What’s Your Brand Promise?
My last article ‘Be The Market Leader’ presented an effective way to establish your business as The Market Leader in your Niche, without the need for a massive marketing budget.
By creating a new category that you can promote & lead (usually a subset within your wider category) and then by naming your new subset category, you can now promote the new category.
By doing this you are inviting competitors to join your category and further promote the category that you lead. You want competitors to enter your category saying ‘we also do that’.
In doing so, they validate your leadership position. This is why it’s valuable to promote your CATEGORY FIRST and your BRAND SECOND.
Now that you’ve created a category (also known as your Strategic-Position) you need to be able to defend and strengthen your category leadership. To do that create a bold BRAND PROMISE. One that competitors will struggle to emulate.
Your Strategic Position and Brand Promise can be presented independently of each other, or when placed together they tell a more comprehensive and compelling story.
The challenge however is you need to be succinct.
Research & Thought-Leadership from Seth Godin & Doug Hall concur. Ideally your complete statement ‘Strategic-Position & Brand Promise’ should be; 8 words or less that a 10-year-old would understand.
The challenge is conveying a compelling message in such a short statement. It’s a lot harder than it seems.
1800 Got -Junk?
One of my favourite examples is 1800 Got-Junk? Founded in Vancouver in 1989 by Brian Scudamore. The new category they created & promoted was “Junk Removal Service”.
From the outset, their positioning statement was The World’s Largest Junk Removal Service. A bold claim perhaps? But there were no organised Junk Removal Services; They were first.
Being first in a new category gives you the latitude to be bold. Having created and promoted the new category Junk Removal Service, their Brand Promise was equally clever… “Remove your junk without lifting a finger”.
Brian had the idea while he was in a Mcdonald’s drive-thru and saw a battered old truck offering junk removal in front of him. I can do better than that he thought and 1800 Got-Junk got started.
Today it is certainly the world’s largest, with 160+ locations, and over 1,500 active trucks, servicing all major metros in the USA, Canada, and Australia.
When you combine your Brand name; your Strategic Position, & your Brand Promise it tells a compelling story & 1800 Got-Junk? is an excellent example:
Brand: 1800 Got-Junk?
Position: The World’s Largest Junk Removal Service.
Promise: Remove your junk without lifting a finger
Here’s how you can create a powerful Brand Promise for your business
First, determine your 3 Brand anchors (benefits). Functional, Economic, and Emotional.
FUNCTIONAL:
What does your product or service provide (or do) that’s functionally superior to competing offers? Is it easier to use, longer lasting, or perhaps it is multi-functional?
Or it could be; Reliability, Convenience, Flexibility, Upgradeability, Variants, etc
Ask yourself… what do we provide that is FUNCTIONALLY superior?
ECONOMIC:
What benefit do you provide in either time or money; or overall value?
Perhaps it’s a full refund, or seasonally adjusted prices, Lifetime cost of ownership, Time saved, Errors reduced, Productivity, ROI, Speed, Convenience
Ask yourself… what makes us ECONOMICALLY better value?
EMOTIONAL:
What emotion does your customer feel?
Control, security, clever, powerful, stylish, relaxed, popular, childlike, pampered, loved, rebellious, caring, cared for, heroic, adventurous, sexy, fun, sophisticated, prudent, freedom, belonging, peace of mind
Your brand promise will magnify one or more of these attributes.
Your Brand Promise could represent just one of your brand anchors. However the more brand anchors represented in your brand promise, the more powerful it will be. Furthermore, the emotional anchor provides more impact, so it should always be used (or inferred) if possible. REMEMBER, all decisions are made emotionally on some level.
My recommendation however is always to include the emotional anchor.
FedEx original Brand Promise was “Delivered by 10am next day” i.e. an overnight service anywhere in North-America. Don’t get me wrong, it was powerful when launched. No one was offering an overnight service in the USA & Canada.
As competitors started offering similar overnight options, FedEx iterated their brand promise focusing on their emotional anchor. Their Brand Promise became: Be absolutely sure.
I loved it. At the time I owned a distribution company in Florida. We primarily shipped using UPS. Why? because it was about half the price. However, if something was late out of production, or someone had received incorrect goods, or, it was just plan urgent, then we’d always ship FedEx. Why? Because we could be absolutely sure.
Here are some examples showing brand anchors leading to a Brand Promise.
If you’re struggling to identify yours CALL ME. I love determining powerful brand promises and I’m more than happy to brainstorm it with you. Just for the fun of it! (021) 761-655.
Simon Mundell
Strategic Advisor
Advisory.Works
Simon Mundell, Founder (or Co-Founder): Advisory.Works Ltd, RESULTS.com, The RESULTS Group Ltd, Luxury-Stays & Corporate Hosting Ltd, Icarus Canopies Inc USA & EU, Ironman Wetsuits Ltd, Direct Innovations Ltd,