The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication: A Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, and Leadership

Focus on Brand Fundamentals

To journey through the five stages just described, a brand and its sponsoring organization must do many things right, exceed expectations in several ways, and surprise and delight consumers. But before a brand can please, it must work. Before a brand can engage, it must embrace the fundamentals to achieve in order to have any chance to inspire.

The Brand Must Work

Reliability of brand is fundamental. It does not matter how compelling or catchy the brand phrasing may be if the product or service does not match what is described. Southwest Airlines, for example, creates its own permission to have fun in the skies because it delivers reliable value in the skies, as expressed in a brand message for the company in the 1990s: ...