Living up to the brand’s promise

I've not posted a blog in several weeks. My wife and I have been moving. What an experience!

Particularly after we've lived in the same home for over 30-years.

We "downsized", which for us means squeezing all the stuff we've accumulated into a townhome. It never occurred to us to get rid of our seldom-used possessions. You never know when you'll "need" them.

Anyway, we had a ton of valuable stuff to move.

So we went with a "world-class" moving company - the one with the slogan, "The Careful Movers".

Only they weren't. Careful, that is.

The "trained and experienced" staff weren't trained in a least two areas: how to be careful, and why it's important to the customer and to the van line to fulfill the promise of being careful.

Another way to put this: the crew (and be inference and practice the company management) did not embrace the brand.

They were not prepared to deliver what the brand promised - careful moves. We see this happening in all sorts of businesses. The founder or the sales manager or the ad agency develops a tagline and pastes it on all promotional and corporate materials. They believe they've differentiated their brand - made it unique.

But the brand is more than the words of a slogan. The brand is the promise and the fulfillment of the promise. Hence, all employees, agents and associates should understand what the promise is and what part they play in fulfilling it. If "careful" is the by-word, then just telling employees to "be careful" isn't enough. They must be trained and measured on how careful they are.

The brand is only as strong as the implementation of the promise behind the brand.

Martin Jelsema

Signature Strategies

Helping smaller companies profit from the power of branding.

www.signaturestrategies.net