The brands are generating very little value for consumers, so much so that 69% of brands could disappear tomorrow and nobody would care. This data is explained by a lack of relevant content produced by brands (external communication: website, social media, advertising) and the low level of personal benefits generated by brands for consumers.
This is one of the main results of the most recent Meaningful Brands® 2017 study, which reveals HAVAS TRIBU, the leading advertising agency in Costa Rica with more than 30 years of experience and strategic partner in marketing and advertising of national brands and the region.
This global exhibition is an exclusive tool of HAVAS GROUP whose objective is to measure the performance of brands with the quality of life and well-being of people and how to obtain favorable economic results for the business.
The Meaningful Brands® 2017 study is considered the largest of its kind (it covers 33 countries, 300,000 people, and 1,500 brands), its results reveal global and Latin American data measuring the relationship between the performance of a brand, its level of significance, and the content that it produces.
What’s up with the brands?
This research shows that, with the advance of digital communication, the whole picture is different. Now, people care more about the functional and collective benefits that brands can bring to them and have low expectations regarding the personal benefits generated by brands.
The results are not the most optimistic since brands continue to show low performance in personal benefits. The personal benefits taken into account in this study are the following: Peace of Mind, It makes me happy, Show-Off, Making life easier, Feeling satisfied with my life.
The functional benefits have a weight of 43% and the collective benefits have a weight of 27% in the relevance of a brand in the lives of people.
For the consumer when a brand manages to improve its performance in personal benefits, it will be considered as a significant brand for people and may increase business results.
When analyzing the results of Meaningful Brands® 2017, it is found that 75% of people expect brands to make a greater contribution to our well-being and quality of life, although only 40% believe they are doing so.
Beyond this, Meaningful Brands® shows that most people would not mind if 74% of brands disappeared. Less than 44% of brands significantly improve our quality of life according to the study.
For Diego García, CEO of HAVAS Tribu, having this study “puts us at the forefront, and allows us to offer this plus in the advertising and marketing proposals that we produce in the agency”.
“We are clear that by offering content that influences the well-being of people, we empower the brands we manage and that translates to better business results. In HAVAS TRIBU we are already using these valuable insights to better serve our customers”, says García.
The effectiveness of the content varies between sectors
Globally, the Top 10 of the brands that performed best this year were Google, PayPal, WhatsApp, YouTube, Samsung, Nivea, Microsoft, Ikea, and Lego. During the last years, the best performance is dominated by the technology sector, although in 2017 they were the leading brands on the Internet.
Another result indicates that 60% of the content (external communication: website, social media, advertising) delivered by brands is considered poor, irrelevant or does not meet expectations and has little impact on business results or life of the people and only 40% of the 1,500 leading brands worldwide produce content that meets expectations.
Certain industries have a better understanding of the role that content plays. Travel and Tourism had a higher ranking in effectiveness with 47%. Conversely, 71% of all content produced by the Retail industry is considered poor, irrelevant or does not meet expectations.
María Garrido, Global Executive Director of Insights and Analytics at HAVAS MEDIA GROUP commented that “surprisingly, the data demonstrate an alarming lack of effectiveness in the content of the brands that currently exist. Our expectations for the role or the types of content are simply not being met”.
The data is clear. Brands must take advantage more quickly and improve the opportunities to offer good content in their advertising campaigns to survive in the market.