Where Does Your Brand Promise Break?

Most brand problems aren’t in the brand guidelines.

They start after the communication ends.

When I audit a brand, I ask one question:

Where does the promise start breaking?

• Sales handover.

• Onboarding.

• Delivery.

• Customer support.

• Returns.

• Crisis response.

  
  

Take Ola Electric.

In 2024, India’s consumer regulator acted after more than 10,000 complaints involving service, warranties, refunds, recurring defects and other customer issues.

Ola later said it had resolved 99.1% of those complaints. The regulator nevertheless proceeded with a detailed investigation into the alleged service and product deficiencies.

Whatever the eventual regulatory outcome, there is a useful brand lesson here.

The promise may be made in the campaign.

But it gets tested at the service centre.

This is where brand management often becomes fragmented.

Marketing owns the promise.

Operations owns delivery.

Support owns complaints.

Too often, no one owns the brand across all three.

So here’s a simple audit:

Write your brand promise in one sentence.

Then walk through the business exactly as a customer would.

Where does the experience stop matching that sentence?

That’s where the brand work should start.

Because a brand isn’t only what the campaign says.

It’s what the business repeatedly proves after the campaign ends.

Where does your brand’s promise break first?