The Keyhole: Peeking at 21st Century Brands

We're Moving (There's no pizza or beer, but no heavy boxes either!)

2021-05-25T07:23:00.007-05:00

Brand Keys has been posting our blogs here on The Keyhole for a long time. We will be continuing to try to add value to our readers' lives -- both personally and professionally. Just not here anymore.

Generally, the worst part of moving is finding all those insights you have occasion to use. You can continue to find all our research, insights, ideas and opinions regarding successful strategies, marketing misdeeds and the brands that love them here.

We look forward to having you visit at our new space.

Find out more about what makes customer loyalty happen and how Brand Keys metrics is able to predict future consumer behavior: brandkeys.com. Visit our YouTube channel to learn more about Brand Keys methodology, applications and case studies.

The Streaming Wars Just Intensified

2021-05-18T11:00:00.004-05:00

Americans currently subscribe to an average of three paid video streaming services. In 2017 50% the country subscribed to just one.

Five major streaming services launched in the past year, and now a sixth is coming. Telecom giant AT&T just announced a deal to spin off its WarnerMedia and merge it with Discovery.

Right now, Netflix is #1. But strategy is going to matter even more now.

For a look at one streaming brand’s battle plan, we invite you to read “The Winning Strategies of the Streaming Wars" in this week’s TheCustomer.

In this war, if content is firepower, AT&T’s new entry looks like it will be a formidable contender.

66% of You Are Addicted To Your Smartphone

2021-05-10T09:25:00.000-05:00

In a pre-pandemic lifestyle survey, people identified three everyday-artifacts as being absolutely essential to their everyday-lives. And, no surprise, one of them was a smartphone.

A little more than one-third the earth’s population has a smartphone. And about 84% of Americans own one. It’s likely you fall into one of those groups.

For more about that (and the other two “essential” items in your lives) we invite you to take a look at “Customer Expectations – Smartphone Edition” in TheCustomer.

Oh, and the addiction? It’s real. And it’s called “Nomophobia,” an abbreviation of “no-mobile-phone-phobia.”

But don’t worry. You could be in the other 34%.

But if you’re reading this on your phone, probably not!

Trump Post-Presidency Brand Plummets

2021-05-04T07:10:00.000-05:00

Brand Keys has tracked the value of the Trump brand for more than 30 years.

Trump brand's power to influence consumer and business perceptions of the products and services it was attached to was so profound, in 1991 Brand Keys named it its first "human brand,” which meant Trump was able to successfully and profitably transfer those values – his values – seamlessly to products and services.

Alas, no longer, apparently.

Our new survey found the Trump brand slid in every major category we currently follow. Why? Because it’s virtually impossible – even for a brand that was as strong as Trump’s – to operate successfully in the consumer marketplace and political arena simultaneously. The values are just not synonymous!

See what MediaPost’s Marketing: Politics Weekly had to say about it:

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/362903/trump-post-presidency-brand-value-plummets.html

For you political junkies, the complete survey findings can be found here: https://brandkeys.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/PRESS-RELEASE-Trump-Brand-100-Days-Out-0421.pdf

COVID Vaccine Brands Under The Consumer-Microscope

2021-04-28T17:50:00.000-05:00

I’m sure you’ve heard this from friends, relatives, colleagues, and/or news pundits, about pros and cons of COVID-19 vaccination brands:

“Moderna is only 94.1% effective.”

“Pfizer is 95% effective in clinical trials but you need two shots.”

“Moderna needs two jabs too. Three weeks apart. Shorter than the Pfizer shots.”

“Pfizer is 86% effective in people 65+.”

“Do you know anyone who got AstraZeneca?”

“The Johnson & Johnson shot kills people!”

That last one, not strictly speaking. But when it comes to brands – drug brands at that – being literally under a consumer-microscope can be problematic.

We invite you to take a look at some COVID-19 brand insights that appeared in Quirks this week.

Scientists developed these successful vaccines incredibly quickly. And that’s good, even great. But one thing is incredibly clear too. The use of the word “successful” is going to be dependent upon the vaccine’s efficacy and reputation.

And its brand name.

Be well and safe.

When Your Brand Is Literally Under A Microscope

2021-04-20T07:37:00.001-05:00

Shakespeare wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” I’ve used it a lot over the years to talk about brands and brand differentiation. So here it is again. This time with a qualification.

Sure, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, unless smelling it kills you! Or causes the development of diffuse blood clots.

It’s a thought that’s nagged at me over the past two weeks, and some of those thoughts appear in Jack Neff’s AdAge article, “What now for Johnson & Johnson, as brand-boosting vaccine turns to crisis.”

All vaccines have side-effects; injection site pain, fatigue, headaches, and joint pain. The Covid-19 vaccines? A lot fewer than the list of “side effects may include. . .” warning words in your average pharma drug TV commercial.

And Shakespeare? Well, he always knew the right thing to say. But in this particular instance, I’m going with Miguel de Cervantes. He wrote, “Words have meaning, but names have power.”

We’ll see what that means for Johnson & Johnson.

Be well and safe.

Thou Shalt Not Piss Off Thy Consumer

2021-04-11T17:54:00.001-05:00

It comes as no surprise to anyone that COVID-19 has changed life as we knew it in a lots of ways.

But those changes haven’t slowed brands down. Particularly when it comes to seeking opportunities to leverage current circumstances. If anything, that search had been amplified, with some programs bound to be more (or less) acceptable to consumers than others.

Take a look at some new co-branding programs that purport to leverage the upside of brands and the downside of pandemic life as reported in The Drum and see what you think.

Because the first rule of successful branding is, “Thou shalt not piss off thy consumer!”

What Your Hot Dog Says About Your Loyalty

2021-03-29T08:37:00.000-05:00

The noblest of all dogs is the hot dog; it feeds the hand that bites it!

And, as it turns out, it can also tell you a lot about loyalty.

Take a look at what we served up in our most recent commentary in TheCustomer.

Brand Role Reversal? You Be The Judge.

2021-03-22T06:30:00.004-05:00

In 2006 Apple introduced the “Get A Mac” campaign starring Justin Long and John Hodgman. If you never saw it or don’t remember it, here’s a precis:

Casually-dressed Justin Long (“Hello, I’m a Mac.”) and John Hodgman (“And I’m a PC.”) in a suit and tie acted out very brief and very droll vignettes comparing capabilities of the Mac and the PC. Since everything is online today, you ought to check them out again, or for the first time, because they were very funny, very popular, and very effective. But you be the judge.

Anyway, now it’s 2021 and Justin Long (“Hello, I’m. . . Justin Long”) is working for Intel promoting PCs. Borrowed equity or brand irony? Take a look at Nat Ives’ Wall Street Journal column, Intel Taps Justin Long To Promote PCs, and you be the judge.

Lots of folks cite Oscar Wilde’s, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” but forget the end of that quote is “. . . that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”

You be the judge.

Some Thoughts About Brand Stress

2021-03-08T09:04:00.003-05:00

Did you ever think there’d be a more stressful time for brands?

COVID-19, the economy, sheltering-in and working-from-home, some things open, others closed, not to mention the politicization of, well, everything, has put extra stress on all brands. What should a brand do?

As it turns out, your greatest weapon against stress is your ability to choose one thought over another.

Here’s some high-level thoughts from this month’s CMO Council’s Marketing Magnified, entitled “The Ultimate Stress-Test For Brands.”

A Co-Branding Strategy That Fits Perfectly

2021-03-02T10:35:00.003-05:00

Why?

Take care of your body, it’s the only place you have to live.
Be stronger than any excuse you can come up with not to exercise.
Don’t stop even when you’re tired. Stop when you’re done.

How Long Will It Take?

It will take 4 weeks to feel your body change.
It will take 6 weeks for friends and family to notice.
It takes 12 weeks for the world to comment.

Where?

Nordstrom’s. In the Tonal Section.

Takeaway?

An athleisure look. Also, possibly a new wardrobe! Details here!

Bad Hair Day Gives Brand A Major Boost

2021-02-22T11:21:00.004-05:00

Tessica Brown had a major bad hair day. Major!

It involved Gorilla Glue, the industrial strength adhesive. Talk about a sticky situation for a brand. But it turns out that Ms. Brown’s misfortune was a real boost for the brand.

Spoiler alert: it worked out great for everyone. But if you want to see what happens when bad news turns out to be great news for a brand, click here.

One Year of Travel Carnage and Counting

2021-02-09T10:09:00.000-05:00

It's no great surprise the pandemic changed the world’s travel plans.

Your travel has likely been limited to a stroll from your bedroom to the kitchen, a masked cruise down the grocery aisle, with an occasional Zoom side-trip as a diversion. It’s almost certain the past year has been tedious and monotonous for most and certainly not what travel used to be.

Travel brands have been generally off the map since last year when Covid-19 highlighted their vulnerability and they won’t look exactly like they did pre-quarantine.

Take a look at a travel brands loyalty roadmap we identified from this year’s Customer Loyalty Engagement Index.

Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason, but for travel brands it shouldn’t ever be because of a lack of loyalty.

What Loyalty Looks Like 25 Years + A Pandemic Later

2021-01-25T11:14:00.001-05:00

We released our 25th annual 2021 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index today and, no surprise, loyalty has changed dramatically since 1996.

This year however, examining 94 categories and 855 brands with our independently-validated methodology, we found last year’s marketplace rigors set two loyalty stress tests for brands:

How to enhance brand-to-consumer emotional engagement and,
How to leverage brand values to best meet customers’ (very high) expectations.

To delineate loyalty positions based on passing or failing those stress-tests, we created a series of emotional engagement/expectation quadrant maps. The maps graphically illustrate brand loyalty rankings and help visualize loyalty decision-paths. A map was generated for each of the 13 industry sectors including: Alcoholic Beverages, Automotive, Broadcast & Entertainment, CPG, Digital & Online, Electronics, Financial Services, Food & Beverage, Insurance, Personal Care, Restaurants, Retail and Travel.

If you’d like a copy of the sector that your brand competes in, let Leigh Benatar know (leighb@brandkeys.com) and he’ll help you out.

Yes, yes, desperate times and breakdowns in the supply chain provoke desperate choices. But lack of product availability does not denote a decline of brand loyalty. Being in-stock matters, but loyal customers are more likely to stick with brands through difficult times and, in a more stable marketplace, will wait for them or actively seek them out.

A complete list of this year’s brands that exhibit the highest loyalty focus via emotionally-engaged customers and are best able to meet customers’ very high expectations can be found here.

New Year’s Resolutions for Marketers and Other Human Beings

2021-01-06T11:02:00.001-05:00

It’s that time of year when people make New Year’s resolutions.

As part of our annual Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (the 2021 survey examining 94 categories and nearly 900 brands will be available January 19^th) we also ask thousands of consumers whether and what they’re planning for their New Year’s resolutions.

And, since we speak to so many people, we did a drill-down into a segment of brand and marketing professionals and asked them what resolutions they were going to make, so we invite you to take a look at what they had to say here.

Resolutions, it turns out, are tough. Nearly 70% of people make some. But, alas, 94% of people give up after 20 days, 80% fail by the second week of February, and only 10% end up keeping them. That’s because it takes approximately 78 days for a real lifestyle change to kick in.

Whatever’s on your list, whatever you’ve come up with, we wish you all a successful and healthy 2021. And may any minor nuisances you run into, last only as long as the average resolution!

Three Kinds of Marketers and the Future

2020-12-21T09:09:00.006-05:00

When it comes to the future, it’s said there are three kinds of marketers: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.

To help navigate the future, Brand Keys conducts a year-end review of all our loyalty and engagement metrics. This year 100,000+ consumers took part in our predictive surveys.

Our analysis identified correlated-to-behavior views of future changes to category dynamics and consumer expectations. The detours in customer journeys and the arrivals and departures of category and consumer values. And eleven future trends that will transform 2021. We invite you to take a look at what’s down the road here.

We look to the future because it’s what we do professionally. But this year, in particular, and very personally, the future is more important than ever because, what the insights make clear, is that all consumers and our colleagues ache to view this past year in a rear-view mirror.

They all look to the future and hope for an end to the pandemic, an end to the economic, social, and racial disruptions, and an end to 2020’s abnormal. They yearn for a future of normalcy. At work, and school, and restaurants, and at local businesses and gyms. To travel the world and safely socialize with family and friends in their neighborhoods. To rejoice and grieve – not on a computer screen – but together, on a clear path to a better tomorrow.

This is our wish for you and yours for the New Year.

Trump TV: The Most Promising POTUS Option

2020-12-08T17:19:00.001-05:00

Brand Keys designated Donald Trump a "Human Brand" back in 1991, meaning his name translated into added-value for products and services .

Since entering politics, the Trump brand has been devalued in a number of areas where it used to excel. Except one. “Entertainment.” Our recent Trump Brand update suggests an entertainment presence could revive his flagging brand’s value.

The survey found about 20% of the National sample said they would "definitely or probably" tune in to a Trump TV channel (41% of Republicans, 15% of independents and 7% of Democrats).

For survey details, we invite you to tune in here.

The Thin Brand Line

2020-11-30T08:56:00.001-05:00

When it comes to your brand, there’s a thin line between being iconic and being dead.

A very thin line.

Some CDC and Research Guidance For Thanksgiving. And the Demise of Black Friday

2020-11-23T12:22:00.003-05:00

The Center for Disease Control’s Thanksgiving guidance recommends less travel, staying home, and smaller family gatherings this year. They’re also urging people to reconsider how they participate in another November tradition, Black Friday.

Oh, not just safety. There’s that, of course. But a recommendation that should be a bit easier for consumers to comply with: Shoppers should take advantage of Cyber Monday and shop online rather than in person.

Actually, that should be the easiest recommendation for shoppers to follow because over the past decade more and more consumers actually do their “holiday” shopping months before Black Friday. For more about the demise of a vanishing holiday tradition, we invite you to read The Customer column, “Black Friday Is Getting A Little Gray.”

It’s with no small irony we advise you to be safe out there, wear a mask covering your nose and mouth, socially distance, wash your hands often, cough or sneeze into your elbow, and try to be thankful and embrace those who enrich your lives. Even if it’s just over Zoom!

The Brand Keys family wishes you the gift of faith and the blessings of hope and health this Thanksgiving season.

This Holiday Season Has Become The “Unpredictable” Season

2020-11-17T09:19:00.005-05:00

This holiday season is going to be like no other brands have ever seen. Lower projected holiday sales aren’t surprising given the health of the economy and the health-threat to consumers.

Regulations for retail will vary by locale, but curbside pickup, online, and mobile purchases are going to explode (predicted to be +55%, +35%, and +53% respectively), but there’s still a degree of unpredictability for the foreseeable future. Brands need to be prepared.

What is predictable is that bolstering your brand’s loyalty can bring you a six-times return on your marketing efforts, and we invite you to listen to an discussion about how to best leverage you brand’s loyalty with Mike Giambattista, publisher of TheCustomer.

At its best, life is unpredictable. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared.

Silver Bullet Research Doesn’t Work

2020-11-10T11:38:00.002-05:00

Silver bullets work really well as a commemorative memento of the Lone Ranger or something to kill a werewolf, but they don’t work very well when it comes to marketing, consumer, or brand research.

Want to know why? Because consumers, markets, and brands are complex, and “complexity” is the nemesis of the silver bullet solution. For more, take a look at our column in this week’s The Customer.

The thing is, complexity operates in a stadium where the rules change depending on what team you’re on, and that’s never an arena where “silver bullets” play really well. Engagement and loyalty, on the other hand, metrics can help simplify the process.

Want to know how? Reach out here.

62,984,828 Voted In 2016 and the Polls Got It Wrong!

2020-10-26T13:50:00.000-05:00

Traditional election polls are snapshots of moments in time, so not entirely predictive. Remember 2016!?

With margins of error it’s sometimes too close to call. And mostly, polls capture what people say. But not necessarily what they think.

Emotional engagement assessments – in the marketplace or the voting booth, for pizza or politicians – ID what people really think & what they’re going to do. So, here’s an engagement topline 9 days before Election Day: Biden’s got “Trust,” Trump’s got “Resolve,” and you, well, you’ve got to vote!

Want to see what else each candidate’s got? Check out our 2020 Electoral Engagement Survey in The Customer.

Our engagement assessments have predicted winners in every Presidential election since Bill Clinton ran against George H.W. Bush in 1992. (OK, not in 2000. George W. Bush beat our predicted winner, Al Gore, but only because our model isn’t designed to accommodate Supreme Court rulings.) We called it for Donald Trump in 2016, so take a look at what voters are really thinking this year.

If you need information as to how, when, or where to vote, look here.

Presidential Polls Don’t Predict

2020-10-13T13:01:00.007-05:00

Sorry, they don’t. They’re snapshots of particular moments in time, so not entirely extrapolative. Solution? Use loyalty and engagement metrics for a more predictive polling experience.

Why? Because they’re leading-indicators of consumer (and voter) behavior and provide clarity in byzantine situations.

As it seems it can’t get any more byzantine than the upcoming Presidential election, and as a public service, we’re providing a simplified DIY Presidential Election Engagement formula in this week’s column in The Customer.

You can take it in the privacy of your home or office.

Is it accurate? Our model has been used in every Presidential election since 1992, Bill Clinton v. George H.W. Bush. It has correctly predicted the winner in every presidential election, except in 2000 where George W. Bush beat our predicted winner, Al Gore. That’s an enviable, overall 86% success rate, even more extraordinary when you consider our model wasn’t designed to factor in Supreme Court rulings. Oh, and we called the 2016 election for Donald Trump too.

And, OK, your “Ideal Presidential Candidate” may not exist. Today. But with enough votes. . . you never know what’s possible until you do.

Go vote.

What Customers Aren’t Telling You

2020-10-05T08:43:00.000-05:00

With all the research platforms and outreach available to brands and marketers, meaningful and differentiating insights are still a challenge, because there’s a lot customers aren’t telling you.

But there are ways around that conundrum.

Here’s one effective solution from the Best Customer Guide.

2020 Loyalty Leaders List: Pandemic Fortifies Loyalty For Some, Kills Off Others

2020-09-14T20:47:00.012-05:00

The COVID-19 and economic pandemics have disrupted everything. How we live, how we work, how we socialize, oh, and how we look at brands. That includes all 1,121 brands in the 109 categories assessed in this year’s Loyalty Leaders List.

Via our psychological emotional engagement assessments, we answered three subliminal questions consumers used to predicate brand purchases:

Which brands showed up?
Which brands delivered when needed most?
Which brands best met my always-very-high-and-getting-higher expectations?

Brands that showed up, delivered, and met expectations – including 20 brands new to the top 100 – were approved and purchased by consumers. No-shows were snubbed!

More survey details and rankings can be found here.

Our Customer Loyalty and Engagement reports (available January 2021) provide the most accurate loyalty diagnostics available anywhere. They correlate very, very highly with customer behavior, sales, and profits.

For more information about real loyalty assessments, pre-ordering your 2021 report, how to integrate leading-indicator loyalty into current research efforts, or where your brand ranks on this year’s list, feel free to reach out to Leigh Benatar at leighb@brandkeys.com