You’d think that all brand builders would be on the same page about how to write a brand promise and why you’d have one in the first place.
But they’re not.
When we apply some logic to the question of what a brand promise is, it’s pretty simple.
The brand promise is “the promise a brand makes to its audience about what they can expect”… right?
Right!… but even in this definition, there’s room for perspective.
First of all, there’s ”how” that promise is delivered.
Secondly, there’s “what” the promise represents.
You see different brands make promises in different ways and about different things.
Some state no promise at all and yet are still accountable to one.
In this article, we’ll clear up the confusion and outline processes to develop an effective brand promise statement.
How To Write A Brand Promise Statement
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What Is a Brand Promise?
A brand promise is a pledge to your audience about consistent expectations. More than just a line in a brand book, it weaves through every experience, message, and moment.
Consider it the heartbeat of your brand: a clear, straightforward statement of reliability for your audience.
Great brand promise examples include lifestyle brands like Patagonia, which pledges to build the best products while causing no unnecessary harm to the environment. Another example is Everlane, which promises radical transparency in its pricing and production processes, ensuring customers know exactly where their clothes come from.
Additionally, REI's brand promise focuses on encouraging a life spent outdoors, promoting sustainability and adventure. These brands exemplify how a strong brand promise can align with a company’s values and resonate deeply with its audience, ultimately making fashion sustainable and inspiring loyal brand advocates.
Impactful brand promises are clear, direct, and embody the brand’s identity and mission.
Why Brand Promises Matter
Your brand promise sets expectations, and expectations shape perception. When it’s clear, aligned, and delivered consistently, it builds trust. When it’s vague or broken, it erodes credibility fast. Robust brand promises are key to cultivating a positive brand image and customer loyalty.
A clear brand promise signifies your brand’s dedication to meeting its commitments, vital for maintaining customer trust and satisfaction.
Consider brands like Apple’s wild success and BMW’s brand, which is synonymous with the ultimate driving experience and exceptional performance. These brands have built their reputations on consistent and clear promises.
Effective brand promises reflect a brand’s commitment to providing value and fulfilling customer expectations, including Apple’s brand promise, contributing to the brand’s success.
How Brand Communication Shapes Brand Promises
Whether stated or not, your brand is already making promises. Every touchpoint—your tone, design, service, even delays—builds (or breaks) the expectations in your audience’s mind.
This means that brand communication is not just about what you say, but how you say it and the experiences you create. Consistent and clear communication across all channels shapes a strong brand promise.
From the hospitality industry today to an app-based taxi alternative, the way a brand communicates its promise influences audience perception. Every customer interaction should reinforce a strong brand promise, integrating it into the brand experience.
Consistent messaging strengthens the brand’s commitment and bolsters customer loyalty.
Types Of Brand Promises
Brands make promises in a variety of ways. Some have direct intent behind them while others are a by-product the brand’s communication.
Let’s have a look at the 3 core ways brands make promises.
The Tagline Promise
Some brands use their tagline to double down on a specific promise. Promises such as these are born from the differentiation strategy and often focus specifically on delivering some kind of result or outcome. Two great examples of this kind of promise are
FedEx: “When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight”
Geico: “15 minutes or less can save you 15% or more on car insurance.”
These taglines tend to be on the long side, but what they lack in brevity, they make up for in impact.
Direct promise taglines help solidify the promised outcome in the audience’s mind. While the brand experience encompasses more, a direct promise narrows expectations to the focused outcome.
Effective taglines, such as Geico’s, consistently uphold the brand’s commitment, ensuring customer loyalty and reinforcing the brand image.
The Brand Promise Statement
Brand promise statements are used by brands to articulate the overall promise of the brand experience without using the tagline.
Because the tagline has a very specific job of helping the audience remember what the brand does differently, many brands choose brevity, catchiness, and memorability over making a direct promise.
The brand promise statement allows the brand to set expectations and reinforce the position it intends to own.
The statement takes a broader approach and is influenced by all aspects of the brand from its purpose, to its mission, to its position. In other words, whatever the brand says it is (both internally and externally), influences the brand promise statement.
This method fosters a cohesive brand identity and guarantees that the brand’s commitment is clear and consistent.
The Indirect Brand Promise
Most brands never articulate a promise. They will have a communication strategy built around its positioning strategy, which communicates what the brand wants the audience to understand.
With this communication at every touch point throughout the brand, it shapes the audiences’ perceptions, beliefs, ideas, and expectations of the brand.
From these expectations, assumed promises are born in the mind of the audience.
Of course, at the center of all of this communication will be the brand positioning and the difference it offers influencing expectations around that difference. This is how most brand promises are made. Consistent and clear messaging that aligns with the brand’s identity and positioning often results in effective brand promises.
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Communication Builds Your Brand Promise
Whether you use the taglines promise, the brand promise statement or the indirect promise, your broader communication will shape the expectations of your audience.
The more specific you are with a direct promise, the more you can shape your audiences expectations around that promise.
Regardless of which direction you go, this is a clear indication that your brand lives in the mind of your audience.
As a brand builder, you can shape how your brand is perceived but ultimately, the experiences your audience has with your brand will be the architect of that that perception.
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What Is A Brand Promise Statement?
The brand promise statement defines what the audience can expect from the broader brand experience.
It articulates the experience the brand is committed to delivering and is shaped by every element of the brand strategy.
Because of this, it is one of the last pieces of the brand strategy puzzle to be developed.
The brand promise statement is used as a guide for broader communication, which ensures all communication from the brand is aligned with the promise.
This ensures that the audiences’ expectations are being intentionally and strategically shaped way at every touch point.
How To Write A Brand Promise Statement
If you decide you want to articulate your brand promise, a brand promise statement is the best way to do that.
So you’ll need to know how to write a brand promise statement.
A brand promise statement doesn’t follow a rigid template for you to plug in specific elements because every brand is different and different brand promises will place more emphasis on one brand element over another.
Although you may or may not include references to all of your brand elements, every element should be considered when writing your brand promise statement.
Step 1:
Assemble Your Brand Strategy Elements
Your promise is one of the final pieces of the brand strategy puzzle to be developed, meaning you’ll have already developed the elements that shape your promise.
Elements should include
Brand Purpose
Brand Vision
Brand Mission
Brand Values
Audience
Positioning Statement
Differentiator
Gathering these elements is the first crucial step in creating a brand promise. Each element shapes the brand’s identity and helps craft a promise that resonates with your audience.
This foundational work paves the way for a meaningful and impactful brand promise.
Step 2:
List Brand Elements In Order Of
Importance / Emphasis
Not every element carries equal weight.
Decide what should lead—usually your positioning and audience. Supporting elements can strengthen the frame. Prioritizing these elements ensures your brand promise is focused and strategically aligned.
This step clarifies your brand’s priorities and desired perception.
Focusing on key brand elements ensures your promise is clear and strategically sound. Highlighting the most critical aspects crafts a promise that truly reflects your brand’s identity and commitment. This method differentiates your brand and reinforces your competitive edge.
Step 3:
Write A Short Sentence To
Define Each Element
Write a short, clear sentence for each element. Use the original statements if they’re tight enough.
These become the building blocks of your brand promise.
Precisely defining each brand element clarifies the overall brand promise. Each brand strategy element needs a straightforward definition to enhance clarity in your promise.
An effective brand promise should be concise, ideally in one or two clear sentences. Clarity is crucial; a brand emphasizes simplicity must articulate the company’s mission without convoluted language.
Each brand promise element should reflect the brand’s core values and unique aspects. The brand promise must resonate by clearly addressing customers’ desires and expectations.
Step 4:
Finesse All Sentences Into A
Fully Formed Statement
Shape these raw sentences into a cohesive statement. Ensure a smooth flow and alignment with your brand’s tone. It should sound like your brand’s voice, not a stitched-up definition.
The final brand promise should seamlessly merge all defined elements into a coherent message.
Focusing on emotional connection rather than just functional benefits makes a brand promise more resonant. Refining a brand promise means removing unnecessary language to highlight the core emotional benefit.
An effective brand promise should be a straight forward brand promise, encapsulating how the brand meets its customers’ primary need. Selling simplicity is key; a concise brand promise is more impactful.
What Makes a Brand Promise Effective
Focus on straightforward communication.
Relevance: It must matter to your audience.
Consistency: You have to deliver it—over and over again. A strong brand promise is clear, relevant, and consistently delivered.
These characteristics ensure that the promise resonates with customers and builds trust.
Successful brand promises are straightforward, relevant to customer expectations, and consistently delivered.
This approach helps build customer loyalty and reinforces the brand’s commitment to delivering value. Focusing on these characteristics ensures a brand promise that endures.
Where To Use Your Brand Promise
This isn’t just for internal decks. Use your brand promise to steer campaign messaging, customer experience, internal culture, sales pitches, onboarding, website, and product copy.
Integrate your brand promise into every aspect of your brand’s communication and experience.
This ensures that the promise is consistently reinforced across all touchpoints.
Integrating your brand promise across various aspects of your business fosters a cohesive and consistent brand experience, giving you a competitive business edge.
This strategy builds customer trust and loyalty, keeping your brand promise top of mind.
Effective brand promises are consistently deliver and integrated into every aspect of the brand experience.
Conclusion
As a brand builder, you can’t control what our audience expects from your brand.
Personalities and experiences will shape the individual perceptions and expectations of your audience.
But you can and should influence their perceptions and expectations through your brand communication strategy.
Whether you double down on a tagline promise, develop a brand promise statement or allow your broader communication to shape the promise in the mind of your audience… one thing is clear.
Your brand lives in your audience’s mind and is built as an idea through experiences and communication at every touch point.
Are you building your own brand or a brand for a client?
How are you representing the brand promise and has this article given you food for thought.
Let me know in the comments Right Now!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- A brand promise is a clear, consistent commitment to customers about what they can expect from a brand, and it is crucial for building trust and loyalty.
- There are three types of brand promises: tagline promises, brand promise statements, and indirect brand promises, each serving a unique role in shaping customer expectations.
- To create an effective brand promise, businesses need to assemble, prioritize, and define their brand strategy elements, ensuring clarity, relevance, and consistent delivery across all touchpoints. Learn more about how to write a brand promise.
FAQs
1. What is a brand promise?
A brand promise is essentially a commitment your brand makes to your audience, outlining what they can reliably expect from you. It's about building trust and consistency in every interaction.
2. How do brands typically make promises?
Brands typically make promises through catchy taglines, clear brand promise statements, and sometimes even through the experiences they create for customers. It's all about building trust and delivering on what they say!
3. What is the purpose of a tagline promise?
A tagline promise is all about delivering a specific result that sticks in your audience’s mind, helping to strengthen your brand’s message. It's a powerful way to clearly communicate what you stand for!
4. What does a brand promise statement articulate?
A brand promise statement clearly conveys what customers can consistently expect from the brand experience. It captures the essence of the brand, reflecting its values and mission.
5. What is the role of communication in shaping a brand promise?
Communication plays a crucial role in shaping a brand promise by setting audience expectations and influencing perceptions. It ensures that your message resonates clearly and effectively with your target market.
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