Understanding Consumer Complexity. An Interview with Brand Keys’ Dr. Robert Passikoff

The world is getting more and more complex but Dr. Robert Passikoff may have the solution. “Consumers are more complex, connected, and complicated,” he noted, “They connect with each other before even considering connecting to a brand and assess loyalty relative to how they envision an ‘Ideal’ brand.” And, he continued, “Consumers don't say what they think and they don't do what they say. Their decision-making is more emotional than rational.”

So understanding that consumers can make snap, emotional decisions, Passikoff has developed Brand Keys which offers, among other studies, a syndicated annual brand assessment survey called The Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI).

Charlene Weisler: So the world of brand differentiation is much more emotional than rational?

Robert Passikoff: Yes and harder to attain in a more complex marketplace. Rational is price-of-entry. It only takes a nanosecond for consumers to note how well a brand is ‘seen’ to meet their expectations for the path-to-purchase drivers that define behavior toward and fidelity to a brand. That’s the 21st century version of brand loyalty. Brands that can meet consumer expectations will always see higher levels of engagement, loyalty, and sales. Independent validations by the ARF verify that definition. Correlations between assessments based on this updated definition of loyalty, our metrics, and consumer behavior are 0.80+. Social scientists would dance naked on their desks if they regularly see correlations of half that!

Marketers who focus on so-called ‘loyalty programs’ expecting real brand allegiance, are totally missing the point. There’s a need to measure these emotions within a predictive framework. Measuring imagery doesn’t do that, Counting tweets doesn’t do that. Net Promoter Scores don’t do that. But our metrics measure emotions predictivly and they correlate with sales.

Charlene Weisler:  Tell me about your metrics.

Robert Passikoff:  We use an independently-validated research methodology that fuses emotional and rational aspects of the categories, identifies four category-specific path-to-purchase behavioral loyalty drivers for the category-specific Ideal and identifies the values that form the components of each driver, along with their percent-contribution to engagement, loyalty, and profitability. This technique, a combination of psychological inquiry and statistical analyses, has a test/re-test reliability of 0.93, and produces results generalizable at the 95% confidence level. It has been successfully used in B2B, B2C, and D2C categories in 35 countries. In 2020, CLEI Brand Keys merged independently validated metrics with a new platform – Media GPS analytics – combining brand communication consumption with emotional engagement. We contend that doing that makes these loyalty assessments the most accurate in the marketing world.

Charlene Weisler:  What was a surprising result from one of your recent studies?

Robert Passikoff:   Results showed that 85% for the loyalty path-to-purchase drivers that describe how consumers view, compare, buy, recommend, and remain loyal have changed their order. 85%! It’s a tectonic shift in the marketing paradigm. Brands claim to be customer-centered, but if you’re looking at the category in a different way than the consumers, you’re bound to make mistakes. Additionally, new multidimensional emotional values have appeared in 96% of the sectors we track. Those value components are the bricks-and-mortar from which meaningful, differentiating, and engaging marketing and communications are built.

Charlene Weisler:  Tell me about your syndicated study and what it offers.

Robert Passikoff:  The Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI) is a syndicated service that provides a portion of the insights and learning available through a customized Brand Keys study. We initiated CLEI in 1995. For the 2020 CLEI survey, 62,474 consumers, 16 to 65 years of age from the nine US Census Regions, self-selected the categories in which they are consumers and the brands for which they are customers. This year, Brand Keys examined 85 categories and 833 brands. Forty (40%) percent were interviewed by phone, forty (40%) percent via face-to-face interviews (to account for cell phone-only households), and twenty (20%) were interviewed online.

Utilizing our proprietary psychological assessment questionnaire respondents rate their “Ideal Brand” in the category, one brand in the category that they personally use (usually a top-20% customer), and a set of emotional and rational attributes, benefits, and values. Brand Keys uses an independently-validated research methodology that fuses emotional and rational aspects of the categories, identifies four category-specific path-to-purchase behavioral loyalty drivers for the category-specific Ideal, and identifies the values that form the components of each driver, along with their percent-contribution to engagement, loyalty, and profitability.

Charlene Weisler:  In your opinion, what are companies missing today?

Robert Passikoff:  They’re missing 21st century context of loyalty in virtually everything they do. Companies, analysts, consulting firms, and research practices have declared brand loyalty dead. They're talking about a consumer loyalty model that expired in 1990. Back then loyalty was a black-and-white issue for consumers. But loyalty has evolved in a more complex marketplace with more sophisticated consumers. Better targeting isn’t the answer. Entertainment isn’t the answer. Too many companies mistake entertainment for real engagement. And yes, it is possible to target all and be both entertaining AND engaging, but very few brands are capable of doing that. Ad agencies have become media optimization labs and social networking specialists. Social networking tactics have taken over brand development. If you press corporations and researchers as to what the programs are doing for the brand, the likely, first-response will be, “uhhhh."

Charlene Weisler:  What are the opportunities?

Robert Passikoff:  The three critical opportunities for brands are A) creating real emotional engagement between the consumer and the brand, B) crafting differentiated meaning for your brand, and C) doing it predictively, 1 to 18 months ahead of the competition. AND before they show up on traditional brand trackers or are articulated in focus groups. Do it right and you'll be able to more time and cost-efficiently market to your audiences.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com