The brand proposition lists the reasons why customers will buy the brand and then keep on buying. It states the benefits a customer will get from the product or service and what the unique selling proposition (USP) is. It can also be called the brand promise. For clothing, it could be about style or comfort. For a car, it could be about safety or reliability. Whatever it is, it must be clear, engaging and presented in a context relevant to the customer and at its best will connect on an emotional level too. Think BMW, and think The Ultimate Driving Machine. That’s an effective brand proposition and it is stated right in the company’s tagline.

If your company’s products and service don’t live up to their brand proposition, new customer expectations will not be met and they will feel let down and unlikely to come back, loyal customers might leave. If your product or service does not deliver on the brand promise, sales will suffer. It is far better to over-deliver on the brand proposition than under deliver against promises you can’t keep and worth remembering that you generally have only one opportunity to impress a new customer.

Make sure the brand proposition is specific and unique, this makes it memorable. Create a sound rational argument for your brand and underpin this with a strong emotional connection likely to appeal to the customer. Being good is a given – being outstanding should be the aim.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Blog, Brand, Brand Development, Brand Management, Brand Proposition, Brand Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.