AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising

One-Minute Marketer‘But You Promised’

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‘But You Promised’

As kids, we were always accusing our parents of breaking promises, no matter how thinly the promise was made. It usually ended in some quickly resolved disappointment or a trip to the ice cream shop.

Today, when we believe a brand has broken its promise, we react swiftly and with purpose. We drop brands like hot potatoes, especially if you are a boomer.JackMorton-Consumer-Opinions-Brand-Promises-Oct2018

More than half of all millennials believe that brands “rarely” live up to the promises they make. That is a sad statistic for the advertising community. It means that brand loyalty is about to be disrupted as well.

The lesson for nonprofit organizations and businesses is simple: You better know what you’re promising, and start delivering. Boomers especially are ready to not trust you.

So what do you promise people? This is a fundamental part of marketing. If you don’t know, then people will make up your promise and good luck delivering on that promise.

According to Marketing charts, “For customers to be satisfied with brands, the marketing message needs to align with the value of the product or service.”

Research is showing that people feel brands don’t live up to the promises brand make. It is a breakdown of trust, and that will hurt results for years to come.

 

 

 

 

Written by:

Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.