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Tag: Brand Promise

Brand Storytelling: A Necessary Shift from Plot to Promise

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Brand Storytelling

Jim Signorelli is the author of “StoryBranding“. I love the way he makes the distinction between the classic marketing idea of “unique selling proposition” and the modern meaningful branding concept, “unique value proposition”.

We often refer to plot lines as brag lines, simply because that is what they do. They express the brand’s “how so?” more than its “what about it?” Plot lines are more a manifestation of the brand’s opinion of itself. As such, they lack the believability and relevance of theme lines. And by themselves, they rarely make an emotional connection. Their transparent purpose is to sell superiority.

Consider the following plot lines:

• You’re in good hands: All State Insurance

• Like a rock: Chevy Trucks

• It’s the real thing: Coke

• Easy as Dell: Dell

• Your world delivered: AT&T

• Where the rubber meets the road: Firestone

• Ford has a better idea: Ford

• We bring good things to life: GE

UVPs (a “theme line” in StoryBranding)

In writing the UVP, the objective is to powerfully communicate a shared belief in a way that is charged with emotion. It extolls a belief, not a benefit. As such, it explains why the brand does what it does beyond the profit motive. It describes the cause that gives the brand a reason for being.

Theme lines that have been or are currently being used by prominent brands:

• Never stop exploring: The North Face

• Be all that you can be: The U.S. Army

• Screw it! Let’s ride: Harley-Davidson

• You deserve a break today: McDonald’s

• Have it your way: Burger King

• Just do it: Nike

• Yes we can!: Barack Obama

• A mind is a terrible thing to waste: United Negro College Fund

• Obey your thirst: Sprite

• A diamond is forever: DeBeers

• Image is everything: Canon

• Make yourself heard: Ericsson

I am a proponent of what I call a brand’s “Promise”. In other words, an aspiration for the brand that goes beyond merely making profits and touches upon why the brand matters and its greater purpose.

However, I do not believe such propositions need to be “ad-ready” as quick taglines. Rather, I think a Brand Promise should be able to be multi-level, and therefore beyond a sound bite. It should be memorable, but at the same time have depth. If there is a need for an advertising deadline (and I would always question that), I suggest a new line should be developed that encapsulates the spirit and intent of the Promise.

Dive deeper to understand the value of a Brand Promise.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

The Importance of Brand Behavior in the Trust Economy

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

The Trust Economy

It’s no secret that we are living through a revolution in the delivery of products and services. Driven by the internet’s uncanny ability to match sellers and buyers, people all over the world are engaging in direct commerce with other individuals, brokered by branded platforms.

Some people call it the sharing economy, collaborative consumption, on-demand services, or the peer-to-peer economy. Since all models depend on trusting that a virtual stranger will do what he or she promises, let’s call it the trust economy.

The trust economy is transforming sectors like travel, car sharing, microfinance, microventure funding, staffing, and music and video streaming. PwC estimates that global revenues from these trust economy sectors will rise from $15 billion today to $335 billion in the next ten years.

Nearly half of American adults are familiar with the sharing/trust economy, and PwC reports that the more familiar they are, the more excited they become.

But 69% will not trust sharing companies unless recommended by someone they already trust. 64% of consumers say that peer regulation is more important than government regulation. And Nielsen reports that 92% of consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations above all other forms of advertising.

The key for brands in this new economy is trust.

It’s not just about people trusting other people, peer to peer. It’s about people trusting a brand. And if a company invests in developing a meaningful brand strategy that helps employees understand how to behave, the brand’s behavior will lead to people developing feelings of trust in the brand. There’s only one way for a brand to get into a relationship of trust with a customer. You have to earn it.

Trust is earned by doing what you say you’ll do. By consistently and conspicuously living up to what your brand promises at each and every brand interaction. Every time.

The formula for the trust economy is easy enough: Brand + Behavior = Trust. When thousands of consumers are being served by thousands of virtual strangers, trust in the brand is the only thing that makes the new economy work.

For more information on how brand behaior can drive business results, please download our paper:

Download White Paper

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

A Brand Strategy that Focuses on “Truths”

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

In our latest white paper we list five fundamental principles that drive our efforts to help your brand thrive in the 21st century. Here, we explore one of our drivers: “truth, authenticity, and credibility.”Here’s an explanatory extract from the white paper:

“Emotive brand strategies are built out of what is already true about your brand. As such, the new purpose and behaviors we propose are authentic to what your brand is, and are welcomed by customers and employees as credible offerings from your brand.”

Continue reading “A Brand Strategy that Focuses on “Truths””

Brand Truths That Focuses on What’s Truly Meaningful

Posted on by Jerry Holtaway

Brand Truths

In our latest white paper we list five fundamental principles that drive our efforts to help your brand thrive in the 21st century. Here, we explore one of our drivers: “truth, authenticity, and credibility.” This is what we refer to as brand truths.

Continue reading “Brand Truths That Focuses on What’s Truly Meaningful”

Brand Promise: The What, Why, and How of Great Brand Strategy

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

There’s a lot of talk about the concept of brand promise. But, what is a brand promise? Why does my business need one? How would it make my business stronger? How does it relate to my brand strategy? Here we explore the answers to these pressing questions.

What is a brand promise?

And perhaps more important, what kind of a brand promise does your business need in today’s world?

A brand is a promised delivered. A contemporary brand promise articulates an idea that goes beyond the rational benefits that worked in the past, and extols a higher-order emotional reward. A brand promise is not a slogan, or advertising headline.  It is not, by definition, a public statement (though it can be as long as your brand truly lives up to it). Finally, it is not a “unique selling proposition”. Indeed, its uniqueness and differentiating power comes not from what it says but how it transforms the way your organization creates strong and meaningful connections with people.

So, while promises of the past often focused on the direct product-related benefits experienced by the customer, the most effective brand promises today also touch on the positive – and emotionally-based – personal, societal and ecological outcomes the brand experience may create.

As such, a purposeful brand promise goes beyond the profit agenda, and strives to forge deep emotional connections based on meaningful outcomes.

A brand promise is a natural extension of the building blocks of your corporate strategy: mission, vision, and values. Your brand promise provides a powerful new and appealing narrative in which these core elements can be explained, embedded, and actualized. Those needing to act upon your mission, vision, and values will embrace them through the emotionally charged and purpose-focused lens of your brand promise.

Why do you need a brand promise?

The operating assumption is that people today are attracted to, engaged with, and loyal to brands that are purpose driven. These dynamics improve the profitability of purpose-driven brands by creating stronger appeal, richer and deeper experiences, and an enduring emotional resonance.

This quest for purpose is present across your  customers and employees. Its what will drive more prospects and recruits to your brand. It will make you a more attractive partner for other popular purpose-driven brands. Your purposeful promise will earn you better PR.

You especially need a brand promise if your organization is lacking focus and direction, if your brand is being marginalized by competition, or if your growth is stymied by an inability to attract top talent.

Bottom line: a purposeful brand promise is a prerequisite for successful brands in “The Purpose Economy“.

How will a brand promise make your business stronger?

Extraordinary things happen when an organization embraces a purposeful brand promise. Meaningful change happens from the top to the bottom. A spirit full of focus and energy turns your organization into one that is more fluid, innovative, collaborative, and gratifying.

A strong brand promise drives new attitudes and behaviors across your team. It evolves your marketing and advertising. It inspires new product development. It makes your workplace more humane, more respectful, and more productive.

Operating deep within your company, your brand promise finds its way into the hearts and minds of your customers and prospects by giving them deeper reasons to love, and be attracted to, your brand.

Most significant, a purposeful brand promise has the power to transform your leadership style and advance your career. By enbracing the promise yourself, and living it in ways that inspire, motivate, and reward your followers, you be come a leader people love to follow.

Why? Because through the brand promise, they can see their own quest for purpose realized. They are no longer just doing a job, they are using their work to fulfill their sense of purpose. Their 9-5 has been transformed into meaningful work that is intricately tied to their sense of self. Likewise, people just won’t buy your products or simply pass them by, they will buy into your ideals because they are something in which they can share.

About Emotive Brand

For more information on Emotive Brand’s methodology, please visit here.

or check out this white paper to learn more about reputation management: Download White Paper

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

Business Success is All About Building a Meaningful Workplace Culture

Posted on by Jerry Holtaway

“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” – Albert Einstein

A business’ fate is determined in large part by its culture. A business culture is the reality created by how people act, react, and interact with each other based on their attitudes, beliefs, and ambitions.

The most damaging business cultures are those in which aggression, neglect, and punishment leave employees feeling they have no reason to commit their energies and skills, share their ideas, or help the company advance.

Wanted: A culture that unites and connects employees

A culture built principally around rewards for individual or group performance pits individuals and teams against each other, often in ways that create class systems, in-fighting, and divisive loyalties. The winners in such cultures find meaning in their rewards. The rest are left wondering what the point is for them and their employer.

A passive, benign, and inert business culture leaves the business subject to the aggregate confusion that results when each individual employee’s quirks, tendencies, and potentially questionable morality and ethics are accommodated.

The most beneficial business cultures are those that unite employees around an ambition, make them feel emotionally connected, and surround them with people who share their ambition, feelings, and behavior.

4 factors in transforming your culture

By consistently and intentionally conveying a meaningful ambition and evoking a set of unique and positive emotions, businesses can transform the meaningful outcome of every aspect of the work experience:

  1. The physical environment – the aesthetics and functionality of the workplace;
  2. The policies and procedures – the actual rules of the company as well as the way in which employees experience them;
  3. The attitudes and behavior of fellow employees – the feelings evoked when dealing with superiors, peers, and reports;
  4. The moment of contact – the nature of company/employee and employee/outside world interactions.

A Meaningful Workplace culture is based on the way employees experience these factors – what meaning is conveyed and how they are left feeling.

This excerpt is the sixth in a series from our white paper titled The Meaningful Workplace.

Photo credit.

The Power of Being Stubborn Around a Single “Beacon” Idea

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

George Tannenbaum is a noted advertising copywriter and prolific blogger.

In his wry, and often acerbic way, George chronicles the tension of being a creative thinker in the world of business.

In a post, he recounted the experience of being at a client’s annual shoot for a celebrity TV spot.

Anxiety is the king of such events, and George talks about the problem of working with inexperienced and politically-driven executives who do nothing but worry and create chaos.

Continue reading “The Power of Being Stubborn Around a Single “Beacon” Idea”

Who’s Driving Your Brand Promise?

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

One of the essential components of an emotive brand is a brand promise. Yes, we’re always talking about emotional responses and getting people to engage, but people don’t engage with fluff. They engage with something they relate to, and that comes from a driving idea.

You can quickly test whether you have a brand promise – and a potentially emotive brand – by asking two questions.

First, what is the brand promise? This should be the easy one. If you’re Zara, it’s fast fashion. If you’re Pepsi, you’re “living for now.” If you’re Starbucks, you’re the world’s café.

Continue reading “Who’s Driving Your Brand Promise?”