When the Brand Promise
Fails to Deliver
Herbert M. Sancianco is a Philippines-
based professional marketer honed as
a business educator, soft-skills trainer,
market researcher, brand strategist,
and corporate rehabilitator with
over 40 years of experience. He has
authored three business books on
sales promotion, customer service,
and corporate rehabilitation. He has
just finished writing a fourth book on
sales and trade management for FMCG
products. He can be contacted at
marketingpilosopo@yahoo.com.
© Business Expert Press 978-1-94819-888-2 (2018)
www.businessexpertpress.com
Herbert M. Sancianco
Abstract: When a product or service is advertised to
­generate an awareness and a purchase interest, it makes
a promise of what it can do for its target market as it
­satisfies a need or want. The promise it makes describes
the brand’s utilitarian benefit in a few chosen words. The
promise is usually followed by a claim of ­superiority,
which further sets it apart from competition. Making a
claim is one thing, while delivering the sensory results
or the experience is another. In a crowded product cate-
gory, both statements are usually similarly expressed by
all the players. When these do not match with the user
experience, then the brand is in trouble. The reasons for
the failure are traceable to the ad claim that is unbeliev-
able or no longer credible, to the company employees
who don’t support the claim in real terms, or to the prod-
uct itself, which is the center of the problem.
Keywords: Curiosity, Ineptitude, Miscommunication,
Product shortcomings, Purchase attraction, Undelivered
benefits, Unhappy customer experience
There is always a reason for buying a product or con-
tracting a service. There is always a need or want that
needs to be satisfied or fulfilled. The first purchase and
use determines what comes next—satisfaction to pur-
chase again, to switch loyalties, or to forget it altogether.
The frequency of purchase determines a brand’s market
health and competitive advantage.
The choice that is made of what brand name to
purchase is usually influenced by an advertisement,
­
a favorable endorsement from a friend or relative, a
“­door-to-door” salesman, a trusted professional, an
­attractive price offer, or the product promoter at a retail
store.
It sounds good, looks good, smells great, and feels
right—these are the initial sensory reactions before the
product is bought and consumed.
Expert Insights
1
 When the Brand Promise Fails to Deliver
Those who are very satisfied with the
user experience are most likely to say
(among several expressions), “best value for
money,” “delicious food,” “terrific s­ ervice,”
“a very memorable experience.”
Aside from these purchase influenc-
ers, the price tag, package size, attractive
point-of-sale merchandising, sales promo-
tion, or the ad hoc need to make a purchase
likewise influence the buying decision.
For every product idea that is born and
formed, there is a utilitarian benefit that
is promised to its target user. Product or
­service categories with many players are all
vying for the same, if not higher p ­ urchase
attention from each specified consumer
demographic. Each competitor tries to
outdo the other through various marketing
strategies in convincing their target audi-
ence that they should be the only product
of choice.
Brand promises are translated in the
­advertising message tagline that follows the
brand logo or is the eye-grabbing headline
itself. The purchase interest is triggered by
curiosity from that first contact point.
A home delivery service, for example,
promises, “Delivered in 30 minutes or it’s
free”—speed and convenience. A large
­retail service company says, “We got it all
for you”—has the widest array of products
and brands for sale. A top-ranking bank
says, “We find ways”—customer service
flexibility. A budget airline says, “Every
One Can Fly”—affordable mass market air
fares. Telco companies say, “The f­ astest and
reliable broadband connection s­ervice”—
communication reliability.
But the question is, Who among the
category players are able to clearly and
­ Nice and good statements, of course, that
consistently deliver their promise, and will
have the perceptive competitive a­ dvantage
in the mind of their target market even
though their brand promises almost
sound alike? And what will actually make
one ­ succeed on just the brand promise
­statement alone while the others will not?
The key factor that will create the clear
advantage is the sensory satisfaction of
2 © Business Expert Press 978-1-94819-888-2 (2018)
www.businessexpertpress.com
actual use or consumption and the delight-
ful customer service experience.
Consumers of today are typically nit-
picky, impatient for great and fast c­ ustomer
service, curious for anything new (brand
switchers), always on the l­ook-out for “great
deals” (the best price shopper), ­demanding
for immediate customer s­ervice attention
(the impatient customer), highly c­ ritical or
opinionated (the customer service critic),
and lifestyle conscious (the one-up socialite).
They all expect the brand that they
like or relentlessly love will continually
­deliver their promise of usage satisfaction.
This is why a brand promise should be a
thoroughly thought of set of words that
­
­exudes believability and the buyer’s con-
viction that he/she will be a gratified user.
Brand promises are only as good as the
product itself—its ability to emotionally
and perceptively support the promise and
deliver the utilitarian benefits it says it will.
When an advertisement says, “Its fin-
ger-licking good,” it is the sensory taste
of the product that makes the consumer
“lick” the fingers after completely eating
off the food on the serving plate. That is
because it tastes delicious and satisfying,
and not ­because the consumers like to lick
the grease on their fingers to wipe it clean
because there aren’t enough napkins avail-
able for example. The question for this
promise is the reality check that the finger-
licking ritual happens every time.
Another noteworthy advertisement
comes from a leading retail company that
proudly brags about its customer service
promise “happy to serve” and brand prom-
ise “we got it all for you.”
define that company and how it interacts
with its customers.
Strangely, this company has a pointed
flaw in its customer service promise as they
have a strict rule on the brown bags that are
used to stow the goods bought when they
are paid at the check-out counter. Many
shoppers like me have found their brown
bags to be of the thin grade that are not
Expert Insights
 When the Brand Promise Fails to Deliver
suitable to handle heavy loads and f­rozen
foods that thaw away while in transit. They
easily tear apart per my experience.
Asking for a second bag that will serve
as an inner lining to solve the problem is
often met with resistance despite calling
their ­ attention to their customer ­ service
­promise. A shouting match needs to ­happen
­before they would kowtow to my demand.
Now tell me, Is that retailer delivering its
brand promise?
So why will a brand promise fail to ­deliver
its commitment?
The Advertising Tagline Is Overused
and Worn-Out
The brand team may not have been con-
ducting any recent usage, attitude, and
image consumer research that tells it
­ egy will evolve from.
what may be going wrong or right for the
brand.
If ever there was one undertaken, it
would be likely an informal study done
with friends or relatives that certainly is
full of biased or misleading answers to a
poorly prepared questionnaire. Moreover,
the minimum respondent panel size is not
observed. Hence, the results are neither
credible nor statistically significant for its
data outcome.
Sadly, many small to medium-sized com-
panies see research as an expense and not
as an investment for the future.
Some brand owners love the tagline very
much since it is most likely that the words
that made up the brand promise were
crafted by the company head when the busi-
ness was founded. Over time, the  ­tagline
outlived itself due to the e
­ volving business
environment and the c­hanging lifestyle
needs and wants of its target market.
Penny wise, pound foolish, isn’t it?
The Consumer Research Results Gave
the Wrong Outcome
Some brand promises are created as a
­result of a consumer research study that
looked into the marketing landscape that
the brand serves and makes a profit from.
© Business Expert Press 978-1-94819-888-2 (2018)
www.businessexpertpress.com
Some studies ask the right questions
while others sadly don’t due to how the
interview questionnaire was drafted and
what the study is supposed to have as its
key goals. The choice of either the quali-
tative or the quantitative study approach
is the next curiosity of what was done
right or wrong. Finally, the target respon-
dent ­demographic profile and panel size
may be a red flag for its gender choice,
age group, socioeconomic class, civil
­status, work s­ tatus, and the study area of
interest.
When the marketer confuses an o ­ bjective
from a strategy as a research query point,
the resulting data will always be unable
to convey the right promise where the
­integrated marketing communication strat-
A strategy answers how an objective
will be achieved. If there are different
­strategies that are on the table to favorably
consider and the brand management team
needs to validate what is the best among
them, a qualitative focus group discussion
approach will be the right methodology to
arrive at with a winning idea.
For example, a biased research question
would specifically ask if a convenience
store is a better or preferred point of
­purchase than a supermarket for the brand
instead of investigating which of the sales
channels are frequently visited to purchase
the brand.
The reason for this pointed question was
perhaps due to the company’s inability and
frustration to gain the nod of several sales
channels to be its business partners who
can reach the brand’s target market.
It most likely believes that the conve-
nience store channel will be able to solely
support a brand’s aggressive sales growth
and profit goals alone over time. And so
the brand promise of product availability
in this channel for the tagline “available in
all convenience stores” may be a big state-
ment to chew on, particularly if the sales
team can’t totally assure complete channel
supply coverage.
Expert Insights
3