What is a “Brand Promise?”  

Some say it is what you determine it to be, formed it into a tag line.

If that is the case, then…

• The Maxwell House brand promise would be “Good to the last drop,” and the last drop should be good.
• The US Army says “Be all that you can be,” so I should be empowered to reach my potential as a result of their influence and training.
• For Smuckers it is “With a name like Smuckers... it has to be good.” If I top something with it, then it better be good. 
• FedEx says “When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight,” …well,  It should be there overnight. 
• Even my employer has a tagline “What do you want your website to do?” That stated, we should help you craft a website that achieves the outcomes that you determine. 

I am sure we have all had experiences where the tagline didn’t pan out for us.  If that is the case, when we read the tagline, we become cynical and reword it with the negative affirmation of our experience. That is, we take our brand experience and reform the promise that was delivered to us—negative or positive.

A brand promise leaves the hyperbole world behind and ventures head first into reality. When I am speaking or consulting, my favorite example for brand promise is Starbucks—they have a strong brand that is easily recognizable, with both” lovers” and “haters.”

The Starbucks Promise

I use Starbucks as an example because I like coffee. Some would even say I am a coffee snob. I like to think that I am a coffee guru or connoisseur (I only like it fresh roasted, fresh ground and I much prefer it prepared in a French press).

 I do like Starbucks, but I wouldn’t go so far as to label myself a “lover.” Generally, the experience I have in their stores and with their array of products is good. Starbucks is not my favorite coffee, that would be the Ruta Maya Coffee Company’s “Organic Roast Dark Coffee,” but I do have a Starbucks favorite and that is their “Pike Place” blend. What I do like about Starbucks is the overall experience.

When I am involved in discovery work for clients, I am trying to get at the heart of their brand and their brand experience. A brand promise exercise is one of the many tools that help me lead them to craft an effective online experience. Using Starbucks as an example, I get an idea of what people know about brand promise and help them tell me what theirs is and should be.

Yes, there is an “is” and a “should be.”

What your brand promise “is,” is the culmination of your consumers’ experiences with your brand; it is not what your tag line says. Your tagline does make a promise, but the experience is what defines the promise.

Purposed vs. Earned & Negative vs. Positive

 I like to say you have a “purposed promise” and an “earned promise.” Additionally, there are “negative brand promises” (typically earned) and “positive brand promises” that are purposed and earned. At Starbucks the purposed & positive brand promises arguably are:

• The inviting atmosphere (décor colors, furniture, room temperature, music, and aromas),
• A consistent experience no matter where you are in the country and the quality of the deliverable (coffee drink, pastry, artisan sandwich, etc.)
• The service (quick, friendly, etc.).

Some people would add that the Starbucks employment practices (benefits, decent incomes for the effort, etc.) matter as do their social responsibility programs. However, there are negative brand promises. Doing my brand promise exercise I hear these negative and earned brand promises:

• the coffee taste burned (for those who favor light and medium roast)
• the coffee is too expensive (for those who like pre-ground canned coffee, convenience store coffee, or those who have ruined taste buds (Authors opinion))
• the store is too busy
• the company is full of greedy capitalist pigs (those who didn’t like their vast expansion, always prefer local, think open source software is the best and liked the policies of the USSR during the Cold War era)

A brand promise is stated, illustrated and earned. Brand promises can be positive and negative. To know what your brand promises helps you understand what you should be working on. That stated, your online brand promise is defined by the online experiences people have and the ones that you want them to have. If your’ current design and architecture doesn’t yield a good experience, then your online presence is affecting your organization’s brand promise, creating a negative brand promise.

You cannot defeat every negative brand promise, because the negativity could be due to value alignment issues; like Starbucks cannot please the people who do not like successful capitalist ventures. But they can create messaging that communicates their social stewardship, like the causes they support, how they treat their employees and global suppliers, as well as their green initiatives. All those things can be used to counter act alignment issues.

Responding quickly and changing bad processes can help erode earned negative promises; extolling their best virtues (products, services and other messages) along the way can help support the purposed promises.

More than a Tagline, A Great Online Experince

Your online brand promise could be earned by crafting for your consumers a great user experience that gives them a place to execute their most desired online tasks. As they perform their tasks you subtly illustrate for them (along the task path) your most salient messages. The end result in the mind of the consumer might be a favorable opinion of your organization (earned trust) thereby encouraging them to read and heed your messages.

I believe a tagline cannot completely capture a brand promise. Why? Because it is too short to convey all the messages of a promise. It also only speaks from the brands’ perspective, not the consumers’. The consumer qualifies the promise in a way that a tagline cannot.

Interestingly, it seems that Starbucks does not use a tagline. Their designed consumer experience (decor, products and service methods) coupled with their customers experiences define their brand promise—purposed and earned.

Your personal experiences with brands and their designed experiences for you influence your alignment with them. Think about your consumers from that perspective. How can you create a great online experience that translates in a positive earned promise?