Stage Presentation: OuR Brand Promise
Pure Romance
This script is a short portion of a stage presentation given by Pure Romance’s Vice President of Product Development at the annual convention for Pure Romance consultants. I fully guided the content of the talk and visuals of the presentation based only on a short (and vague) description provided by our Director of Strategy and topics our VP of Product Dev. wanted to discuss.
The focus of the talk was the relationship between the brand, corporate, consultants, and customers. It provided an interesting challenge, as most brands don’t have consultant sellers, which adds in an extra level of complexity to brand interactions—particularly since the brand can set as many rules as it wants…but the consultants don’t have to follow them.
My goal was to explain the Pure Romance brand, how it relates to consultants, and teach them that every decision they make when the sell reflects back on both them and the brand—and by the transitive property, every other person in the room. If someone has a bad interaction with their Pure Romance consultant, it could poison the well not just for the company but for their fellow consultants as well.
(It should be noted that, as of 2024, Pure Romance no longer has consultants and has left the mulit-level marketing space.)
“Brand” is a word you hear a lot these days. Especially with the advent of things like TikTok and Instagram, where people gain millions of followers just for being themselves...or for not being themselves at all.
A brand isn’t just your look. It’s not just your “lifestyle.” It’s not just the thing you do—it’s EVERYTHING.
It goes beyond colors, and logos, and attitude, and outlook.
It’s about all those things and more.
But something that tends to get lost in the conversation is that it’s also about emotion. We have emotional connections to brands. They mean something to us, whether we realize it or not.
That’s what makes them so powerful.
That’s why you have a favorite brand of potato chip, a preferred brand of eyeliner, or an answer ready when you’re asked “Is Pepsi okay?”
And that’s exactly what so many brands work hard to form with their customers—that emotional connection. And so do we!
Like any other brand, we want people to think of Pure Romance as part of their day-to-day lives.
But unlike every other brand—we have all of you.
You are part of our brand. You are our brand advocates around the world. You help form those emotional bonds.
But you aren’t just brand advocates, you’re also business owners. And you have to consider what you and your brand are putting out into the world, just as much as corporate does.
That’s where the Brand Promise comes in.
What is a Brand Promise?
It may sound like hokey corporate stuff, but a Brand Promise is an important tool to help a business succeed. And it’s especially important for all of you because of the nature of your business.
Yes, you have corporate behind you, you may have teammates behind you…but at the end of the day—it’s you. You are your business. You’re the one out there partying, you’re the one out there posting, you’re the one out there selling. You control your customers’ experience.
And that’s exactly what a Brand Promise is—the experience a brand wants their customers to have every time they interact.
So, what do you expect when you walk into a Starbucks?
When you shop at your local grocery store?
When you grab that bag of Lays or a Diet Coke?
You tend to have an expected experience. It’s why you consistently go back to those things. And if there’s ever something different about that experience—good or bad—you notice.
That’s a Brand Promise at work.
So how do we arrive at our own Brand Promise?
We start by considering the customer’s point of view:
“When I think of Pure Romance, I think ________.”
And we can fill that in with other companies to get an idea of the things we’re talking about.
For example…
When I think of Coca-Cola, I think: Delicious, Refreshing, and Happy.
A co-worker once pointed out to me that Coke isn’t selling soda…they’re selling happiness. And that forever changed the way I thought about brands.
When I think of Apple, I think: Innovative, Sleek, and Exciting.
Apple is built on excitement. They have giant press conferences to announce new products. And they do it TWICE A YEAR.
When I think of Disney, I think: Creative, Entertaining, and Magical.
Disney has a toe in a lot of different pools, and they sell a lot of different things. But what do they really sell? Magic.
When I think of Pure Romance, I think: High Quality, Trustworthy, and Playful.
So, from there, we get the Pure Romance Brand Promise:
To be a trusted source for high-quality products and information, while enhancing lives through passionate play.
If you think you’re just selling vibrators and shave cream—
You. Are. Wrong.
You’re selling vibrators, and shave cream…and the promise of quality. The promise of fun. You’re selling that feeling of relaxation your customer gets when she sinks down into a bubble bath. You’re selling the feeling of her partner’s hand sliding up her leg. You’re selling head-turns. Raised eyebrows. Kisses.
You’re selling orgasms.
You’re not just selling products—you’re selling pleasure.
Building the Brand Experience
So, if that is our Brand Promise—our statement to the world about who we are—we have to have something to back it up. A foundation to build upon.
And we’ve got it. Three words that define the Pure Romance experience:
Quality. Trust. And Play.
These are the pillars of our brand.
These three pillars are what this company is built on, what your businesses are built on, and what the relationship with your customers is built on.
If any of these pillars crumble, the Pure Romance experience collapses, and the Brand Promise is broken.
We all have a responsibility to hold up the pillars of the brand. But we as corporate, and all of you as Consultants, have different roles in making sure we ALL reach our potential.
Everything corporate does—from our packaging, to our social media, to how we communicate with you and with customers—reinforces this Brand Promise and these pillars. In the same way, it’s also reinforced by everything YOU do. How you present products, present yourself, and interact with your customers.
So let’s do a quick overview, and then dive into each pillar.
When we talk about our Quality pillar, corporate has the biggest focus. We do the legwork, get dirty, elbow-deep in silicone, and seek out the best products and manufacturers. We also take our role as information providers extremely seriously. You come to us for quality information about sexual health and wellness, and we strive to be at the forefront of that knowledge.
You then take that knowledge and pass it along to your customers. You hold up the Quality pillar through your professionalism, presentation, and product knowledge.
The Trust pillar is a major responsibility of both corporate and Consultants. We all have to earn the trust of our customers, as well as each other. If there’s trust lacking in any of those three directions, then there’s something wrong, and we all have to figure out how to fix it.
Now, when it comes to the Play pillar, that’s where we lean on you! Through parties, groups, TikToks, emojis, and memes, you make Pure Romance fun and engaging!