Why Companies Need to Uphold Their Brand Promises

Brand promises are oaths made to customers. Companies must meet these expectations if they put them out there, otherwise they will lose their customers’ trust and loyalty.

The right steps must be taken to guarantee that the brand can keep its promises and continually satisfy their target audiences.

The first rule is to establish a brand promise that relates to the core beliefs of the company.

“Your promise needs to be relevant, compelling, believable and achievable – and supported by the values that drive your organization – to make a deep connection with your target audiences,” writes Business 2 Community‘s Michael Hinshaw. “To define your brand experience promise, you must understand your organization, your customers and your competition.”

For example, Starbucks cares “deeply about our coffee origins, we are having an impact in that community and we are sourcing the best quality coffee,”  said Starbucks’ Digital Strategy Director Alexandra Wheeler.

The company delivers on that promise with displays in stores and a content marketing campaign that seeks to educated consumers about how it chooses and treats its coffee beans. Social media had been an particularly effective way for Starbucks to do this, showcasing these values on its Facebook page with photos of CEO Howard Schultz visiting Rwanda in 2009.

Companies need to follow the same principles, relying on the sales and marketing team to deliver the promises, says Hinshaw.

Thomson Dawson of Branding Strategy Insider writes that if companies don’t deliver on their promises, it will have far-reaching consequences.

“Promises matter to people,” he says. “If you don’t deliver what you promise to people, in time, you won’t matter to them. This is true in every product category. This is true in all walks of life.  More importantly, in our social media crazed world, vetting out broken promises made to consumers has instant ramifications to the credibility and trajectory of your brand’s perceived value.”

Customer service representatives should be there to keep the promises by interacting with customers in-person, on the telephone, electronically, or through social media.

To measure whether or not a brand’s promise is fulfilled, Hinshaw suggests using feedback from customers.

Customers aren’t blindly following companies or trusting them for information as much as they used to. Delivering and keeping the brand promises are ways to ensure that customers will put their faith in companies.