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Over promising & under delivering
- 24/04/2017
- Written by Sanchari Ghosh

This may come as a shock but promises are meant to be fulfilled!
When you promise someone a lion, don’t give them a cat.

This picture is great for self-motivation but not so much for sales as it is misrepresentation and is illegal.
We’ve seen this time and again – promises are made and almost always broken. Unfortunately, most of the time people get away with it.
However, what you don’t get away with is a bad reputation for yourself and the brand you represent. Sooner or later, this will catch up with you.
Everyone knows that overpromising and underdelivering is bad, but what most people don’t know is – why it happens, how it happens and how to stop it from happening.
Let’s start with what is a promise, shall we?
A promise by definition means, ‘a declaration or assurance that one will do something or that a particular thing will happen’.
So, when a brand or a brand representative makes a promise to its customers, it means that the brand commits to delivering what is expected.
Expected – not told. And this is why promises are so often broken.
Top five reasons why brand promises fail:
- Most brands do not have a promise to start with – This usually happens because the brand doesn’t have a brand strategy. To check out what a brand startegy is click the link below:
- The brands that do have a promise don’t use it or worse, there is inefficient/no brand training for the brand representatives.
- Some of these brands that do have a brand promise are operationally incapable of delivering on their promise. Why? The sole reason is that the person who came up with the brand strategy and promise is a CEO / owner who has never worked in operations and doesn’t know the product’s limitations. This is why it is essential that all departments of a brand are equally involved in the brand strategy process.
- Some brands don’t know how to deliver on their promise…great! Now we have a brand strategy and we have a brand promise, but how do we make the promise come alive? Every brand should ensure their brand promise comes across at all touchpoints. This requires endless brainstorms and out of the box ideas, to determine what activations and touchpoints are the right ones for you. Most brands unfortunately are happy just to come up with their one line brand promise but don’t consider how to make it happen.
- Some brand promises are vague. This leads to mismanaged expectations. Not managing expectations is one of the key reasons why brand promises fail. When you promise someone a bird you could be talking about a chicken but the customer might be expecting a peacock for the same price. Neither is wrong because they are both birds, however, there is a phenonmenal difference in these birds!
To check out how some of the world’s biggest brands have used their taglines to make their promises click here :
By now, I’m sure you understand why it is important to have a promise that is specific, operationally atainable and one that can be delivered on.
Raising expectations of customers because it makes the brand more appealing might be the easy way, but it will never last. More importantly, it will hurt your brand more than it will benefit it.
A customer repeatedly purchases a brand only because they have certain expectations from it, and knows that the brand delivers on them.
When the brand fails to deliver on these expectations, it leaves a negative impact on the customer. It is very easy to quickly lose control of such a situation leading to negative word of mouth.
On the other hand, if you do deliver what you’ve promised, it will not necessarily leave a positive impact either – because, that is what your brand has promised to do in the first place!
However, if you consistently deliver on your promise time and again, it will leave a positive impact with your customers thus leading to brand trust and loyalty.
Here are seven ways to deliver on your brand promise:
- Have a brand strategy – This is the backbone of your brand and will include your brand promise.
- Be realistic – Understand your product and its offerings.
- State your promise – You absolutely have to know your brand and your product.
- Be specific – Don’t promise a bird. Promise which bird.
- Know your promise – Make sure every brand representative understands your brand promise.
- Communicate your promise – Learn how to communicate your brand promise to the market so that there are no gaps between what was intended and what was understood.
- Deliver on your promise – The only way to become a great brand is to consistently deliver on your word. Make sure you do that every single time!
Sanchari Ghosh
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