In the News: Brand Promise Breakdowns

Posted December 10, 2009 at 6:51 pm
In category: blog | entrepreneurs | organizations   tags: Brand Awareness | Brand Marketing | Industry Brand | linkedin   0 Comments

Recently, we’ve had several highly-public Brand Promise Breakdowns, which frankly, were both avoidable and… well… not very bright. If you follow professional golf or the world of publishing, you can name what those Breakdowns were, but our purpose here is not to dwell on the missteps themselves, as much as to understand why those missteps are so damaging.

It all comes down to Brand Promise.

Whether you’re an individual or an organization, when you present yourself publicly you establish—from the first moment you set foot in the public arena—your Brand. Elements of your Brand can include your skills/competencies, your appearance/packaging, your focus, your position, and your “personality” (whether you’re a business or a person)… as all of these elements come together to create your Brand Promise.

In fact, at its heart, your Brand is nothing more than a Promise that you make to your audience. And as with any promise, the more public it is, the more accountable you are to make good on it. Why? Simple economics. If your Brand is an effective promotional tool for you, I will either “buy in” to something you say based upon your Brand, or I will “buy” something you produce because of your Brand.

The Advertising Industry is masterful at expressing the promises that help consumers justify their buying decisions. Through the work of advertising, I know—without a shadow of a doubt—that Bounty paper towels are the Quicker-Picker- Upper, that Nike products will help me Just Do It, and that Nationwide Insurance is On My Side. It’s reassuring to have that confidence, and you can help your audience experience that same level of certainty through the process of creating, promoting and keeping your Brand Promise.  However, nothing can be more devastating to a Brand than when that Promise is violated. (It’s not the kiss of death, but it’s a headache you really should avoid, if you can. And you almost always can).

Perhaps the best example up to this point of the dangers of a failed Brand Promise is lifestyle maven Martha Stewart. Martha was a shrewd businesswoman who successfully launched a billion-dollar Brand as an American domestic goddess, creating serene beauty and joy in her surroundings no matter where she turned. However, those who worked with her considered her something quite a bit less than serene and joyful. Stories began to leak into the media, and her challenging nature became almost a caricature, juxtaposed against the soft and gentle–but ultimately “phony”–brand she cultivated in the marketplace. When Martha made the disastrous decision to engage in insider trading activities, her fall from grace was catastrophic. While her public flogging was due to a number of reasons, a great deal of the anger against her derived from a sense of betrayal. She’d misrepresented herself intentionally to appeal to a broader audience, and quite successfully for a long time. But people don’t like to be fooled. Ever. She’s begun gaining ground again, but it will take a long time before she’s as revered as she was before… if ever.

Keeping the Promise of your Brand

Keeping the Brand Promises you make should be so easy it’s almost second nature. You know what you’ve promised, after all. However, without careful monitoring, we sometimes find ourselves straying a bit from our best selves… or from the elements that made us successful as an individual or an organization. If that deviation is benign (say, a new book line that doesn’t have a Happily Ever After, but is still a great read), then it’s not a problem. But if it’s an unannounced deviation of some significance (such as offering authors the opportunity to pay for the pleasure of being published, then presenting those books to the public as if they were bought, edited and vetted by some of the best editors in the industry), then you are breaking your promise to your audience (in this parenthetical case—your readers and authors). A Brand Promise can be broken on a more personal level as well—such as when a sensational new star presents himself or herself as above the fray, only to make choices that demonstrate otherwise.

In work, as in life, a promise kept is a magical thing. Create a Brand Promise for yourself and your business that you love enough to maintain for your audience NO MATTER WHAT, and you’ll be rewarded with the trust and loyalty of a fan base that will carry you to success.