Have you ever been on the set of a movie? Years ago, my family was on the backlot of a TV show. At the camera angle, you would swear you were on the streets of San Francisco, but we were actually in Florida. Set artists had designed storefront façades. They had strategically placed them along a street to make them look like a real city. But when you walked behind this backdrop, you saw what was really there –flat plywood standing upright with supporting wooden trusses. At the right angle, it all looks very believable and permanent. However, upon closer inspection, you realize it all was made up and very temporary.

What backs up your marketing? Every now and then, I talk to a customer who wants us to make a big claim in their marketing. Your marketing should make big claims about your brand. Marketing, by design, is all about putting your best foot forward. But I always remind my customers, you cannot just make a claim in marketing without backing it up. You may be able to bend the truth about your products and services and get people to buy them for a while, but not forever. If consumers decide that you have oversold them, look out! Your brand is about to take a reputation hit. If you are going to be bold in your marketing, you have to be able to do more than say you’re great, you have to show the customer and back up what you are claiming. Otherwise, you are just like those TV set cities – they’re not real.

There are several ways you can back up your marketing claims. These all are tied to the main reasons customers leave one brand for another. First, make sure your quality is in line with what you are saying in your marketing. One of my favorite local restaurants has a window in their kitchen. You can watch your food being prepared. If you are dining there, you will notice that the kitchen is clean: no food-stained walls or scraps of food on the countertops. The workers are dressed in white aprons and have taken precautions to handle food in a healthy way. The place is bustling with activity, but it is all controlled and makes a great impression on their customers. On rare occasions, I have been in the kitchens of other restaurants where I would never eat, regardless of what they claim about their food. Your quality backs up your marketing.

Second, your price has to be competitive. It does not necessarily need to beat all other prices, but the consumer needs to feel like they are getting a good value for their money. What does price have to do with marketing? Isn’t that just a product of sales? The opinions of your customers are the determining factors in whether your brand is seen in a positive or negative light. Marketing is all about protecting your brand. If consumers think you are too pricey and they can get the same thing at a cheaper price from your competition, your brand will take a hit. Price is very important to brand marketing.

Third, delivery is important to your marketing. In fact, delivery has become a very big deal in marketing. If you can get your product in the hands of the consumer quicker than your competition, you likely will win the sale. On the flip side, if you are consistently late, it will drag your brand down.

There is a fourth factor you should decide to back up your marketing claims: customer service. There is a lost art in business today: speaking face-to-face with a customer. Making sure your customers have received your products or services to their satisfaction is paramount to your success. Here is an axiom of life: people leave people when they don’t have a relationship with them. The way you act towards your customers will either drive them back to you for another sale or turn them into the waiting arms of your competition. Of all of these factors, treating the customer in a respectful way is the one that is most commonly ignored by businesses today. They claim they can never make customers happy or they are too busy to talk to everyone. If that is your excuse, expect to lose customers. Your marketing will just be a façade, nothing real.Consumers leave brands when they feel like they are being overlooked and their opinion does not count. Here is the bottom line: if you will not listen to your customers – especially when they have a complaint – you will lose them.

If you want to have impactful marketing that builds your brand, you have to back up your claims. It is very simple, but takes effort to implement. Quality, price, delivery time and customer satisfaction all support your marketing claims. Neglecting any of these factors will reduce your marketing to cheap talk.