How do brand managers convince their peers inside the company that the company they work for competes on brand? How do these same brand managers move the discussion away from brand identity to brand experience and prove that better brand experiences lead to more sales, greater customer satisfaction, and increased valuations?
Maggie Windsor Gross, head of strategy, studios at Deloitte Digital, has thought a lot about these problems.
“Marketers have had to rely on metrics like brand ‘love’ or consideration that just wasn’t resonating with the rest of the C-suite,” she says. “What they need is objective evidence that shows that investment in brand lifts every part of the company, including the bottom line, and does so with equal or greater lift than other areas of investment.”
To provide this much-needed evidence and stop CMOs from ‘brand-splaining’ — struggling to prove the business impact of good brand strategy without concrete metrics to support their case — Deloitte Digital created BrandWorth.
Brand Value — You Can Measure It
Deloitte Digital conducted an analysis of 24,000 brands across 21 industries from 2016 to 2021 to develop BrandWorth.
Four revealing metrics were evaluated to determine BrandWorth scores, giving brands more precise insight into what areas of their brand needs investment. They are:
- Values alignment
- Experience satisfaction
- Message memorability
- Share of culture
These four BrandWorth metrics had a stronger correlation to revenue than increasing awareness, impression, consideration, or even a company’s Net Promoter Score. So, be careful what metrics you look at and track.
Within the scoring system, companies that scored above average showed 200% higher customer acquisition rates and 150% higher aided awareness, demonstrating the brand’s direct impact across all parts of the marketing funnel.
“There will always be trade-offs when it comes to budget. And hard decisions will be made,” Gross admits. “But in an era when brands inspire cultures, drive loyalty, and deliver customer experiences that defend market share, an investment in brand is an investment in the financial future of the entire company.”