No wonder branding gets a bad name…

… when you have stuff like this, from Jeff Kay via Paul at Ideas Sandbox. Fast food brands splashing cash on attractive food photography, but failing to invest in actually delivering a product that looks anything like it. All spin, and no substance. All sizzle, and literally in this case, a crappy sausage.

The question Paul asks at the end of his post is the right one: "Does your company under-deliver on its promise? Are you offering a version of reality doesn’t match the promise?" After all, delivering on your promises is what brands are all about. I define a brand as :

"A name & symbol promising a known and trusted experience appealing to head and heart".

For the brand vision book, I did research on making and breaking brand promises to a panel of 1000 consumers in the UK, and the results were pretty damning.60% of them agreed that brands promised more than they delivered, with only 36% disagreeing.

Contrast the fast-food con tricksters above with some food and drink brands who deliver in buckets on what they promise, and whose business is doing well of the back of this:

– Gu: ice cream heaven
– M&S: chocolate puds that live up to their food porn advertising
– innocent: product passion