Promise Index - Promise Gap

Promise Gap

Promise Gap is the difference between the image consumers have of a particular brand and the actual experience. In other words, promise gap is a sign of how well brands live up to their reputations.

Brands with positive promise gaps exceed their customers' expectations, while those with negative promise gaps let customers down.

Two-thirds (66%) of the 150 brands surveyed for 2007 index have positive promise gaps, just 15% have ones that Promise describes as 'statistically significant'.

'This means that 85% of brands are leaving high returns on the table for those who are successful at delighting customers,' points out Promise director Clare Fuller. The best way of delighting those customers, she adds, is to redirect advertising spend toward improving the customer experience.

The strategy of under-promising and over-delivering is one that seems to be gaining ground. Two recent studies suggest it is key to delivering profitable growth, though both underline how many brands continue to disappoint.

Clive Cooper from Marketing magazine puts "Living up to expectations" as one of the big issues facing marketers in 2007: "The internet has empowered the customer to find out the "real" value of a product or service. Over-promising may have once been profitable, but no longer; it may even detrimental (Promise Index 2006). Companies are quickly finding that their products and services should at the very least be commensurate with expectations, and both complaints and positive consumer activism accentuated by this effect."