Usefulness is the New Differentiator for Consumers [REPORT]

T3 revealed the results of their groundbreaking Useful Brand™ study, designed to identify what consumers currently find most useful about brands. Companies today are struggling to keep up with consumer demands—there is a growing divide between what consumers expect and what brands deliver. The Useful Brand study sought to determine how brands can work to close this gap and who is currently doing it best. The study revealed some surprising results and ultimately argues that brands have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

“Technology has not only changed the landscape, it’s forever altered the fundamentals of marketing,” said Ben Gaddis, Chief Innovation Officer at T3. “Today brands must keep pace with that evolution, and learn how to ‘do’ rather than just ‘say’ things in order to compete.”

A panel of 5,500 consumers was interviewed for this first Useful Brand study. The study culminated in what T3 refers to as the Useful Brand Score, which is like a FICO score for brand usefulness. The Useful Brand Score is specifically designed to develop a more comprehensive business solution for brands—as opposed to a singular element such as just marketing, service or operations.

T3 found 14 different, specific expectations that brands must address in order to be considered truly useful to consumers. These include: association, value, trust, friendliness, confidence, safety, quality, efficiency, ease, consistency, availability, empowerment, innovation, and customization. These 14 elements are weighed to make up a brand’s Useful Brand Score.

Usefulness differs by industry and offering, also by the age of the consumer and other demographics. Millennials’ rankings of the most useful brands were much different from their older counterparts. For example, millennials rate Google as the #1 most useful brand whereas Boomers and Gen Xers are loyal to Amazon. LEGO, PayPal, and Netflix are also in the millennial top 5.

“It’s our belief that the issue holding back most brands is an imbalance in a very simple equation,” said Ben Gaddis. “Most brands focus their resources almost exclusively on ‘saying’ when in fact they should be focused first and foremost on ‘doing.’ It seems almost elementary when one says it out loud, yet it’s a quality sorely lacking in the broader market.”

The Top 50 Most Useful Brands
RANK    BRAND
1    Amazon
2    Band-Aid
3    Google
4    Kleenex
5    Visa
6    UPS
7    FedEx
8    The Home Depot
9    Microsoft
10    Quaker Oats
11    Windows
14    Clorox
15    PayPal
16    Hanes
17    Whirlpool
18    Glad
19    Campbell’s Soup
20    Lowe’s
21    Oral-B
22    Crest
23    Sony
24    Kenmore Appliances
25    General Electric
26    Cheerios
27    Bose
28    Hewlett-Packard
29    Jell-O
30    Maytag
31    Tide
32    Apple
33    Subway
34    Colgate
35    Lipton
36    LEGO
37    Ace Hardware
38    Advil
39    Wikipedia
40    Gillette
41    Nike
42    Levi’s
43    YouTube
44    Adobe Systems
45    LG Electronics
46    Disney
47    Walgreens
48    Planters
49    Target
50    Bed Bath & Beyond

To download report CLICK HERE.