Strategic Five Marketing Urges Businesses to Keep Their Brand Promise

    READING, ENGLAND, July 25, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The recent Broken Promises Survey undertaken by Accenture reveals that a growing number of consumers have experienced broken promises from companies. According to the survey, 40% of consumers experienced a broken brand promise at least once, 62% multiple times (brandchannel.com). "The figures are scary," says Ben Lambert, managing director of Strategic Five Marketing. "In our current economic climate, every single customer plays an important role to increase sales and business growth. Dissatisfaction will only drive them away and go to the competition," Ben Lambert continues.

About Strategic Five Marketing: http://www.strategicfivemarketing.com

The purpose of a brand promise is to encourage consumers to select and purchase a specific brand. However, companies need to be committed to the promise they make. A brand promise lives or dies on whether it is believed and delivered (brandingstrategyinsider.com). Ben Lambert at Strategic Five Marketing explains: "Breaking a promise damages your reputation. Not delivering what you say sends the message to the customer that you are not credible. And who wants to do business with someone who cannot be trusted?"

In fact, consumer frustration over broken promises has resulted in 38% of consumers selecting a different brand; and more importantly, for 35% it took only one offence to switch (brandchannel.com). The figures are alarming and based on consumers who have made a direct experience with a specific brand. Nowadays however, it takes only a few seconds for someone to find out about a company's reputation online. Dawn Palmer, managing director in Accenture's Sales & Customer Services Practice, explicates: "The ability to compare a company's promise to its delivery is greatly amplified by social media... Therefore, keeping promises along the marketing, sales and service continuum matters greatly in terms of both customer retention and profitable growth" (brandchannel.com).

Ben Lambert at Strategic Five Marketing adds: "It becomes clear that customers may not even have an experience with a brand directly. By using social media channels they have access to reviews from other customers which might influence their decision in a positive or negative way." There is a strong link between keeping a brand promise and building a good reputation which can lead to increased sales, business growth and long-term success through trusting customer relations.

A brand promise is shaped by a number of factors, such as the nature of the offering, capabilities and capacity of the brand or the rival promises of competitors. The style and nature of the promise and the commitment itself need to align directly with the brand's priorities (brandingstrategyinsider.com). "The most important thing however," says Ben Lambert, "is not to promise anything you cannot keep."

Strategic Five Marketing are an outsourced sales and marketing company with offices in Birmingham and Reading.

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