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Yellowwood, South Africa's leading marketing consultancy, has released the ground-breaking findings of the first ever Engager™ Project launched in South Africa. The results show that Pick n Pay is the country's most engaging brand i.e. the one that consumers feel the strongest connection to, with Coca-Cola and Clover coming in second and third respectively.
Where Engager™ differs from other research models, is in its ability not only to tell marketers which brands are successful in a market, but also why this is the case.
"Engager™ is a pioneering new model through which we are able to gain a much greater understanding of what is driving consumers' engagement with brands and thereby provide quantified proof to substantiate the top brands' performance," explains Kay Nash, CEO of Yellowwood.
Launching the Engager™ model In South Africa
Earlier this year, Yellowwood formalised its affiliation with Hall & Partners, a global boutique specialising in brand and communications with over 300 consultants operating in more than 50 countries. Through their partnership with Hall & Partners, Yellowwood has been able to introduce the unique Engager™ tool to the South African market and the rest of the continent.
South Africa's Top 10 Most Engaging Brands for 2011
Engager™ has identified the top ten most engaging brands in the UK, USA, China, Australia* and now in South Africa.
So What Makes These Brands So Engaging?
The Engager™ score is underpinned by 9 pillars (see below) which encompass rational, emotional and social factors that drive engagement. Taking a closer look at these 9 pillars, we have a few interesting observations to share.
1. The top brands all have a good combination of functional and emotional drivers underpinning their Engager™ scores
These brands have been built in a classical fashion and share a common set of engagement drivers in Connection, Commitment and Conviction. They are also good at delivering on the rational aspects of brand building (encompassed in Knowledge and Understanding) which provide a solid foundation for more emotive relationships. They demonstrate the importance of balancing functional and emotional aspects of the relationship they have with their customers. Their collective weakness lies in the area of driving Active Participation - a factor that will arguably increase in importance in driving brand engagement in the future.
2. Local brands dominate the Top 10
Six out of the Top 10 brands are all proudly local - although some of them have gone beyond SA's borders, their provenance is inherently South African.
3. There are no digital brands in the SA Top 10
The UK, USA and China have three or more digital brands in their Top 10* - in Australia* and SA, there are none.
4. Coca-Cola is one of the few truly universally engaging brands
In the USA, China and Australia Coca-Cola is ranked within the Top 10 most engaging brands surveyed* - and in South Africa, not only is it in our Top 10, but it has achieved a significantly higher Engager™ score than in any other market.
A Global Model With Local Relevance
Engager™ has been tested with over 300 brands in the UK, US, China, Australia and now South Africa - covering 15+ categories and more than 10,000 people. The model has been extensively validated using sophisticated analytics, which have proven a strong link between engagement, sales and profitability.
Engager™ is also significantly related to stock market expectations (linking data from the 2009 Forbes Top 2000 company database) and clearly connects strong brand engagement with above average business performance.
Over the past six months, Yellowwood has been testing, adapting and contextualising the Engager™ suite of research tools to the local market conditions. In line with the global approach to establishing in-country benchmarks, Yellowwood selected 100 well-known brands across 20 categories. For the benchmark survey, each respondent was asked to provide answers to a minimum of five randomly assigned brands. These brands were drawn from different categories to ensure a wide reach within the survey.
Among the 100 brands selected were 20 global brands that were used for normative calculations. This gave Yellowwood the ability to understand how brands have established different kinds of relationships with consumers in the other key, previously explored markets (USA, UK, China and Australia) and what this means for global brand management.
Engager™: Transforming How We Think About Brand Engagement
As a result of the constant flow of new technology, new thinking and new ideas, the world of brands and communications has changed dramatically. Brands need to have more meaningful and engaging conversations with the people they wish to talk to.
"In line with this new thinking, the Engager™ model provides the context for understanding and measuring what drives brand engagement," explains Nash. "The Engager™ approach has several unique benefits that can provide local marketers with valuable insights."
Looking to the Future: The Role of Engager™
In addition to its power as a research tool, the relevance of Engager™ stretches well beyond the survey realm. It is a strategic framework for thinking about and planning brands for the future. With a strong emphasis on implementation through targeted brand and marketing strategy, Engager™ can help answer many important questions. For example, where to focus marketing efforts to achieve the maximum impact with consumers at a functional, emotional and social level; what kind of conversations are needed to build and support engaging brand relationships; and how to equip consumers to positively influence others.
* refers to the 2010 Engager surveys in USA, UK, Australia and China
