This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Trust
Seventy-eight percent of people said that they choose brands that they trust based on consistent delivery on standards of expected quality. When we work on brands for products, usually we first focus on the one sentence of attitude, personality, or quality that we want our brand to be known for in the market. Do we do that personally? Do you have your own personal brand promise?
Delivering on your promise consistently makes a difference. In fact, I believe that those who focus on their strengths in their promise make more headway. I think people sometimes get confused about what to focus on and where to place their emphasis. They think that when they do something well, they need to then focus on what they don’t do so well. There’s a great book called StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath that includes a test about your strengths. The premise of the book, done by the folks at Gallup, is that you should figure out what your strengths are and that you should focus on those strengths. You don’t ignore your weaknesses, but you don’t spend all your time trying to improve those but on growing what you do well.
Why is this important? Well, 52 percent of people said they would leave a brand they love—not like but love—if a brand failed to deliver on its promise. Think through that comment for a moment. If you don’t purposely have a brand promise, people have one in their head for you. For me, I wanted to have a brand promise of delivering results with creativity and quality. Then, I sent a note to the highest levels at IBM with a spelling mistake in it. Although at first I didn’t think it was noticed, I soon learned it was. It is something I try to think through in all that I do: Is this supporting the promise that I want my brand to have in the market?
The number one reason that people see value in a brand is that it meets their promise of quality. The follow is a list that I carry with me to remind me of a few key points.
- Remember that everything you do should reflect your quality.
- Always ask, “Is what I am doing right now consistent with building my brand?”
- Mistakes are recoverable!