Brands & Goodness

According to BrandForward's research, one of the top attributes brands strive to be is trustworthy. Related to this, brands usually also strive to be customer service oriented, responsive, reliable and dependable. Other research has shown that people want their brands to have positive intentions toward them and to be capable of carrying out those positive intentions. 

I will express this in several different ways. People want to be able to trust their brands. They want their brands to possess integrity. They want brands to deliver on their promises. They want their brands to tell them the truth. They want their brands to have their best interests in mind. They want their brands to care about them. They want their brands to do what is right on their behalf. In summary, they want their brands to be GOOD. 

So brands that lie, intentionally deceive, cut corners, make promises on which they cannot deliver, are not focused on meeting the needs of their customers, are greedy, are unethical or otherwise are not good are brands that are in trouble. 

Take the US Congress as an example. Based on the average of many different polls, Congress' job approval rating has remained around 16% for the past several years. Why is it so low? Because US citizens are not confident that their representatives are doing what is right on their behalf. Instead, they believe those representatives are serving the special interests that fund their campaigns. I would argue that the US Congress brand is is trouble. While this is an extreme example, it is not the only example. I have written a few times about brands that do not deliver on their promises. United Airlines has been a poster child for this. BP is also a brand that has not made good on its environmental promises. In fact, there are countless other examples of this. 

While this might seem to be a cliche, I think it comes down to the Golden Rule. Is your brand treating its customers the way you would want to be treated? If your answer is "no," you have a lot of work to do to get your brand back on track. The problem could be the result of leadership, metrics and scorecards, systems, processes, employee recruiting criteria, employee training, recognition and reward systems, organization structure or just plain greed. Whatever its cause, as a brand manager, you need to get your brand back on track. 

The Three Things Every Brand Needs to Be

Based upon extensive research, a brand needs to possess these three qualities to be a strong brand:

• Trustworthy
• Likable
• Interesting

To say this another way, a brand cannot possess one or more of these three qualities and still be a strong brand:

• Dishonest or otherwise lacking in integrity
• Unpleasant, unfriendly or disagreeable
• Boring

While this may seem obvious, it is important that you know where your brand resides on these three continua. 

Trustworthy Brands

While high awareness gives a brand an edge in the market and constant innovation makes a brand exciting and appealing, being worthy of a customer’s trust keeps people loyal to a brand.

People don’t like surprises, especially of the negative kind. They don’t want a product that breaks or fails. They are not happy about a service failure.  A strong brand that is consistent in its delivery can be trusted. People don’t want to worry about poor quality or non-performance. If they purchase a brand that they know and trust, they can rest assured that they will get what they expected.

If a brand does fail, it needs to transform that failure into a brand-building moment.  It needs not only to recover from the failure but also to surprise and delight the customer with its unexpected value-added remedy.

And woe unto a brand that is found to be dishonest. As in human relationships, if a brand is discovered not to deliver on its promises, especially more than once, people find it difficult to ever trust that brand again.  And, if you can’t trust the brand, why maintain a relationship with it?

Have you established systems, policies, processes and training that insure brand integrity and consistency and that prepare for remarkable recoveries?

Building Brand Trust

I am excited about a two-day brand education workshop that we just finished developing. It is entitled “Building Brand Trust” and covers the following topics:

• Fundamental human needs
• Self-esteem development
• How to make your brand more likable
• Ways to listen to your customers
• Co-creating the brand experience with your customers
• Customer touch point design
• The importance of brand mission, vision and values
• How to align brand values with customer values
• Establishing your brand as a badge
• Creating a branded community
• Tribal marketing
• What upscale customers want
• Developing a legendry service culture
• Empowering employees to makes the right decisions
• Designing consistency into your brand experience
• Exceeding customer expectations
• Gathering ongoing customer feedback
• The five drivers of customer brand insistence

Some of the brand examples we use in this workshop:

• BMW
• Boy Scouts of America
• Coca-Cola
• Disney
• Dove
• FootJoy
• Hallmark
• Harley-Davidson
• Hermes
• IKEA
• Lego
• Mercedes-Benz
• MTV India
• Nordstrom
• Patagonia
• Ritz-Carlton
• Robert Graham
• Salvatore Ferragamo
• SETI Institute
• Sony
• Stanford University
• Starbucks
• Tanishq
• Tesla Motors
• The Nature Conservancy
• Toyota Prius
• Vilebrequin
• Wal-Mart
• Zappos

If you are interested in attending this workshop or having us deliver it at your company, contact me at vanauken@brandforward.com.