Bo Bäckman: Correlations – the drivers towards a Superbrand
4/11 2009
This is the first article in a series of very short articles. The Brand is in the eye of the beholder and an eye is coloured by values, interests and activities that drive perception, action.
• Drive what you notice. Over one day you are reached by many messages that want to be transformed into perceptions/ actions in your head. Consumers have (fortunately) a filter that filters and sorts the messages very quickly. A brand that aligns with values will break through the barriers easier.
• … Drive what you want to show others in order to be accepted, to belong. It can be a brand but also an Icon – the T-shirt with your favourite footballer.
• … Drive what you do. Your values (or religion) tell you that you should give to charity and your perception of what proportion (if any) your contribution will reach the intended group will often determine what you do. The all important “Trust”
• … Drive what you are prepared to pay for. If not in accordance with your values you are not willing to pay more but might consider a purchase if there is a price offer.
Interests, activities – not only values matter.
• Interests and activities unite people and spread brands – personally and today often on the net.
• You share your interests with other interested. You want to show your products. You discuss the new products – the new features and thus the interested are early adopters and ambassadors. An ambassador sees to being informed early. Very often on the net.
• Activities you often do together and share experience, the new features, failures. In an activity, in social media group there is often someone that is looked up to and whose opinion matters more than others. This person can be outside of the group and a celebrity/Icon whose endorsement makes a brand a Superbrand that you can share with a superstar. But often it is an insider that has an influence because of knowledge, experience, persuasion power and status. Today often a blogger/twitter.
Analysis:
• You need a survey with information about brand penetration and loyalty together with values, activities and interests. This is often available in your tracking studies or can be found in cost effective open surveys.
• Technology: Correlation, Answer tree, Chaid, Factor analysis, Triangulation. These technologies can be found in SPSS, Open Office (freeware) among others.
• Output: Of course there will be a lot of tables, a lot of statistical factors that need to be interpreted, transformed into actionable conclusions/recommendations. Example Triangulation below.
A few examples from Sweden
(Source: Orvesto, Research International.16 000 interviews)
BMW is driven by a strong interest in cars and an interest in money/investment (in order to be able to pay). They also have an outgoing life style – like to be seen in their BMW and enjoy good food/wine. Plus they are negative towards government subsidies –“I have earned my money through hard work “. All this of course diminishes the size of the target group to about 1, 5 % of the population that owns their own car – not a company car. But the penetration of BMW is more than 3 times higher in this drive chain than among “ordinary” car buyers. Socioeconomically they are found in many parts of the life cycle but almost 40 % amongst DINK and retired. “Now I can afford and enjoy a BMW”. For Toyota the drivers are quite the opposite: the more outgoing you are the less the propensity to buy a Toyota. But the potential is much higher as Toyotas drive chain attracts a wider target group.
Heineken beer is driven by an intense interest in movies and computer games plus being very active in sports like tennis, motor boating and team games. They are not coach potatoes watching TV but active with games – games on the computer and games with physical activities (which means an attraction to if mountain climbing as in the commercials). 70% are single or before family life.
The loyalty and profitability for the mobile operator 3 is driven by a technology interest combined with interest in videos and video games. But also an urge to be challenged, to fight for something. That´s where 3 started in Sweden and to a large extent the drivers are the same today. But sociodemographics are slowly changing from the very young to the more mature life cycles.
Bo Bäckman