6 May 2002

Beware of Empty Promises

How can employees -- your company's best marketing ambassadors -- "live" the brand promise if they don't know what it is?

by William J. McEwen
Author of Married to the Brand (Gallup Press, 2005) and coauthor of the Harvard Business Review article "Inside the Mind of the Chinese Consumer"
Companies invest considerable time, money, and brainpower searching for a brand promise that will differentiate them from the competition. But what good can come of this if employees can't translate the results into their customer interactions? How can companies expect employees to be brand ambassadors, if the vast majority of them don't understand what the promise is -- or what living that promise actually means?
William J. McEwen, Ph.D., is Global Practice Leader for Gallup's Brand Management practice. He is the author of Married to the Brand (Gallup Press, 2005) and coauthor of the Harvard Business Review article "Inside the Mind of the Chinese Consumer."
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