We are immersed in a world crammed with choice, yet much of it is depressingly ordinary. To build a brand that stands out requires a vision in which you combine market perspective, creative thinking, and an appetite for risk—creativity aimed at doing something better, having the backbone to stand up and declare it, and then delivering on your promise. Differentiating a brand is tough, we know, but being ordinary just makes life tougher.

If the task of developing brands with real value was an IQ test, most automotive companies would score in the two-digit range. What must change to improve this? Perhaps the very perception of what makes a brand great must change before you take another step.

We need a new definition that holds a gun to our head and hollers, “Do something!” A strong statement that sets you apart. Give yourself permission to be different. Demand it! Anger some people and get others to love you. And don’t give a damn about buyers who don’t give a damn about you.

We see great brands as a promise wrapped in an experience.

Grow up. Promise to be something—something that can be delivered through an experience that only you provide. Make a commitment, a word that scares the bejesus out of marketers. Get active—because commitment means you must deliver on it. And know that it is personal—a promise from you to each and every customer.

The best brand promises are clear and compelling and they communicate your commitment. No equivocation, no wiggle; just straightforward intention. What could be simpler?

The promise is your brand’s foundation. Yet it is the experience you orchestrate that provides real value to your customers and pays off the promise. A simple empirical equation we first heard from a friend of ours in the business, Mark Rikess, says it all:

"Commodity + Experience = Price/Value."

Just ask Starbucks. Likewise, your customers will decide through their experience whether you delivered on your promise.

Our world has attempted to commoditize most products. How do you increase the price/value ratio of these goods? You wrap them in an appealing experience. That experience is in the product, the service, the environment and a thousand other areas. Here is where art enters the picture. What you most certainly do not do is sell on the basis of price. Quality and value? Of course. Price? Discounts? Of course not.

Bringing your promise to life through a value-added experience requires knowing your customers and their expectations—and then designing an experience that brings acceptance and smiles. Sound easy? It isn’t. That experience is woven into everything the customer senses, whether you planned it or not.