KQ Article

In many cases, brand and customer relationships are even managed separately. The former gets handled by marketing, while the CRM department oversees the latter.

Executives look at customer relationships as something tangible and essential. In contrast, they often perceive their brand as an interesting but essentially fuzzy concept, associated with impressive packaging, attractively designed trademarks and clever Super Bowl commercials.

While most executives readily understand the benefit of having a competitively strong brand, it is not as apparent how that goal can best be achieved. Nor is there obvious agreement on exactly how brand contributes to the bottom line. Customer loyalty is deemed to have obvious and immediate value, but company brand almost defies meaningful quantification.

A precise, actionable and business-relevant measure of brand “greatness” has remained frustratingly elusive, and thus it has been difficult to document a meaningful return on the investments made toward pursuing this objective. But as we’ve recently learned, brand greatness can indeed be reliably measured and managed. And it clearly pays off.

PROMISE MADE
A fundamental element of a brand is the brand promise, which serves as the implied pledge an organization makes to its customers. It has real value to the extent that it is: 1) a meaningful promise, one that is perceived as attractive; and 2) a promise that can, and actually will, be honored.

The first requirement — making a meaningful promise — is more difficult than it sounds. A brand promise must be:

• Credible. The promise must be difficult to reject as unattainable.
• Compelling. It must be relevant, and it must clearly differentiate you from the competition.
• Connectable. It must make it easy for prospects to envision themselves as customers.

Research reveals that many brand promises fall short at least one of these three performance requirements. In the financial services industry, for example, Gallup surveys have shown that a majority of consumers feel that banks are “all the same.” So in the eyes of prospective customers and members, many banks and credit unions may be communicating performance promises that are essentially indistinguishable.

Perhaps this is not all that surprising. After all, in surveys we’ve conducted among financial services company employees, fewer than four in ten of these potential brand ambassadors strongly agree that they know what makes their brand different from the competition. If the employees can’t articulate it, how can we expect customers to understand?

PROMISE KEPT
So you’ve crafted a credible, compelling and connectable brand promise. Now the real work begins. It is time to fulfill this promise in the marketplace.

A brand promise represents the start of an enduring brand relationship between customer and service provider. In our research, we have found that all relationships, including those involving business-to-business connections, are fundamentally emotional in nature. They’re never rational entities alone. In this regard, brand relationships are much like a marriage. Feelings play a significant role.

We’ve also learned that such brand “marriages,” if they are to endure, must meet certain ongoing requirements. Gallup research has identified four such requirements — all of them charged with emotion:

1. Confidence. The customer must be assured that the company will keep its promises.
2. Integrity. The customer must know that issues will be promptly addressed and resolved.
3. Pride. The customer must feel proud of his or her association with the company.
4. Passion. The customer must feel the company is irreplaceable in his or her life.

Although confidence represents the essential foundation for healthy brand relationships, an enduring brand marriage requires more. Specifically, it requires that the company be regarded as an indispensable ingredient in the daily life of the customer. As in a marriage, the “partner” (customer) must never be taken for granted. A company must pay constant and consistent attention to the needs of the other, including those that are both rational and emotional.

Every single customer interaction must be evaluated against these four relationship requirements — because each time a customer engages with your financial institution, the marriage either gets stronger or becomes more vulnerable.

SUSTAINING PASSION
The strength of a brand is dependent on the actual brand experience, and this extends far beyond the brand promise itself.

With financial institutions, for example, the brand experience can differ markedly from branch to branch, or between service representatives. Consequently, the health of a brand is not simply an enterprise-level consideration among the company’s brand leadership. Rather, it resides where customers experience the brand promise in action on a daily basis: when using your products and services, visiting your facilities and interacting with your staff.

The ever-changing nature of the brand experience makes the fourth requirement of a successful brand marriage, sustaining customer passion, exceptionally difficult to maintain.

The typical financial institution establishes a passionate connection with only a small fraction its their   customers. Most customers feel little or nothing about a bank or credit union. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Certain financial service providers clearly do stand apart from competitors in this regard.

Why should you care? If brand passion is so difficult to achieve, what evidence exists to support that this is a justifiable challenge to undertake?

Our research confirms that an impressive business payoff derives from brand passion. Fully engaged customers who are truly married to the brand are more loyal and resistant to competitive overtures. They’re also more vocal in their advocacy. They maintain higher balances, buy more products and cost the company less money to serve.

Branches with more passionate customers consistently achieve higher levels of organic growth and profitability. It’s clear that making emotional connections with customers isn’t just a warm and fuzzy sentiment. It’s good business.

No meaningful discussion on brand can conclude without first considering its impact on customer realtionships.

The two subjects are inextricably intertwined and should be managed accordingly. Like all healthy relationships, a successful brand marriage begins with a promise, but it is sustained with ongoing trust, integrity, pride and passion.