Your brand is not a product. It’s not a logo, a website or a color palette.

It's a promise. And when all else fails, the single most important thing you must do, is keep that promise.

This is serious stuff if you want to build a successful brand that will last. Your promise is like the keystone in your brand’s structure. It’s cause and effect. Promise goes un-kept? Your foundation crumbles. Your customers go elsewhere. 

What will keep them loyal? Consistently building an element of trust by fulfilling—or even exceeding—their expectations with wild abandon. Rather than aiming to do the minimum, make it a goal to over deliver and create delighted customers—isn’t that why you’re in business in the first place?

Maybe you’re asking yourself—does my brand keep its promise? If you are— good. Gold stars all around.

If not—you should be. Better yet, ask your customers whether your brand is keeping its promise or not. It’s their opinion that matters most and they’ll probably give you ideas for viable solutions to any issues they have with your brand.

Splashy Social Media + Marketing Campaigns Do Not Make a Compelling Brand

Our social media gal is cringing right now, but we’re going to let you in on a secret: It doesn’t matter how many Twitter followers you have or how many people used your fancy custom Facebook application last month. If you don’t keep your promise as a brand, you won’t keep those fans + followers as customers. They’ll take your discount today and leave you for your rival brand tomorrow.

It’s really pretty simple, and just as easy to forget: People want to engage with brands they love. They don’t have time for much else. And the best way to avoid being part of the “love ‘em and leave ‘em” phenomenon is to focus your efforts on building a brand that people can really get into—and then telling your story in a compelling way. Give the world reason to adore your brand—not one reason to try your offering and 10 others to walk away.

So What Does Make A Compelling Brand?

We’re so glad you asked. Your brand is most compelling when you:
1.    Know who you are
2.    Know what you do
3.    Know why you matter and…
4.    Embed these things with confidence in everything you do.

The trick is you’ve got to keep it real—within your brand organization and with your consumers. Don’t throw out some dreamy aspirations that you A) don’t actually believe in and B) are nowhere close to fulfilling. Transparency reigns supreme in our world today. If you say you’re a sustainable company, you’d damn well better be so green that Kermit’s itching with envy—or there might be hell to pay starting on your Facebook wall and spreading like a forest fire through media outlets from there (social media gal is happy again… two words: “job security”).

Each second, consumers grow ever more savvy and are empowered with technological tools to hold you accountable. They see through marketing gimmicks. They see past flowery corporate rhetoric. What they want is the real essence of your brand—and they know when it when they see it. Mislead them and suffer the consequences of broken trust and betrayal.

You’re Only As Good As Your Promise

Building a brand is a long-term endeavor. It isn’t based on quarterly earnings or a single marketing campaign’s success. If you want consistent, loyal customers—you won’t buy their love with a Twitter discount code for 15% off, crappy customer service and a product that doesn’t fulfill its promise. You have to earn their love by building and nourishing a brand that keeps its promise day in and day out. You’re only as good as that commitment, so choose wisely and build your organization around upholding it. Your reward: A solid brand, built on strong foundations, that will thrive.