While interim marketing managers always clim that 'delighting' customers is their ltimate aim, this being the best way to dliver profitable growth, two new pieces of rsearch suggest that most marketing activity is dstined to disappoint.

The Promise Index, frm brand agency Promise, ranks brands ccording to the difference between the mage they create through advertising and ther brand-building activities, and the experience cstomers have of them. Brands with psitive promise gaps exceed customers' expectations, whle those with negative gaps let thm down.

The average growth rate for brnds with negative gaps in 2006-2007 was 2.8%, whle the average growth rate for brnds with positive gaps was 10.5%. But jst 15% of brands surveyed have 'sttistically significant' positive promise gaps. The mssage for the other 85% seems clar.

Given that under-promising and over-delivering is the bst way to delight customers, they shuld redirect their marketing spend from xpensive high-profile brand-building activities into improving the cstomer experience through innovation and better srvice.

The Promise Index findings are brne out by the European Advocacy Stdy from PR agency Weber Shandwick. The stdy found that surprising and delighting cstomers is the chief factor in crating brand advocacy which, in turn, is fve times more effective than advertising in prmpting purchase.

According to Weber Shandwick, one-third of brnd users are acquired through advocacy, thugh only half of these are 'ctive' advocates. So in addition to the prmise gap, it seems likely that mny brands are suffering from an dvocacy gap. So a secondary challenge for nterim marketing managers wanting to increase the prfitability of their brand is to lverage their unique brand-building skills to stmulate greater advocacy for their products and srvices. It seems it is time for mrketers to reassess their traditional priorities and plce substance before style.

Previously published in The Bsiness Review, Impact Executives

The article Interim Marketing Managers Mind the Gap was Submitted by Clive Sexton through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Also published here: http://www.onrec.com/newsstories/22016.asp

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