Identify the single most important measurable in building value
What really matters to your customers? What is it that brings your customers to you, and keep those customers loyally returning, purchase after purchase, year after year? It's your brand promise.
- FedEx: 10 a.m. deadline
It was more than a marketing slogan. It was the key decision that drove all others.
The company's strategies and tactics existed simply to deliver on this one measurable brand promise.
Choose the right one - the one your customers respond to, the one you can track and execute day after day. How?
BHAG: Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal - It's where you want to top out in ten years or more
- Nike: to crush Adidas
- Starbucks: to be bigger brand than Coca-Cola
- Gazelles: to serve 10,000 clients
All BHAGs above are measurable.
Figure out your desired sphere of influence over the next three-to-five years.
Based on the sandbox, ask yourself: What is your customers' greatest need?
What you're looking for is what really matters to the customer. At the same time, you want it to be something that demonstrably differentiates you from the competition.
- Nike: would have wanted to consider its positioning against Adidas - what does the customer want that he/she can't get from Adidas?
- FedEx: would consider itself agains the post office - how does a customer benefit from choosing FedEx over the local letter carrier?
- Orion International: 14 Days Done
- Boston Beer: make a better-tasting beer
How does Boston Beer make that both believable and measurable? - won a poll four years in a row, and other competitions
It shouldn't be easily accomplished.
Intuit's initial brand promise was ease of use. To back it up and make it measurable, Intuit promised unlimited support on a $59 piece of software. Clearly, that caused some heart palpitations among designers and managers alike, but it brought out the vest in the organization. That unlimited-support promise drove every decision in the company - from how to build the product to how to communicate with customers - so that the customer wouldn't call.
If there's but one warning I can offer you as you home in on your own measurable brand promise, it's to avoid getting caught up in marketing slogans. This is often a point of confusion when huddling to develop a brand promise.
Now that you've put a stake in the ground by determining your measurable brand promise, what are you going to do to lock it up, to hold that position?
You've got to look for the bottlenecks or chokepoints - there's always one or two - and figure out a strategy to wither blow them up or neutralize their threat.
FedEx's brand promise used to be "delivery at 10am" but now it's merely table stakes. They have new brand promise on top of the old ones.
Your measurable brand promise is crucial. It defines your company in the minds of the public. It gives your organization something huge and galvanizing to strive toward. It does not overstate it one whit to say that your brand promise is a single-minded measure round which all strategic and tactical decisions are made.