Marketers must fix disconnect between brand promise and experience
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Brands risk losing customers by failing to create customer experiences that match up to promises made in marketing campaigns, according to a study by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).
The report found that the problem stems from a “damaging disconnect” between boardroom, marketing departments and customer experience.
It says that marketing and brand leaders’ priorities should be to take a more active role in “educating ‘up’ in the organisation” and to build brand understanding across all levels of employees.
Seven out of ten (69 per cent) marketers believe that investing in customer experience is more effective than investment into marketing communications when it comes to building brands, but only 13 per cent believe that their company “excels” at delivering a day to day brand experience that matches up to what the brand promises.
The findings on brand delivery echo those of The Promise Index, which examines the gap between the perception of a brand and a consumer’s actual experience. The Index’s findings are the basis of this feature.
The CIM report found that while customer insight and research are being shared across business units, and senior leaders, it rarely permeates the ranks of the organisation. Only 14 per cent of the marketers surveyed said it was the main driver of decision making.
A third of organisations were found to not use the brand guidelines that are in place, while half of organisations that don’t use customer experience or employee brand behaviour guidelines.
Thomas Brown, head of insights at the CIM says: “Essentially, brands are built on promises but it’s the experience you have of an organisation that constitutes reality.
“This study shows that leadership and belief have the greatest impact on successfully delivering a branded customer experience … this suggests you can lead your way to a branded experience, but not manage your way there.”
The Branded Customer Experience Benchmark, supported by Lippincott, surveyed insights from 100 senior marketers at international organisations. Senior marketing figures including Elizabeth Fagin, marketing director at Boots, Markus Kramer, global marketing director of Aston Martin and Mike Harrison, chief brand officer of Timberland, also contributed to the report.
Readers' comments (6)
Anonymous | Tue, 17 Jul 2012 11:33 am
"plunk" the sound of that penny dropping very belatedly. Former Interbrand head Buckingham warned of this at the turn of the millenium ref Brand Engagement. Now how about some action eh?
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Ron Strauss | Tue, 17 Jul 2012 4:21 pm
This 'disconnect' impacts all areas of economic worth creation for the enterprise. In addition to eroding customer worth due to loyalty/churn behaviors, it also impacts employee behavior as well as supplier and other key stakeholder relationships.
When my personal brand experience doesn't live up to my brand promise (example: I promise my grandson I'll play catch with him, but don't. My brand value is eroded a bit in his mind.) These are also called 'little murders' where you're 'killing' your brand value, one broken or underdelivered promise at a time. So this 'disconnect' must be addressed at the enterprise, product/service and individual levels.
This is fundamental to understanding how brand value (economic worth) is created and destroyed.
The only way to address this is via enlightened leadership, where all decisions are based on asking and answering one question: 'Will this build or erode brand value?' Since brand is a long term construct, this is a complex question.
For more insight into this topic see: 'Value Creation: The Power of Brand Equity' authored by Bill Neal and myself.
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Lehnhoff | Tue, 17 Jul 2012 5:59 pm
interesting
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Marc Simony | Sat, 21 Jul 2012 5:41 am
Unfortunately, unless the organization is run by marketing (marketing owns the customer, not just the lead), or the organization is well integrated (un-siloed), marketing lacks the ability to affect the necessary factors that influence brand experience.
Marketing isn't about promotion and advertising or lead generation, it is about bringing a product into the market. That includes product strategy and positioning, development, distribution, sales, and yes, promotion and advertising.
Is the organization sales- or market-driven? Shareholder- or customer-driven?
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Marc Binkley | Mon, 14 Jan 2013 3:37 pm
This is very interesting. I've always thought of a brand being formed by 3 forces. This paper confirms this hunch.
In my opinion, the three forces of brand building are the promise, the experience and the perception.
The promise is the first force. It can go by other names such as USP or Value Proposition. Whichever name you call it, crafting the promise is the easiest part of the three forces.
The experience happens in any place where the company and customer interact. For most organizations, there are multiple company-consumer touch points that create an overall experience for the customer. A website, sales staff, customer service, warranty and finance departments all play a role in creating an experience for the customer. The more consistently delightful that experience, the more likely the customer will think positively about the brand.
The last force is the perception of the customer. The customer's perception of a company's brand is created by comparing the promise of the company to the experience the customer had. If the promise and experience are matched, then the customer will view the brand as truthful and trustworthy. This may be the hardest force of brand building since it requires listening to customers good and bad reviews.
Different media also play a role in this as well. Paid media such as radio commercials or web ads help spread the promise. Owned media such as your website contribute to the experience. Earned media such as reviews and social media helps spread the perception of your customers.
In my opinion, to create a great brand, its important to mindfully align the promise, the experience and the perception across all consumer touch points.
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Noel Murray | Wed, 6 Feb 2013 10:24 am
Unfortunately for some marketing practicioners, tapping into the customer's [Brand] Experience requires much more personal involvement and Insight and meaningful interface with brand users and those who influence its purchase. For them pursuing sometimes outdated marketing communication strategy and programs offers and 'demonstrates' visible and measurable [statistically] 'connection' with would be consumer segments. 'See-Feel-Touch' should return to the marketing persons vocabulary. Never underestimate the power of observation and keen attendance to what your consumer is 'doing' followed by 'saying' and find innovative ways to observe, record, analyse and synthesize results.
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