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New research on loyal brand advocacy
Posted Colin Byrne on November 27th, 2007 | Filed under Consumer, Public Relations, Weber Shandwick
Spent the morning at the Revolution conference on ‘Creating Loyal Brand Advocates’ in London, which was sponsored by my consultancy, Weber Shandwick.
We unveiled some interesting new European research on consumer brand advocacy. Here’s the skinny:
New consumer research in Europe released today reveals that brand advocacy is worth five times that of an advertising spend, in terms of creating new and loyal brand advocates and driving sales. This European Advocacy Study was conducted by Weber Shandwick and Paul Marsden, previously with Enterprise LSE the commercial arm of the London School of Economics and now a leading researcher in Brand Advocacy and Word of Mouth. It demonstrates the increasing importance of Brand Advocacy, the act of consumers promoting a brand to their friends or acquaintances, on influencing brand choice, when compared to advertising.
The value of Brand Advocacy was identified across five product categories and four markets in Europe with more than 4,000 online interviews conducted amongst a nationally representative sample of consumers. The results showed a consistent trend, with Brand Advocacy being by far the most significant factor influencing consumer brand choice when compared to advertising.
Acquiring Brand Loyalists with Advocacy
Additionally the research identified that, on average, one-third of brand users were acquired through Brand Advocacy. This was consistent across markets and categories. Interestingly, Brand Advocacy was found to be as important for high-priced categories such as cars, as it is for lower-priced categories such as alcoholic spirits.
Converting Browsers to Purchasers
The research also investigated how effective Brand Advocacy is in converting consumers to purchasers. It was shown to be highly effective with 50% of advocacy activities resulting in a sale.
Creating ‘Active’ Advocates or Closing the Advocacy Gap
For Marketing Directors, one of the most compelling findings of this study is the advocacy potential that already exists amongst their existing consumers. The research indicated that on average 4 in 10 users of brands surveyed classify themselves as advocates of that brand. Critically, however, only 2 in 10, half of these, consider themselves active advocates.
Surprising and Delighting Customers Fuels Brand Growth
The research identified the most powerful activator for Brand Advocacy. A strong correlation was found between Brand Advocacy and the ability of brands to surprise and delight their customers, delivering positive and unexpected brand experiences.
Over 70% of Brand Advocacy in Europe could be attributed to a brand’s ability to surprise and delight. Indeed the research identified that a 10% increase in positive surprise leads to a 16 point increase in Net Promoter Score. With studies by Bain and Associates indicating that a 12 point rise in NPS leads to a double digit increase in sales, our findings indicate that surprising and delighting customers is a key driver of brand growth.
The study, which was conducted in Germany, UK, Italy and Spain showed some variation by market, with the Germans being Europe’s leading Brand Advocates, followed by the Spanish. The British and Italians drew third place.
Regardless of country or category, the research has confirmed that Brand Advocacy should now be the key focus for brand marketing and communication departments. A huge opportunity exists to mobilise existing advocates, supporting them with the materials and messages that they need to drive brand sales.
This research is proprietary to Weber Shandwick. Rip it off and you die.
November 27th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
[...] Weber Shandwick At Weber Shandwick it is all about advocacy. Check out our latest research on CEO Colin Byrne’s blog. Please get in touch if you’d like to know more, especially on how the digital space is [...]
December 4th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
2008 is the year of engagement – lots of brands are teetering on the edge of shifting some resource away from traditional PR and ads but the ones that pull back in 2008 will fall behind.