The Right Way to Build Your Brand

We finally have an answer for Wanamaker—and a coherent rationale for investment in brand building. We drew on a large database supplied by the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC) to empirically identify what types of brand advertising are most effective both for attracting new customers and for converting them into loyal repeaters. As we’ll explain, the key to successful brand building is a clear and specific promise to the customer that can be demonstrably fulfilled. Advertising that makes such a promise almost always results in better performance than advertising that does not—even if the latter creates greater name awareness. And a well-designed customer promise not only leads directly to sales but also provides an effective framework on which to organize a company’s activities.