BRAND PROMISES

I don't know about you but when I was a kid my Mom told me that if I make a promise then I MUST keep it!

Maybe we should listen to our Mothers when it comes to running our businesses and growing our corporate or personal brands.

I must tell you that in my experience many companies simply don't keep their promises, and because they don't it can be a huge business opportunity for you.

By promises I mean every single piece of communications that you put out to support and promote your brand. This can include all of your marketing and promotional items, but also the sales calls that your company makes, even the discussions that your accounting department has with your customers accounting department when they are chasing money! The written word, your web site, your advertising, your direct response, literally everything you put out there is a representation of your promise to them.

I would like to give you an example:

My wife decided that we needed new pots and pans; I on the other hand did not realize that pots and pans wore out. She proceeded to tell me that if I would use them occasionally then I would know what she was talking about. At that moment I thought that I should hold my tongue. I was right!

Anyway she found a top of the line brand that she liked, Calphalon: and ordered them.

Well the big day came and she was so excited and started unpacking the boxes and couldn't wait to show me these wonderful products. "Feel them honey, don't they feel great". "Super" was the only answer I could think of, because inside I was thinking that they looked just like the pots we already had!

But I must admit they were well manufactured and certainly were heavy; they must be worth the money we paid, right? The fact is they were very expensive in my mind, but that again is a place that I have figured out it's not smart to go!

She showed me these big boxes of Calphalon Pots and Pans with such pride and quickly pointed out a huge benefit; they were "DISHWASHER SAFE". 

Believe me, this is a big deal in my house! Beaming away she opened every box, ooooing and aaaahing and placing them in the cupboards like trophies she had won. All the pans were put away and she started reading the brochures on maintenance of these wonder products. That's when it happened, the big downer. The maintenance brochure contained the following sentence:

Dishwasher use will void your lifetime warranty!

What a let down!  We paid about $500 for these pots and pans. 

But the value of Calphalon products has dropped down a notch in our house, they didn't keep their brand promise by not being consistent from the box to the brochure. My wife was dissappointed and has told the story to several "fellow cooks".

Now I am telling you, about 3000 readers, about how lousy Calphalon is at keeping their brand promises.

You see it really is easy to keep your brand promises;     Do what your Mother taught you to do.

Check every touch point that you have with your customers and make sure you are doing exactly what you said you would do. This simple task can help you take a big chunk out of the competition's marketshare!

Finally: If you have any specific areas about Branding and Business that you would like me to address in future editions of BRAND NEWs, again, e-mail me at info@jacksims.com

Click here to see previous issues of BRAND NEWs

If you use a spam filter, please add my email address to your list to ensure you get future editions of BRAND NEWs!

PLAYING THE DRUMS!

Yes that is "Yours Truly" playing the drums in the back of my house. The reason that I included this picture is that it was taken a few days after I made a major breakthrough in my life. When I was young I occasionally visited my Uncle Bert who was a drummer in a band. Sometimes, he would let me fool around with the drum kit. Well, about 3 years ago my wife asked me what I would like for Christmas. I shocked her with "An electric drum set". Not a full set, but one of those small units with 5 pads on it. It was the greatest gift ever!        I crashed and bashed away with my headphones on, co-ordinationd with the rock music on my I-Pod.                      Last Christmas I asked for the equivilant of a full drum set, seen in the picture. I am now in heaven!

However, here is the real story: Some of the guys where I live get together every Wednesday evening to play music and my wife Kathi told them about my drumming. They asked me to play with them, but unfortunately that's where my shyness and fear of looking stupid kicked in. I didn't intend to go because I was afraid I wasn't good enough. When I was out walking, one of the guys passed me on the road and did a complete u-turn and insisted that I go and join them that night. Still fighting my inner demons, I told my wife and she strongly encouraged me to go. I did! And after conquering my initial inner shyness, I had the biggest blast of fun I have had in years!

You know I am crazy about great customer service, but in the future you won't get me between 6.30 and 10 on Wednesday evenings. 

The moral of the story is:
GO FOR IT!                           

Don't let the fear of failure hold you back. You just might be missing out on one of the greatest experiences of your life!

Bank of America

If you have a high level contact at Bank of America, I need an introduction for a product I am working on with my buddie T Scott Gross. It's a revolutionary idea that is perfect for small to medium sized businesses, which of course Bank of America specializes in.

Let's find out if 6 degrees of seperation really works, I'll share what happens in next months edition of BRAND NEWs.

Please let me know via info@jacksims.com and thanks so much for your help on this one.