What’s the promise, and can I keep it?

Your mission as an organization is about your aspirations, your passion, your beliefs. It tells your audiences what you wish to accomplish and promises to pursue that to the best of your ability, with all that is in you. You will work to improve how you deliver on your mission, and how you deliver may evolve over time.

Your brand is a promise. It can also aspire, but never forget that the promise offered by your brand carries with it an expectation of delivery and consistency.

We will do certain things in a certain way.  We hold to these truths and values. You can rely on us for this.  Be careful about what you choose to promise with your  brand. When you select what is most important for your brand to convey to your audiences, your work will be scrutinized against that standard.

Your brand offers a clear message about what it is that makes you unique – which means making choices about what you want your brand to convey. What is it about your work and your approach to it that distinguishes you from others?

What’s in it for me?

Your brand is also about your relationship with your customers. Unless you are opening your doors for the first time, your loyal fans already trust you for something very specific, that benefits them or that they also believe. Is your brand message going to be consistent with that perceived promise?  Before you go all in to make a statement about your brand, find out if it matches your customers’ and fans’ experience of you.  If it’s not, figure out why not. You may be making an aspirational promise that you have neither the experience nor the will to deliver on.

Do you know how to do what you are saying you’ll do? And is it something your customers value, or a complete departure from how they currently see you?

If you don’t know, ask.

Mom always told us that, and she was right. Understanding how your customers perceive you is an important element of moving forward to a stronger brand. Do they have a sense of what you believe, and can they articulate why they would choose you? There are a lot of ways to ask, and really, they are not scientific. You are looking for qualitative, not quantitative feedback. But I would always recommend contacting at least 5-10 of your top customers or partners, and having a conversation. You might want to ask:

• What made you choose us to work with instead of the alternatives?
• What do you think we stand for? Is it something you also believe in?
• What three words would you use to describe us as an organization? Are these things important to you?

What’s in it for them?

I’ve worked with companies that have done research up, down and sideways to identify what specific attributes their customers thought they had. But in many of those studies, I’ve observed one critical omission that made them miss the point. Once you know what attributes or beliefs your customers think you offer, please ask them how important those are to them.

At the end of the day, if you are a service provider, or a non-profit agency, you need the things that are unique to your brand to be an important benefit for someone.  You need fans. So connecting the dots to your customers and stakeholders is an integral part of understanding your brand.