A discussion around Brand Promise and how to build one for your company has recently caught our attention on Linkedin. There were some excellent guidelines / role models shared but we noticed one important area of focus was missing: Customer Loyalty.

Rather than building the Brand Promise around the customer perspective, we’ve noticed many companies tend to be focused on supporting their next sales cycle. That means the effort is skewed towards building a brand centred around product quality and domain expertise.

If your goal is loyal customers….

Achieving loyalty from customers has a lot to do with their expectation of “loyalty” from your company. What does that mean in the context of your Brand Promise? Atleast a part is focused on building a perception among customers that your efforts will not only be strong now -- but will continue to be consistently in the future. Customers are (by and large) aware, atleast in a general way, that switching vendors on a regular basis is not the best option. So they look to companies to build that trust which allows them to remain loyal over the longer term.

Somewhat obvious but not that simple

How does a company communicate its DNA -- specifically those parts which make it a good bet as a long term supplier of products or services? Different messaging is required -- often focused around track record and management profiles -- to cultivate a sense that what the customer sees in your company now is likely to continue and improve over the long term.

Tying it together

The key point here is to keep customer loyalty (as a goal) front and centre during the process of building your Brand Promise. The impact of that angle will be most pronounced with the audiences you value the most: prospects with a propensity to carefully select vendors and then stick with those who meet their needs effectively over the long term.