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Truth 6

A Brand is a Promise

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

— MATTHEW 23:25–28

A brand is fundamentally a promise that you as marketers, as communicators, are making to a consumer. As a promise, it has two parts: performance and perception. In the marketing world, we create perceptions that convey our promise. We then honor those commitments by what we do — our performance. Considered in light of the above verse from the Gospel of Matthew, perception can be likened to the outside of the cup. Performance can be seen as the inside of the cup.

Let’s look at the inside first. Performance is what is actually delivered — the product you make, the service you provide. So performance is also fundamentally what you deliver as a ministry, parish, or apostolate. How do you avoid making promises you cannot keep? I always advise that you start with what you do. Be really clear about what you provide. Remember, you don’t have to do it all — you just need to do your part of God’s work exceptionally well.

When you know what it is you do, that becomes your performance. Your next task is to create perceptions in the marketplace that reflect that performance. When the perceptions you create in the marketplace are aligned with your performance, then you have created a promise that you can keep. It really is that simple: do what you say you are going to do.

Now let’s look at the outside of the cup. Perceptions are the messages that are created in the marketplace about the performance you provide. Let’s take as an example an Energizer battery. Energizer’s marketing team tells us that their battery is long-lasting. But if people were to buy their batteries, only to have them die the first time they were put into a device, then Energizer would have broken their promise that the battery would keep going and going. (Of course, I can tell you firsthand: Energizer does keep its promises, and its batteries are long lasting.)

The unfortunate reality is that human beings break promises all the time, and often not on purpose. As marketers working from a faith perspective, if we want to avoid breaking our promises, we have to be exceptionally diligent in understanding our performance. What do we say we can do? Can we always do that, meaning our promise can be trusted?

Bishop Robert Barron writes a daily morning reflection on the Gospel. I read it, and I love it. Bishop Barron promises that he will provide a Gospel reflection every day, and he does. Furthermore, his readers trust that each reflection will be filled with credible, faithful insights, fruits that we can use through the day; that is part of the promise. I don’t know about you, but I am never disappointed. Bishop Barron keeps his promise.

As marketers and communicators, we create perceptions in the market as a way of conveying what we are promising. We create these perceptions through our advertising, social media, public relations, etc. The list is endless. We need to avoid creating a perception that is inconsistent with what we can actually do. If we create perceptions in the marketplace that we cannot deliver on, then we have broken our promise. Once our promise has been broken, it is very difficult for people to trust us again, whether we are individuals or brands.

Remember, when we’re working for a faith-based organization, keeping our promises is even more important. When we are sharing promises about faith and God, we must honor those promises without fail. Standing firm and keeping our promises — especially in today’s culture, where so many promises are broken — is radical. It stands out, and it will cause people to take notice and listen.

This fundamental brand truth — that a brand is a promise — calls to mind the message Christ gave to the Pharisees. It is not enough to clean the outside of the cup; they must clean the inside as well. Cleaning a cup so that it is beautiful on the outside doesn’t matter if the inside is a mess, just as creating wonderful perceptions is irrelevant if you do not perform as promised. Your brand is your promise; make sure you keep it.

For Reflection

What promise does your brand make?

How do you and your colleagues keep that promise?