Whilst flicking through Marketing Week today i came across an article analysing 'The Promise Index'. I was fascinated to read that marketers are starting to realise that big advertising spend, when you haven’t got the basics right, is a waste of money. In fact it’s worse than that. If the consumer experience isn’t consistent with the brand promise, it doesn’t just waste money – it fundamentally damages your brand. Yes folks, advertising can seriously damage your brand!
If the key to building a great brand is a great customer experience, then we need to understand what lies behind that experience and how this affects both our conscious and our nonconscious brain where up to 98% of our perception is processed.
Experience is based upon the sensory signals we receive around a product, its packaging and the communications. A holistic approach, appealing to all senses drives what psychologists call cognitive assonance: when product experience is wholly aligned to the brand promise.
If major brands are prepared to divert just 5% of their above the line spend into getting the basic sensory experience right, they will without doubt find themselves in the top 10 of the Brand Promise index. That I can promise!