Keep Your Brand Promise: An Argument for Less Cowbell

There’s probably a specific reason your customers love you.

It may not be glamorous, it may not be pretty, but it’s real. And it’s the reason you’ve earned their devotion.

But time after time, organizations will abandon their core in order to chase the proverbial shiny object de jour.

The notion is perfectly illustrated in this Snapple commercial:  

On whiteboards around the world erroneous thinking is being jotted down by well-meaning marketers:

“We need more bells!”

“We need more whistles!”

“We need more cowbell!”

The truth is, you probably don’t. The only thing you really need more of is what made you special in the first place.

Figure out what it is that makes your organization special and cling to it like a life preserver. It might literally be one for your brand.

Reaching for anything else only increases your chances of drowning in a sea of wannabes, me-toos, and copy cats.

Stay true to your core. Serve your customers with what they signed up for and overdeliver on that.

Leave the cowbell to Christopher Walken.