What is a Brand Proposition ?

and why it's such an important part of your marketing

We often read a lot about what a Brand is and how a Brand is different to a product/service.

But what is a brand proposition ? And how is it different to branding.

Branding is I think the external packaging, the logo, the colourways etc and everything that is associated with how a brand looks and feels.

The brand proposition is really the brand promise. I always like to explore a brand proposition to make sure it’s credible, differentiated, motivating and be supported.

It also has to be benefit focussed and not a statement of the physical attributes of a brand.

It has to be rooted in the end user, the consumer or even in a b2b environment where the customer is key.

Differentiated for sure and why it’s different to all competitors and why a consumer/customer would choose this brand over another.

But it can’t be differentiated just to be different, it has to be motivating, ie a strong reason to buy. These statements often come from lots of research and there is no short cut to creating your brand proposition. Research can tell you a lot about how your brand is currently perceived which may not match with how you want your brand to be viewed. This gap is important to understand as there maybe ways to close this gap, especially if the perceived proposition is wrong and not as motivating as you want.

When consulting I used ‘hot ice cream’ as an example of a differentiated brand proposition but clearly it falls down as not being motivating - who wants a hot ice cream !

It has to be credible, you can’t make something up that is clearly not true. Whatever your brand proposition says about the brand it has to credible - ask yourself ? Is it trustworthy, reliable, dependable and is it true? If not, your consumers/customers will very soon find out and your brand will be destined to be a failure.

Then finally the brand proposition needs to be supported. You need to be able to back up the proposition with statements that all add up to the differentiated, credible and motivating proposition.

If you’re working on a brand project and looking at the current brand proposition, I recommend you take your time to make sure you get this step correct as part of your marketing. A strong brand proposition will keep your customers hooked and they will come back for more. And maybe important, it will attract new consumers/customers.

And please do not get confused between the brand proposition and the creative idea or advertising tag line. Clearly they stem from the brand proposition but it’s the role of your creative agency to take the brand proposition, challenge it and then define the creative brief that is the springboard for all creative outputs.

I hope this is useful. Please feel free to comment.

Thank you.

Kevan