“How to communicate your brand’s values” (May, p38) focused on brand identity. That’s an important subject, but is secondary to delivering the values. There’s no point investing in promotion if the promise is broken the first time the customer uses the product.
If a restaurant can’t deliver good food, or a train company can’t get you from A to B, the branding is not going to recover the situation. And consistent delivery is hard. Marketers need to get their hands dirty and ensure products and services are up to standard before promoting brand values. As the article says, “Corporate communications need to be rooted in demonstrable or defensible truths about the brand”, rather than, as Groucho Marx almost said, “Those are my values, and if you don’t like them... well, I have others!”.
to magazine
