GlobalWebIndex identifies brand power of key coms channels

GlobalWebIndex has today unveiled the Brand Discovery Index (BDI) to help companies identify which online or offline channels are most powerful at reaching their target audiences.

The new index provides a single metric to analyse the relative importance of 17 different offline and online channels – ranging from TV to social media – in order to create a single measure of the ease with which consumers can find their messages.

The tool is designed to provide brands with a “powerful understanding” of how consumers find them when they are actively searching for brands and products they are interested in purchasing. By breaking down the BDI by channel they are able to find out which messages are contributing most.

The Brand Discovery Index: Measuring the Connected Consumer Purchase Journey is based on more than 150,000 internet users from 31 countries. It identifies the power of established brands in mature internet markets such as Japan, where brand loyal consumers outnumber those who are “brand adventurous” by two to one.

By contrast, consumers in emerging markets are much less fixed in their brand selection and digital channels are as important, if not more so, than traditional media channels. Social media for example is six times more important for brands in markets such as Indonesia and Thailand as it is in Japan or the UK.

The report also identifies that search is twice as critical for brands in developed internet markets such as Japan and the UK in terms of its importance in the digital consumer purchase journey.

Key findings include:

• Mobile campaigns in countries such as Thailand and Vietnam are around four times more effective than in developed markets like the UK and the Netherlands;
• Consumers in Hong Kong are the most likely to rely on “commercial channels” such as price comparison and consumer review sites when searching for product information online;
• Sweden scores the lowest online BDI globally meaning that Swedes are the least likely of any countries to use the internet to engage with brands or search for products.

The Brand Discovery Index is calculated via consumer survey results that rank consumer’s online brand message consumption across brand owned channels, above the line, expertise sites, social, mobile, content and search to create an online BDI Score.

The Offline BDI score is then created by asking which offline channels deliver information about new brands, products and services.

Comparing these two scores and delving down into the most powerful channels within them enables brands and marketers to identify where their messages are most likely to have an impact.

“With brands investing ever more in digital and social media, it is critical that we understand how all channels work together, with single metrics that cover all communications regardless of whether they are on or offline,” said Tom Smith, founder of GlobalWebIndex. “The Brand Discovery Index provides a structured roadmap, country by country, sector by sector.”