The Science of Marketing

A funny thing happened when I sat down for a grilled cheese sandwich this weekend – I thought about branding. It wasn’t because the oozing cheddar or heaping pile of fries sparked an idea for a new high tech ad campaign. It was because the brand promise for this particular eating establishment, "Magical Moments…", was drastically inconsistent with the experience it delivered. Before I walk into a place called Friendly’s, I envision a smiling hostess and a chipper waiter, and I imagine balloons somewhere on the premises. Instead I was treated to a long, lonely wait near the cashier’s counter, and a grumpy server who clearly didn’t want to be there. Oh, and no balloons.

The encounter reminded me that the brands we work so hard to construct in marketing must reflect and never stray from the genuine experience we deliver. Especially now, when user generated reviews, blogs and social networks make it easier than ever for people to share real experiences with others, we must be sure our products can keep the promises we make. If your advertisement trumpets ease of use, yet users are struggling to configure your product, something has to give. Either tweak the product to stay true to the claim, or develop a new brand promise that is consistent with the product’s true capabilities.

Even when a product performs as advertised, inconsistency can kill good branding when different touch points tell different stories. A presentation developed by an aggressive sales manager, for example, touts cost savings of 60%, while the web copy approved by legal sticks to the party line of 45%. When messages diverge from one communications vehicle to another, an opportunity for reinforcement is lost, or even worse, your credibility may suffer. Document your company’s visual and verbal identity, and use them to create consistency across all marketing communications materials.

Here we are just a few days into 2008, and the blogosphere is already buzzing with posts about better brand promises. Paul Dunay implores marketers, "Stop promoting your brands to death and start building them," while Seth Godin requests that we "Make promises and keep them," and Ardath Albee wonders if  "what they [B2B companies] profess to be valuable benefits are really seen that way by customers and potential buyers."

I’ll toast to that. Break out the balloons.

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