1. A brand promise should not be just a communication exercise. It should be something you work hard to deliver each day with each customer interaction. Internal training on what your brand promise is and how it should be expressed to the customer should be part of your operations.

2. Now more than ever, be careful that cost cutting doesn't spill over into areas that customers will notice. With each incremental cost reduction comes a potential erosion of overall quality. Clients may not notice each small change or cut back in service you make, but they'll eventually reach a tipping point where your quality is no longer acceptable to them and they will seek another source. If you have a brand promise that links to a certain quality in service, be creative in finding ways to maintain that quality against cost constraints.

3. Use simple language in all communications. Contrary to what many clients believe, customers don't like jargon. They want to be spoken to with real, frank language, even when speaking about highly technical matters. Organizations are the ones comfortable with industry jargon. It's easier to talk about what you do with jargon, it gives you a shortcut. Even highly technical clients would rather you sold them with simple benefits first, and only then address the technical.

4. A strong brand promise is specific and tangible. It isn't vague or general. If it sounds scary for you to live up to, you're probably almost there. Remember, it's (arguably) one of the single most important brand building blocks you have to create a relationship with your customer. Make your brand promise something more than what your customer expects. They expect the obvious things, so go beyond that.

5. Don't let your marketing plan be second-guessed by non-marketers who think that marketing is a matter of opinion rather than art and science in which experience matters. It's good to be open to outside viewpoints and perspectives, but not good to consider them so seriously you lose touch with your intent. Experience counts, take advantage of those who have it.

6. Organizations are more likely to under-promise than over-promise to their customers. It's based in the fear that they will have to live with overly demanding customers all day every day. But the reality is that most organizations are improved by having to deliver on challenging customer promises. It strengthens them and stretches their employees' ability to understand their product or service from the customer's point of view -- valuable information to have on a day-to-day basis.

7. Say less, not more. You can strengthen your brand promise by staying with just one or two points at most. Trying to say more than that throws a credibility question over all of it. In fact, you can apply this principle to all of your brand claims and language. The effectiveness of your communications diminishes in direct proportion to the number of points you attempt to make -- which seems like a perfect place to end this article -- with fewer points rather than more.          ~