Branding is more than just a logo, tagline, or a fancy packaging design. Branding is making a promise to your customers about the value you will deliver.

But a brand is also a result. A brand is the total of all the experiences and perceptions that a customer has with a company. After all of the promises have been made and customer engagements have been delivered, the brand it was sticks in the minds of customers defining how they think and feel about the company.

If branding is a promise, and “the brand” is the result, then branding is a continuous process that lasts throughout the lifespan of a company. This ongoing branding process is a flywheel, fueled by the promises a brand makes to its customers, and the resulting perception of the brand in the minds of consumers.

The Brand Promise

A brand promise is the message that a company communicates to its customers that outlines what they can expect to receive from the brand. This promise sets a benchmark about the quality, benefits, and experience that the brand will provide to its customers.

The promise of branding is critical to building trust and loyalty with customers. Through branding, a company makes a commitment to its customers about the value that it will deliver. This promise creates expectations and perceptions in customers’ minds, and sets the stage for what they can expect from the company.

When a company makes a promise through branding, it is essentially making a commitment to its customers that it will provide a certain level of quality, service, or value. This promise sets the tone for all customer interactions with the company and establishes the company’s reputation in the marketplace.

You have to deliver on your brand promises! When a company fails to live up to its promises, it erodes trust and damages the brand. If a company promises high-quality products but delivers subpar products, customers are going to lose faith. If you promise excellent customer service but provide poor service, customers will be dissatisfied and take their business elsewhere. Not a difficult concept, right? But critical to put into practice.

On the other hand, when a company consistently delivers on its promises, it builds trust and loyalty with customers, strengthening the brand. Customers know what to expect from the company and can rely on the company to deliver a consistent experience. This consistency builds loyalty and encourages repeat business. It also generates positive word-of-mouth, which can attract new customers and strengthen the brand’s reputation.

The Brand Result

The brand result is the ultimate output of the branding process in terms of the actual experience that customers have with the brand. A brand is what people actually think about a company after all its branding work has been done. It encompasses everything that a customer encounters when they interact with the brand, from the product or service itself to the customer service, packaging, and overall experience. The brand result is what the customer perceives and remembers about the brand after they have interacted with it.

A company’s ability to live up to the promises it makes has a direct impact on the brand result in the minds of customers. This is why brands must be nurtured, and the work of branding is never truly done. Brands must continue to make and reinforce their promises to customers, constantly working to enhance their brand result.

The Branding Flywheel In Action

Active and authentic branding is important work to do as you strive to create meaningful engagements and relationships with customers. When you deliver on promises to your audience, it will be rewarded with a strong brand that resonates in the hearts and minds of customers.

Our branding flywheel is a continuous process. The promise and the result are constantly feeding into one another. But this is good news because if your brand’s perception is not as strong as you would like it to be in the minds of consumers, then you can work to enhance it.

Target, once viewed as a cheap alternative to Walmart, took advantage of the branding flywheel by successfully revitalizing its brand with a focus on design, exclusivity, and sustainability. The company introduced new private label brands that emphasized both style and affordability. Brands like Hearth & Hand with Magnolia, Opalhouse, and Goodfellow & Co., offer customers unique and on-trend products that can’t be found at other retailers. Target’s design focus extended to store layouts, with a more modern and stylish aesthetic, and they prioritized exclusivity with limited edition collections that created a sense of urgency among customers. The company also emphasized sustainability by launching a line of eco-friendly products and setting goals to reduce waste and carbon emissions.

Over the course of the last decade Target has seen a significant improvement in its brand perception and sales. In 2020 they reported their strongest sales growth in more than a decade, with sales increasing by nearly 20%. Twenty years ago, Target was trending towards becoming just another discount big-box store, on par with WalMart. That’s a road that K-Mart and Sears traveled down, and the result has been disastrous for both brands. Target on the other recognized the opportunity to renew and reestablish its brand promise to consumer. And they’ve successfully transformed themselves into a store that appeals to a wider range of customers, ultimately leading to increased sales and improved brand perception.

By making and delivering on promises, you can strengthen your brand, leading to better customer perceptions and ultimately, improved business results. This is the branding flywheel in action.

Get Started

Ready to put the branding flywheel into action for your company? Here are five steps to get started:

1. Define your brand promise: Start by defining your brand promise, ensuring it is meaningful, authentic, and relevant to your audience. Communicate it clearly and consistently across all touchpoints.
2. Deliver on your promises: Consistently deliver on your brand promises to build trust and loyalty with customers. This means providing high-quality products or services, exceptional customer service, and a consistent experience across all interactions with your company.
3. Focus on customer experience: Customer experience is a key driver of brand perception. Prioritize creating positive experiences through personalized interactions, easy-to-use interfaces, and fast and efficient service.
4. Innovate and differentiate: You can differentiate yourself from their competitors by innovating and offering unique products or services that solve customer problems in new and exciting ways.
5. Monitor and measure brand perception: Finally, monitor and measure your brand perception continuously. Conduct surveys, talk to customers, and analyze feedback to identify areas for improvement and inform the ongoing branding flywheel.

A strong brand can help you stand out in a crowded marketplace, build trust and loyalty with customers, and ultimately drive business results. But to achieve this, you must invest in active and authentic branding, constantly making and delivering on promises to your customers.