Writes Doug Smith on his blog:
“…brand is the upshot of three related human actions: promising, delivering and experiencing. Employees (a category that includes executives) promise and deliver. Customers (and investors who are not actively involved in companies) experience. Most of us have yet to catch up with the latter two of these activities: delivery and experience. Because we are bombarded with logos and symbols and promises, we tend too rarely to look beyond the promising to the delivery and experience.
“That is, until the experience is entirely out of line with the promise.”
Read the post to get what “brand delivery” really means. Smith also gives us an example – FOX vs. WaPo – guess which one has a consistent brand delivery…
My grandma’s words of wisdom ring true to this: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
It’s all well and good that a promise and intent is made, but unless the brand is managed with that promise as a guide and sole delivery rubric than it is all for nothing. A brand is as living and breathing as you or I are.
The brand is defined by the fact that each and every consumer engages in a relationship with it. And just like our relationships with our friends and family, it too must hold up its end of the bargain in the relationship.
Good friends are hard to replace and family is almost impossible, but brands are a dime a dozen in a truly international market. As soon as the brand promise is broken, consumers can move on with hardly an effort and even less time.
When you live the brand, you live the brand promise. It really IS that easy.