This year’s list is out. For many brands it’s been a meteoric rise. For others it’s been a slow and steady decline. In some cases it’s actually been a freefall.
As we have always pointed out, it all comes down to delighting the customer and creating that essential emotional bond with the consumer. Brands that do not only end up on the top of the list but become top earners as well.
This year’s top-10 brands were:
Amazon (on-line retail)
Apple (smartphone)
Facebook (social media)
Samsung (cellphone)
Apple (computer)
Zappos (on-line retail)
Hyundai (automotive)
Kindle (e-readers)
Patron (tequila)
Mary Kay (cosmetics)
For a the complete list of the 2011 Brand Keys Top-100 Loyalty Leaders rankings we invite you to visit http://www.brandkeys.com/awards/leaders.cfm
Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
BrandLounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Predicting by the Numbers
We take the word "predictive" very seriously, always careful to say that our loyalty and engagement metrics predict positive consumer behavior in the market place, but that our methodology is not a market model, as a brand can do a myriad of things that cause consumers to become otherwise engaged or to lose profits. However, independent third party validations have shown our loyalty metrics to correlate at extraordinary levels with profits, which brands find quite comforting as they face the ever-evolving consumer.
The recent article from The Atlantic Monthly, "Why Content Isn't King: How Netflix Became America's Biggest Video Service--Much to the Astonishment of Media Executives and Investors," speaks to the surprising profitability of Netflix, at least to those who make their living predicting such things.
We were less surprised, as our predictions are based on what consumers say are the brands that do the best job of meeting their expectations in the category – both emotionally and rationally.
This little detail, measuring emotion, is often what trips up those who measure using numbers and business tactics as their guide. We invite you to read the article and draw your own conclusions LINK. In the meantime, order your stock predictions with a side of real loyalty metrics – if it's profit you're after, that is.
by Dr. Robert Passikoff
Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
BrandLounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com
The recent article from The Atlantic Monthly, "Why Content Isn't King: How Netflix Became America's Biggest Video Service--Much to the Astonishment of Media Executives and Investors," speaks to the surprising profitability of Netflix, at least to those who make their living predicting such things.
We were less surprised, as our predictions are based on what consumers say are the brands that do the best job of meeting their expectations in the category – both emotionally and rationally.
This little detail, measuring emotion, is often what trips up those who measure using numbers and business tactics as their guide. We invite you to read the article and draw your own conclusions LINK. In the meantime, order your stock predictions with a side of real loyalty metrics – if it's profit you're after, that is.
by Dr. Robert Passikoff
Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
BrandLounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
11 Branding and Marketing Trends for 2011
The recent partnership between BrandLounge and Brand Keys, Inc., confirms the need for accurate predictive brand loyalty, equity, and engagement metrics in the Middle East and Northern Africa region.
These metrics are able to measure the direction and velocity of consumer values 12 to 18 months in advance of the marketplace.
They also allow us to identify future trends with uncanny accuracy. BrandLounge, through Brand Key’s methodology, offers 11 trends for marketers in 2011. These 11 trends will have direct consequences to the success - or failure - of next year’s branding and marketing efforts.
1) Value is What the Consumer Says It Is
Excessive spending, even on sale items, will continue to be replaced by a reason-to-buy at all. Only the consumer can tell you for sure. The appearance of ubiquity will be trouble for brands with no authentic meaning, whether high or low-end.
2) Brand, Meet Value
Brands will increasingly become a surrogate for "value." What makes goods and services valuable will increasingly be what's wrapped up in the brand and what consumers believe the brand means.
3) Zappos-ification
Marketers will have to comprehend what really drives their category, knowwhat consumers really expect, and where to focus both process and brand efforts. Yes, Zappos sells shoes, but their brand equity lies primarily in the emotional driver of "service" - how they get shoes to customers and accept returns.
4) Ethosnomics
Brands increasingly must stand for something beyond just rational items. Brands can't, however, just "stand for" the cause du jour. Doing what others do, just because they're doing it, won't work very long or very effectively. Corporate social responsibility efforts will need to be believable, sustained, and engaging. Some of the strongest will come from those brands that connect the public and the personal in today's financially-strained world.
5) Differentiation Can Be Emotional
Differentiation remains critical to brand success as the proliferation of products and services available to consumers continues. While true innovation does exist when it comes to the offerings available, increasingly differentiation will come from what the brand offers emotionally to consumers ¬especially as the ability of brands to mimic and get "me-too" products to market quickens.
6) They're Talking to Each Other Before Talking to the Brand
Social Networking and DIY media-exchange of information outside of the brand space will increase as consumers become more comfortable with their power to get the true story on products from total strangers. Brands will need to drive positive feedback out in the virtual world like never before, necessitating a deep understand of their categories.
7) Friendtelligence
Influence by friends will also increase. If consumers trust the community, they will extend trust to the brand. Not just word-of-mouth, but the right word-of-mouth is what matters. Look for more websites using Facebook Connect to share information with the friends from those sites while trying not to annoy anyone.
8) Putting the Brand Into Their Hands
It's increasingly handheld technology that facilitates transactions. Brands that make it hard to buy on the small screen will suffer. Watch for promotions and coupons to continue to explode, especially if the brand can customize that experience.
9) Prolifetition
Look for increased competition, and not just from traditional brands. The internet changed the game from consumers feeling they had to know a brand to even consider it. Ubiquitous awareness is replaced by strong word of mouth and positive viral sharing. Knowing what drives a category, what consumers really expect, and what creates loyalty, can give you a meaningful advantage when entering new and uncharted categories populated by strangers to your brand.
10) Exponential Expectations
Brands are barely keeping up with consumer expectations now. Every day consumers adopt and devour the latest technologies and innovations, and only hunger for more. As app technology becomes more entrenched, brands will be expected to deliver in that space. Look for even more apps to appear in 2011.
11) Engagement is Not a Fad
It's the way today's consumers do business. Period. Marketers will continue to use engagement methods like the right platform; program; message; and experience. But there is only one objective for the future: Brand Engagement. Attaining real brand engagement is impossible using out-dated awareness models.
Accommodating these trends will require changes on the parts of how companies measure, manage, and market their brands. And, yes, change can sometimes be terrifying. But change is, more or less, another chance. However, for brands that ignore these trends, it could very well be their last.
by Dr. Robert Passikoff
Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
BrandLounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com
These metrics are able to measure the direction and velocity of consumer values 12 to 18 months in advance of the marketplace.
They also allow us to identify future trends with uncanny accuracy. BrandLounge, through Brand Key’s methodology, offers 11 trends for marketers in 2011. These 11 trends will have direct consequences to the success - or failure - of next year’s branding and marketing efforts.
1) Value is What the Consumer Says It Is
Excessive spending, even on sale items, will continue to be replaced by a reason-to-buy at all. Only the consumer can tell you for sure. The appearance of ubiquity will be trouble for brands with no authentic meaning, whether high or low-end.
2) Brand, Meet Value
Brands will increasingly become a surrogate for "value." What makes goods and services valuable will increasingly be what's wrapped up in the brand and what consumers believe the brand means.
3) Zappos-ification
Marketers will have to comprehend what really drives their category, knowwhat consumers really expect, and where to focus both process and brand efforts. Yes, Zappos sells shoes, but their brand equity lies primarily in the emotional driver of "service" - how they get shoes to customers and accept returns.
4) Ethosnomics
Brands increasingly must stand for something beyond just rational items. Brands can't, however, just "stand for" the cause du jour. Doing what others do, just because they're doing it, won't work very long or very effectively. Corporate social responsibility efforts will need to be believable, sustained, and engaging. Some of the strongest will come from those brands that connect the public and the personal in today's financially-strained world.
5) Differentiation Can Be Emotional
Differentiation remains critical to brand success as the proliferation of products and services available to consumers continues. While true innovation does exist when it comes to the offerings available, increasingly differentiation will come from what the brand offers emotionally to consumers ¬especially as the ability of brands to mimic and get "me-too" products to market quickens.
6) They're Talking to Each Other Before Talking to the Brand
Social Networking and DIY media-exchange of information outside of the brand space will increase as consumers become more comfortable with their power to get the true story on products from total strangers. Brands will need to drive positive feedback out in the virtual world like never before, necessitating a deep understand of their categories.
7) Friendtelligence
Influence by friends will also increase. If consumers trust the community, they will extend trust to the brand. Not just word-of-mouth, but the right word-of-mouth is what matters. Look for more websites using Facebook Connect to share information with the friends from those sites while trying not to annoy anyone.
8) Putting the Brand Into Their Hands
It's increasingly handheld technology that facilitates transactions. Brands that make it hard to buy on the small screen will suffer. Watch for promotions and coupons to continue to explode, especially if the brand can customize that experience.
9) Prolifetition
Look for increased competition, and not just from traditional brands. The internet changed the game from consumers feeling they had to know a brand to even consider it. Ubiquitous awareness is replaced by strong word of mouth and positive viral sharing. Knowing what drives a category, what consumers really expect, and what creates loyalty, can give you a meaningful advantage when entering new and uncharted categories populated by strangers to your brand.
10) Exponential Expectations
Brands are barely keeping up with consumer expectations now. Every day consumers adopt and devour the latest technologies and innovations, and only hunger for more. As app technology becomes more entrenched, brands will be expected to deliver in that space. Look for even more apps to appear in 2011.
11) Engagement is Not a Fad
It's the way today's consumers do business. Period. Marketers will continue to use engagement methods like the right platform; program; message; and experience. But there is only one objective for the future: Brand Engagement. Attaining real brand engagement is impossible using out-dated awareness models.
Accommodating these trends will require changes on the parts of how companies measure, manage, and market their brands. And, yes, change can sometimes be terrifying. But change is, more or less, another chance. However, for brands that ignore these trends, it could very well be their last.
by Dr. Robert Passikoff
Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
BrandLounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Which Brands Have the Most Loyal Customers?
Perhaps our subject question should more appropriately be "Which brands are imbued with the most emotional value?"
Why two different questions? Well, we've long known that loyalty is absolutely driven by emotion. But based on this year's Brand Keys Loyalty Leaders List it's absolutely clear that when it comes to loyalty (and brand profitability), consumers are looking to emotionally connect more than ever before.
Of the 501 brands in 70 categories on this year's list, here's who made the top-10:
Apple iPhone
Samsung cell phones
Wal-Mart
Grey Goose
Apple Computers
Hyundai
Amazon
J. Crew
Blackberry
Avis
For a more thorough analysis of this years leaders and laggers we invite you to read Noreen O'Leary's Brandweek article, "Consumers Most Loyal to Tech and Cosmetics." If that title surprised you, remember that the 'emotional engagement' that women share with beauty brands is very powerful, and that there are few things consumers take more personally than the technology that keeps them connected.
Click here for a complete listing of the 501 brands.
http://www.brandkeys.com/awards/leaders.cfm
Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
Brand Lounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com
Why two different questions? Well, we've long known that loyalty is absolutely driven by emotion. But based on this year's Brand Keys Loyalty Leaders List it's absolutely clear that when it comes to loyalty (and brand profitability), consumers are looking to emotionally connect more than ever before.
Of the 501 brands in 70 categories on this year's list, here's who made the top-10:
Apple iPhone
Samsung cell phones
Wal-Mart
Grey Goose
Apple Computers
Hyundai
Amazon
J. Crew
Blackberry
Avis
For a more thorough analysis of this years leaders and laggers we invite you to read Noreen O'Leary's Brandweek article, "Consumers Most Loyal to Tech and Cosmetics." If that title surprised you, remember that the 'emotional engagement' that women share with beauty brands is very powerful, and that there are few things consumers take more personally than the technology that keeps them connected.
Click here for a complete listing of the 501 brands.
http://www.brandkeys.com/awards/leaders.cfm
Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
Brand Lounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com
Thursday, August 19, 2010
3R's of Back-To-School
It's not only parents happy to see their children go back to school in the next few weeks. Retailers are also celebrating. According to our annual Back-To-School survey, average spend for clothing and supplies is up 10% over a year ago, or $584.
The consumer's view of the traditional retail 3R's used to be 'retailer,' 'rates,' and 'requirements,' - which retailer was offering the best prices for stuff the kids really needed. But as parents have already earned their Ph.D.'s in smart back-to-school shopping, this year 'requirements' has moved to the head of the class.
Unlike other major purchase events like Mother's Day, there's a more lopsided distribution in terms of which retailers will be the beneficiaries of back-to-school shopping: Discount Stores 95%, Department Stores 60%, Office Supply 55%, Online 50%, Specialty Retailers 45%, and Catalogs 35%. For some lessons as to parents' shopping plans, we invite you to read Jill Radsken's Boston Herald article, "Class Action."
The top-10 retailers who got A's in consumers' intent-to-shop were:
1. Amazon
2. Bed, Bath, and Beyond
3. Gap
4. J. Crew
5. Kohl's Footlocker
6. Nike
7. Staples
8. Target
9. TJ Maxx
10. Zappos
What brands get what piece of the academic pie is ultimately determined by what retail brands actually stand for. Brand meaning can quickly matriculate into surrogates for added-value, and these days you don't need a crib-sheet to discover that consumers seek out brands that possess meaning and act more positively to those retailers who do as well.
And that behavior should be a fundamental lesson for all retailers.
Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
Brand Lounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com
The consumer's view of the traditional retail 3R's used to be 'retailer,' 'rates,' and 'requirements,' - which retailer was offering the best prices for stuff the kids really needed. But as parents have already earned their Ph.D.'s in smart back-to-school shopping, this year 'requirements' has moved to the head of the class.
Unlike other major purchase events like Mother's Day, there's a more lopsided distribution in terms of which retailers will be the beneficiaries of back-to-school shopping: Discount Stores 95%, Department Stores 60%, Office Supply 55%, Online 50%, Specialty Retailers 45%, and Catalogs 35%. For some lessons as to parents' shopping plans, we invite you to read Jill Radsken's Boston Herald article, "Class Action."
The top-10 retailers who got A's in consumers' intent-to-shop were:
1. Amazon
2. Bed, Bath, and Beyond
3. Gap
4. J. Crew
5. Kohl's Footlocker
6. Nike
7. Staples
8. Target
9. TJ Maxx
10. Zappos
What brands get what piece of the academic pie is ultimately determined by what retail brands actually stand for. Brand meaning can quickly matriculate into surrogates for added-value, and these days you don't need a crib-sheet to discover that consumers seek out brands that possess meaning and act more positively to those retailers who do as well.
And that behavior should be a fundamental lesson for all retailers.
Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
Brand Lounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Brand is Grand
The "Decade of the Brand" opens with 2010 as consumers continue to search for meaningful value-and use brands as a critical variable in the value equation.
For all 518 brands in the 71 categories tracked in Brand Keys' 14th annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index®, attributes and loyalty drivers relating to "brand" have increased dramatically. And while a powerful finding, it's not entirely surprising. Our 2009 findings predicted that value, not price, was the watchword in consumer behavior. And you can't have the value conversation without the brand conversation, and that makes brands a surrogate for value and more important than ever.
But we're talking about brands - real brands, not just well-known products and services or the latest celebrity-endorsed offerings that stand for nothing in consumers' minds. The desire for real brands that mean something has reached its highest level of consequence since the 1960's, and real loyalty and engagement assessments can tell you what you really need to know: how consumers will behave in the marketplace, and most importantly, what will get them to behave more positively toward you.
For additional insights into 2010 consumer loyalty we invite you to read Noreen O'Leary's Brandweek review, "Starbucks and Wells Fargo Surge in Customer Loyalty." The complete listing of the 71 category rankings can be found at www.brandkeys.com/awards
At a time when brands are struggling to differentiate from their competition and to find ways to profitably engage their customers, the changes this year serve as a 'bellwether' for marketing managers. It will be the products and services that dig in the right place, based on a truly consumer-centric view of their category that will strike gold, and establish themselves as this decade's brand leaders.
Brand Keys, Inc. partner of
Brand Lounge in the Middle East
www.brandloungeme.com
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Listening to a Billion Consumers
Windows 7, the latest version of Microsoft Windows, a series of operating systems for use on personal computers, was released today less than three years after the release of its much-denigrated predecessor, Windows Vista.
With the official launch currently underway around the globe, Microsoft has released four new advertisements to market Windows 7. This round of advertisements is very direct and dubbed 7-Second Demos, with the theme “I’m a PC and Windows 7 was my idea,” an extension of the “I’m a PC” campaign, having consumers take credit for “developing” various aspects of the new operating system.
We cannot comment upon whether Windows 7 will live up to promises and expectations, but we think that the concept of a billion consumers co-creating the product, is a wonderful example of meaningfully leveraging the real voice-of-the-consumer, an often overused advertising expression.
Lots of companies – especially big companies like Microsoft – do all kinds of research. Most of that research ends up providing excellent answers to meaningless questions, and virtually none reflect the real voice or expectations of the consumer. Check out the new GM campaign if you doubt us. And while a product positioning approach of “we not only hear you but we’ve listened to you” isn’t new, it’s usually the small niche brands that do it well.
And it shouldn’t be surprising that it’s Microsoft who’s doing it now. After all it was Bill Gates who pointed out this strategy back in 2000, in his book “Business @The Speed of Thought.” “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
And perhaps a meaningful voice for the brand.
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