"A brand is not an icon, a slogan, or a mission statement. It is a promise — a promise your company can keep. First you find out, using research, what promises your customers want companies like yours to make and keep, using the products, processes and people in your company. Then you look at your competition and decide which promise would give you the best competitive advantage. This is the promise you make and keep in every marketing activity, every action, every corporate decision, and every customer interaction. You promote it internally and externally. The promise drives budgets and stops arguments. If everyone in the company knows what the promise is, and knows that they will be rewarded or punished depending on the personal commitment to the promise, politics and personal turf issues start to disappear." - Kristin Zhivago in Business Marketing

Yes, your station is making a promise. It may be that you’re an anti-establishment rock station, or a relaxing and refreshing AC, your listeners are reading a promise into what you do. The only real question is whether you want a hand in developing what your promise is.

A promise can be explicit, such as a “Family Friendly” promise, or it can be implicit, by focusing on and being family friendly, but it’s there.

A huge mistake we’ve been making is building a promise around a tangible part of your radio station. 40 minutes of music every hour, or the “best mix” reduces your promise to something easily copied and less important to a listener today. True brands are built on the intangible facets of your radio station, which are more difficult to copy and more meaningful to the people who are your listeners.

But like most promises, we need to prove what they think. If you’re like most people in radio you don’t spend much time thinking about what your promise is, and even less time creating ways to prove your promise. Focus is probably something you reserve for your target or your music genre, but in fact it’s much more important to focus your actions on proving your promise in ever decision you make.

What’s your promise? And more importantly, how are you proving it?