Brands deliver on their promises

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 | By Jo Roberts

If a brand is a “promise” to the consumer, it appears that businesses are getting better at keeping their word. The claims made by brands are getting closer to the actual experience of interacting with them, according to this year’s Promise Index, which has been compiled by brand and insight consultancy Promise.

The research gives 159 brands a score out of ten on how their image and experience are perceived. It deliberately focuses on companies with a strong service element, including those in the electronics and mobile telecommunications sectors.

The two scores are divided to create a “positive”, “negative” or no gap between consumer expectations and reality (see methodology, below).

In all previous years, the index has shown that consumers’ expectations were not matched with actual experience. So what has changed in 2009? According to Promise consultant Konstantin Pinaev, companies are coming to understand that over-promising and under-delivering is an unwise move. Now, he says, we are seeing that “overall, companies deliver what they promise”.

Clare Fuller, managing director of the agency, adds that the recession is making companies work harder to entice customers. While budgets may be under pressure, businesses are apparently concentrating their spending in the right place. “As brands fight for survival in difficult times, they focus on what’s most important,” she says.

Public service brands, which normally come in for criticism, are also being appreciated more in these straitened times – the NHS has risen to 60th position in this year’s Promise Index compared with 123rd in 2008. Interestingly, both the image and experience scores of the NHS have improved this year, indicating that people not only expect a great deal from the service but they are receiving it.

Free is a key theme of the Promise Index this year, as the top spot has been awarded to search engine Google. It has retained its position for the third consecutive year with consumers considering its service a vital part of their life.

While Google’s functionality makes it a good service, the fact it’s free makes it appealing, says Pinaev. “Google is a real success story partly because it has a different pricing model. It is one of the few brands that doesn’t charge you a penny but people use it every day,” he adds.

Another reason for Google’s top position, common to all the high-ranking brands on the Promise Index, is the innovation inherent in the company, says Fuller. “Innovative companies are always thinking about how they can please their customers better. They are close to consumers, so during the recession they are tuned into their changing needs,” she adds.

As well as individual brands, some industries do particularly well in the Promise Index. The top 20 includes automotive companies, electronics brands and mobile phone brands, all known for their innovation. Despite car makers suffering financially, the products are still considered aspirational, with Mercedes, Jaguar and BMW all making the top ten.

Despite Google and Amazon taking the number one and two spots respectively, online brands are suffering overall. Being a digital brand was once seen as innovative in itself, but now that many bricks-and-mortar businesses have an online presence, appearing on the internet is no longer a point of difference.

Fuller says that because using the internet has become an everyday experience, consumers are not as easily impressed. “Being able to buy flights or book hotels online was an empowering and life-changing experience,” she recalls. “It used to be a special experience and now we’ve just got used to it.”

But familiar services don’t necessarily mean poor performance in the Promise Index. Utilities is one of the top performing sectors overall, and this is down to people appreciating the fundamentals, according to Fuller. “Utilities are part of the fabric of life and when things get tougher they rely more on those basics.”

Getting the basics right has resulted in some companies being recognised as consistently delivering what they promise. The research suggests brands that have put customer services at the heart of their strategy are performing much better than those that focus on executing innovative advertising campaigns.

For example, the most consistent performer since the Promise Index first ran in 2004 is financial services brand ING Direct. The combination of an easy-to-use website and an easy-to-understand communications message has put the brand at the top of table when it comes to delivering, says Fuller.

Opodo is another brand that has been singled out for performing consistently well. The website, which consumers can use to search for travel deals, is rated number five in the consistent performers chart. Fuller says: “If you can get your proposition right, you don’t have to be a big and powerful brand in consumers’ minds.”

Ultimately, it appears those brands that can deliver on their promises will succeed in consumer affections. It just goes to show that while you can’t buy love, you can earn it.

 

Methodology

 

Consumers are asked to rate each brand included in the Promise Index on image and experience, giving both a score out of 10.

These are then divided by two to give an overall score. The overall gap between image and experience has closed in the 2009 table showing that more businesses are delivering what they promise.

A “positive” promise gap is where experience is greater than expectation. This means a brand delivers more for the customer than expected. A “negative” promise gap is where experience is less than expectation, which means a brand is underperforming.

Those companies that can close the gap stand to make financial rewards. Those with a “positive gap” on average have a revenue growth of 10.5%; those with no gap have an average growth of 4.1%; and those with a “negative gap” have an average growth of 2.8%.

These growth figures were worked out following a joint study with the London School of Economics in 2006 to determine how image and experience had an effect on economic performance of a business.

http://www.promisecorp.com/