Escalent, a top human behavior and analytics firm, today introduced Brand Authenticity Index™, a new tool that defines what it means to be an authentic brand, how household name brands measure up to one another and steps companies can take to improve their perceived authenticity. This first-of-its-kind offering provides a data-driven, composite index of what it takes to win over consumers and engender strong brand loyalty through genuine messaging and action in alignment with intrinsic brand values.
“From the products consumers buy to the places they work, brand authenticity is becoming a key ingredient to a company’s success,” said Jill Miller, vice president of Escalent’s Consumer & Retail practice. “Consumers are incredibly savvy when it comes to their loyalty, and they hold brands accountable to act on stated values, including corporate citizenship, diversity and inclusion, social justice, and sustainability. What a company stands for matters now more than ever, which is why we wanted to determine how to measure authenticity.”
Escalent evaluated 32 top brands from the consumer and retail, financial services, technology and telecom industries, measuring each brand on five dimensions that accurately predict and diagnose a brand’s authenticity: thoughtful, transparent, reliable, committed and socially aware.
Based on these dimensions, five brands stood out from the rest in consumers’ eyes:
Despite the wide range of products and services offered by these top five brands, two core commonalities emerged: They know who they are, and their values are intrinsic to what they do and how they do it.
“The companies that performed well in our initial surveys go beyond the talk – they live and breathe their values,” added Miller. “An authentic brand image is more important today than ever, particularly as our nation grapples with the COVID-19 and social justice crises. These five companies have won consumers over with their words and actions.”
To learn more about what brand authenticity means and how we evaluated 32 top household brands, Escalent will be hosting a 30-minute informational webinar on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 12:30 p.m. EST. The session will cover the importance of authenticity to a brand’s identity, how the five dimensions of authenticity were reached and how strategists can turn the intelligence gleaned from consumers into action.
Register today for A Data-Driven Blueprint for Brand Authenticity.
Escalent interviewed a national sample of 1,000 consumers aged 18 and older from May 5 to 7, 2020. Respondents were recruited from the Full Circle opt-in online panel of US adults and were interviewed online. The data were weighted by age, gender, and census region to match the demographics of the US population. The sample for this research comes from an opt-in, online panel. As such, any reported margins of error or significance tests are estimated, and rely on the same statistical assumptions as data collected from a random probability sample. Escalent will supply the exact wording of any survey question upon request. Special thanks to Full Circle for providing the consumer sample.