“Brands are stories, containing a promise to perform, at every possible contact point. These stories are accepted or rejected by consumer audiences based on performance.” –Neal Mendelsohn, Chief Experience Officer at Fourth Wall, LA
I agree with Neal, stories matter. It’s the way potential clients are engaged, acquired and retained. In my years helping firms with branding and marketing I sometimes see a gap between the promise a clients story makes and the experience people might have. What I try to stress moving forward with them is the importance of an honest message. Hiding our real capacity from other people will eventually lead to diminish our capacity for real. This is not about lying, it’s about being transparent. And once you cross the line it becomes a slippery slope becoming impossible to ever catch up!
Whenever I give seminars on branding and social media I use a great definition Howard Levy, Principal of Red Rooster Group shared with me.
Promise + Experience = Brand
I like it because it’s such a simple way to understand that an experience that doesn’t live up to a firm or organizations promise impacts how their brand is seen not to mention their bottom line. The lesson that keeps resonating with me is something a mentor shared with me years ago, “under promise and over deliver.” It sounds so simple and so logical that we almost take it for granted. And now with social media and ambient awareness, it’s a big, virtual world out there and whether you like it or not, people are talking about you! Every time you can give more than promised it’s like giving a little present that people aren’t expecting.
*Oh, and by the way Neal Mendelsohn is my very talented cousin. (My dads brothers left NY to follow their dreams in California in the 60s and their kids never looked back) Visit his blog: staytruetoyourbrand.com
–Ann Byne, Creative Director/Principal of The Byne Group
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2 comments:
Thanks for the mention, Ann. Sometimes, I add the word Communication into the equation, since, if you have a great promise, but no one knows about it, then you don't have the opportunity to deliver on your experience. And that's the largely the part that we as marketing experts help clients with, right? To communicate their story.
In your post, you mention a gap between the promise and experience. We call this the “Perception Gap,” which is the gap between what the organization says and what people hear. It's our job to close the perception gap for our clients.
Thanks for your comment Howard and for sharing your expertise. I like the term perception gap, usually an interesting case study tells the story best.
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