Consistency Wins Customers’ Hearts
By Levina Kusumadjaja
When you are in a relationship with someone, you will know what you’re getting from your significant other after a while. You will know what you can expect from them—things they would or wouldn’t do, things they would or wouldn’t say. Time will help build this set of expectations. It’s a similar case with brands.
Brands need to be known for something they do consistently. The same way that we would rely on reputation to help understand what we can expect out of someone, is the way we would rely on our perception about a brand to understand what we can expect from the brand. For example, you would ask Jonathan for help because he is known to be reliable and easy to get a hold of. You wouldn’t ask someone like Casey for help because she is known to be busy and unavailable.
Brands need to be known for something they do consistently. Brands should not make customers guess what they are going to get.
Great brands are trustworthy. Great brands communicate to customers what they can expect from the brand. And it’s not just the kind of expectation that happens once or twice. It’s something that customers can expect consistently, every time they purchase from the brand. Keep in mind that these expectations aren’t just about the product, it’s so much more. We’re talking about experience. It’s like using your favorite grocery delivery service, expecting that the process will be easy and smooth through the app, and that your order will be delivered within 2 hours. This is the kind of promise that we’re talking about, it is what a lot of marketers and brand strategists refer to as brand promise.
Whether this promise is stated or not by the brands, brands inherently have promises. So although we don’t document exactly what the promise is, it is inferred in the brand. Everything that a brand does communicates something to the customer. This message can be something positive and accurate about the brand, or something negative and inaccurate about the brand. As a result, what the brand promises is also dependent on customer’s perception.
Promise fulfilled —> Customer’s loyalty
What makes a brand promise is what customers perceive the brand promises to do and deliver for the customer’s needs. It doesn’t matter what the business is actually delivering for the customers. As long as customers perceive what the brand promises in the wrong way, customers won’t be satisfied. Therefore, the better a brand is at communicating what it actually promises, the more accurate customer’s perception will be about the promise. And then, the higher the chance for a customer to fall in love and stay loyal with the brand.
Cheers!
Levina
Get the Brand Strategy 101 FREE Mini Course
Tired of being an order-taker? Start getting paid to think. Subscribe now to receive helpful content, plus instant access to this free video course. 6 days. 6 videos. 10 minutes a day.
About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!