to communicate with its audience through a captivating brand promise that creates a consistent experience for the customers.
If the customers remember the contract, they tend to recognize the value associated with the promise and, ultimately, the idea or position that the brand wants to own. A brand promise strengthens the trust between the brand and its audience. Customers bring more customers to brands with solid promises. This increases customer retention and even forms a customer chain.
The brand promise is the positive feeling or outcome that the consumers can expect when they experience the brand. It refers to the tangible evidence of what one’s brand is. Let us have a detailed look at the foundations of a powerful brand promise-
1. Simple
The promise of a brand should be no longer than a simple sentence or two, as it should comprise the little catchiness of a tagline along with the essence of the brand’s mission.
2. Credible
Your customer experience should match the brand promise, as it optimizes the credibility of the brand.
3. Different
It is essential for the brands to not have brand promises that are similar to other brands. You should have a brand promise to is unique and different from your competitors.
4. Memorable
Brand promises need to be memorable enough for employees for embracing and implementing them during customer interactions.
5. Inspiring
An inspiring brand promise plays a crucial role in developing a connection compelling enough to convert audiences to take favorable action.
Why is a Brand Promise important?
Here are a few points that summarise the importance of ensuring brand promises:
1. Builds Trust
A compelling brand promise helps build trust with the customer. The foundation of a successful brand is solely dependent on the relationship between the customer and the brand. Customers always tend to promote and grow the brand they trust and find relevant. This increases both brand and revenue growth.
2. Delivers Purpose of the Brand
Brand promise delivers a consistent and definite purpose behind one’s brand across not only the customers but also with the company’s employees. This ensures clarity about the motto behind a brand and all the people ensure that this promise is fulfilled.
3. Shows Professionalism
Brand promise instills professionalism. If a brand can not deliver what it intends to provide to its targeted audience, it would not make the brand viable. This makes the customers believe that the brand is unprofessional and unwilling.
4. Ensures Consistency
The brand makes a statement as the services and goods deliver a compelling, unique, and united presence. The customers receive cohesive and wholesome experiences.
5. Motivates the Team
A strong promise drives new attitudes and behaviors across the teams. It provides a consumer-targeted perspective and helps build a foundation on which the brand stands.
How to build a compelling Brand Promise?
1. Have a focus on the audience
A brand promise significantly delivers its motives to the audience. So the first step in delivering the promise, one should be aware of what the customers expect from the brand. This goes beyond any product or service. It revolves around the experience that a brand is willing to give.
A brand must put oneself in the customers’ shoes to envision the interactions and experiences of the customers. This ensures you guaranteed and fulfilling experiences to the customers, so they keep coming back.
Another goal to take care of by your brand promise is to set one’s brand apart from its competitors. Brand promise ensures to build a unique brand identity which makes a brand stand out in a crowd.
2. Make it as simple as possible
Customers would not go for a brand that uses complicated techniques or language to deliver its promise.
Simply put, a brand promise is what makes a customer think and opt for a brand. The simpler and confined a brand promise is, the more likely the customer will opt for it.
3. Make it indicative
Your brand promise should indicate the kind of brand experience that your audiences should expect from you.
Some of such brand promise examples can be – The Judgement Free Zone (Planet Fitness) & Feel like a woman (Revlon).
4. Provide credibility in your promise
A brand promise does not mean bragging about goals that one cannot even fulfill. Credibility in the promise is equally important.
If the brand is unable to live up to the expectations, it created, its reputation is ruined. A brand needs to make promises within its limits.
5. Make it measurable
Having a promise that can be measured is important for proving or improving it.
You should make it quantifiable on the grounds of Time, Quality, Emotion, Distance, Savings, etc.
6. Make it memorable
Every brand on the market comes up with new marketing strategies every day. The main aim behind every company, every brand, is to make a mark in the customer’s mind.
A customer is willing to opt for the brand which they remember. Hence a brand promise needs to be memorable and strike a chord. It should impact every decision that the company makes.
The brand promise may not be catchy like a tagline, but it needs to be compelling. It needs to have an element that makes it memorable in the mind of the customer.
7. Make it compelling to develop a connection
The moment a brand makes a promise that customers connect emotionally with, they are more likely to go for it.
Customers also tend to promote these brands to others which inspires them. A brand’s promise should be realistic as well as inspiring. This spreads the message to the customers that a said brand is beyond the products and services.
8. Make it unique
If a brand promise guarantees services similar to other brands, customers are more likely not going to trust the brand.
A brand’s promise needs to establish qualities that make it unique and different from others. The brand promise needs to be clear and definitive of its goals and purposes towards the satisfaction of its customers.
9. Speak what matters most
You should never try to make your brand everything to everybody, instead, you should talk about what matters to your audiences.
This helps in building a loyal customer base around the brand. One of such brand promise examples can be of Earth’s Best Organic which is – Producing pure, quality products you can trust.
Examples
Now that we have witnessed how a brand promise can help elevate the position of a said brand in the market, let us delve into some of the popular examples of brand promises-
1. Coca-cola: “To inspire moments of optimism and uplift.”
The promise that this company holds instills a positive and refreshing approach in the minds of the customers. Instead of giving out too much about the product, the brand focuses more on the mindset of the audience. Coca-cola positions itself as a lifestyle brand that is not just limited to manufacturing soft drinks but to empower the spirit and inspire moments.
2. Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.”
Just like coca-cola, Nike too does not mention the product but commits to what their products bring. Nike delivers that they aim to bring the feeling of inspiration and innovation through their products and services.
The asterisk on the word athlete means that if a person has a body, they are an athlete. This makes Nike a brand of the common people rather than the brand of the sportsmen that promote the brand.
3. Apple: “Think different.”
Apple as a brand leaves no stone unturned in providing precision in their services. Be it in the form of premium products or the apple support community that goes beyond the purchases or the marketing strategies. Apple excels at all of them. The brand promises to serve the purpose of providing the customers with the commitment that they think and bring innovation to their ideas. They also inspire the customers to do the same and not follow the herd.
4. H&M: “More fashion choices that are good for people, the planet, and your wallet.”
Sustainable choices that are both pocket and eco-friendly! h&m manages to easily deliver their motto through their brand promise in a confined manner that attracts the attention of the customers. They are promised to be provided with fashionable choices which are both easy on the planet as well as the pocket.
5. Walmart: “Save money, live better.”
Walmart easily convinced its customers through its concise brand promise of saving money and eventually living a better life. Low prices of necessities are already a great way to promote one’s brand. Walmart goes one step ahead and connects the emotional benefit of living a better life with low prices. This further connects with the customers.
6. BMW: “The ultimate driving machine.”
BMW’s brand promise reflects the luxury that the brand provides. Their aim of providing only efficient and elegant machines is stated in their promise. It does beat around the bush and provides a legitimate statement with confidence.
7. Harley Davidson: “We are Harley Davidson.”
The brand promises of Harley Davidson have been changing over the years. However, all of them have simply concluded by saying that there is nothing like Harley. The revolutionary brand does not need a complicated brand promise. They know that people are aware of the brand. The recent brand promise hence maintains the familiarity and just ensures the consistent and cohesive experience that the company provides.
8. Wegmans: “Consistent low prices.”
Low prices of products are what 90% of customers look for. Wegman’s aims to provide this promise. They do not just promise low-priced products, but they even mention consistent low prices. The little use of the word ‘consistent’ plays a major role in building trust with the customers.
9. Starbucks: “To inspire and nurture the human spirit- one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.”
Starbucks is not just about coffee. It is a way of life. The brand promise exactly states that. It intends to inspire and nurture the human spirit. It distinguishes itself as a lifestyle brand that goes way beyond coffee.
10. Coor’s light: “The world’s most refreshing beer.”
The brand promise of Coor’s light is both to the point and simple. The emphasis on the word “refreshing” brings out an engaging promise. It further exaggerates and creates a sense of curiosity for the consumers by using the claim “world’s best.”
Conclusion
A brand promise inculcates the feeling of relevance and trust between itself and its customers. They tend to gravitate towards something they care and feel about. A brand promise can directly affect the reputation of any organization.
Brand promises should always be made in consideration of the level of promise the company can fulfill. If a company or brand goes overboard with the promises they make, it can end up in a huge mess. The customers would not be satisfied, which leads to bad reviews.
The customers who have once experienced these unfulfilled promises would not be returning for the brand. This breaks customer’s trust and inhibits customer retention. That is why making a brand promise that can be consistently fulfilled is important for the success of a brand.
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