Consumers Want Brands that Delight

NEW YORKDunkin Donuts coffee, McDonalds, Haagen Daz ice cream and Grey Goose vodka took four of the Top 20 spots in the latest  2012 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. The annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index recognizes the brands that receive the highest loyalty and engagement assessments and surpass competitors for delighting" customers.

Brand Keys polled 49,000 consumers between ages 18 and 65 years of age about 598 brands and 83 categories. Across the brands and categories surveyed, attributes relating to experience" and brand values" in products and services exert the strongest impact on customer decision-making, category-expectations, and engagement with brands.

As Brand Keys saw last year, consumer expectations have been accelerating for some time. Many industry pundits have looked at the pressures on price and drawn the erroneous conclusion that brands have lost their value; however, the opposite is true. Real brands are more valuable than ever as evidenced by the continuing success of luxury brands. Brands that lack meaning and differentiation are punished by the economic and behavioral shifts. Such brands have become category placeholders."