The Brand Promise: How Ketel One, Costco, Make-A-Wish, Tourism Vancouver, and Other Leading Brands Make and Keep the Promise That Guarantees Success

This book provided a needed infusion of focus to my small healthcare practice of 20 years. It helped to identify why my business has been successful, and how to modify those successful strategies without losing the essence while responding to the current economic environment. The bottom line is minding how a person FEELS - the functional and emotional benefits my patients experience as a result of my service and how it enhances their lives - and not be misdirected by rote business policies.What the Brand Promise does is flesh out the essence of how someone experiences your brand. If your brand is what you do, your brand promise is how a customer feels about it. And feeling good about a brand translates into brand success - the loyalty that creates long term, referring, quality customers, not just quantity. There is an excellent chapter on Personal Brand that was most significant for me as a practitioner for tuning up how I am perceived by my patients. He also makes the point that my brand promise is carried out by my staff and how to ensure that we function as a unit. I found the Brand Dictionary on page xvii and the Thought Guides to be excellent in summarizing the essential concepts of the book as I continue to tweak my brand.

Knapp's book is a useful introduction to the concept of a brand promise if the concept itself is unfamiliar. And some of his case examples provide useful insight. His focus, drawn from his own experience, is based in the hospitality segment (hotels, restaurants) and is centered on consumer brands.Knapp does provide a useful framework for thinking about a brand promise (or a BrandPromise(c) in his trademarked terminology), and he drives home that a brand and a brand promise are much more than merely a slogan or tagline. Those are the primary reasons that the book is worth buying and reading.I didn't react well to some of the hyperbole, or to some chapters that clearly over reach. For example, the final chapter is titled "Promise Perspectives: The detailed process for building strong brands." It's barely fifteen pages long, and clearly cannot encompass a detailed and robust process for building a strong brand. The chapter does distill Knapp's approach down to an executive summary and almost to an outline. As a recap, that's helpful. But it isn't "the detailed process for creating strong brands." So the reader needs to look for the value Knapp is offering, and read past some of the distracting hyperbole.All in all, worth buying and reading. This isn't a seminal work on branding in all contexts, but it is a helpful introduction to the concept of a brand promise.

I ordered The BrandPromise before I had even finished reading Duane E. Knapp's first book, The Brand Mindset. As a statistical research analyst who had been asked to assist an internet start-up company with it's branding I needed to get up to speed on current branding practices. After checking out other books on the subject I found Mr. Knapp's approach to be the most comprehensive in scope and the most solidly based on scientific principles. Of course his experience helping over 300 companies in this challenging work gave me added confidence in his techniques. The BrandPromise delves into the heart of the Brand Mindset process described in his first book, giving numerous examples of how companies successfully deploy a genuine promise to build an avid and supportive customer base. I recommend both The Brand Mindset and The BrandPromise to people ready to jump into the demanding work of building a brand, and who would like the guidance of an experienced master.

This is a great book for anyone wanting to formalize how they approach others and how they want to be perceived. It clearly walks you through the steps to formalize your Brand Promise, which is how you want others to feel when they engage with your product or service. It is hard to pin down this concept in your own words and this book helps you through that process. Going through this training will put you ahead of your competitors in terms of what you offer to potential customers. I highly recommend it!

Duane Knapp has added a new dimension and thought process when branding an organization. He takes you through the important elements that are a must in order to differentiate your organization from competitors with case histories as well. This is a must read if you want to create brand evangelists for your products or services.

Interesting concepts. Both my wife and I have applied them in our personal and professional agendas. BrandPromise is that really explains the psychological linkage between a product and a satified consumer.

The Brand Promise identifies a promise as the essential leadership competency. The recurring theme throughout the book is that without a promise you cannot achieve sustained customer loyalty. The author describes how this vital discipline is the glue for any lasting relationship. The book brings needed clarity to the confusing topic of branding. The Brand Promise is a great book that delivers exceptional value.

This is the most detailed book that I have read on branding. Duane Knapp's Genuine Brands concept will someday be the standard and brand that assures true quality. Great work Mr. Knapp!