Study Reveals Experiences Growing In Importance and Influence

Newsroom

May 8th, 2013

Global brand experience agency Jack Morton Worldwide today released Best Experience Brands – a global study aimed at understanding the impact of experience on consumer brand choice. A follow up to research completed by the agency in 2011, this year’s study sponsored by Jack Morton captures data from 4,000 consumers (aged 18 & older) in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and China.

“What we found is that no matter their geographic or cultural differences – when it comes to brand choice, consumers around the world are placing increased importance on experience,” says Josh McCall, Chairman & CEO of Jack Morton. “We at Jack Morton continue to invest in research that helps clients understand not only why experience is valuable but also how to make it better.”

The study defined experience for respondents as “interactions with the products, employees or people who represent a brand, as well as anything [they] learn from that brand’s marketing, word-of-mouth or recommendations from friends, colleagues or social media.” Key insights include:

  • Experience drives business results: More than eight in ten consumers are more likely to consider a brand that has a great experience. Nearly six in ten consumers will even pay more for a brand that has a great experience.
  • Time to differentiate: Consumers judge most experiences to be average. They say 62 percent of shopping experiences fail to differentiate brands. And they say 64 percent of customer experiences aren’t differentiated. “With so much sameness, the brands that do manage to stand out will benefit,” adds McCall.
  • Milliennials crave experience: Nearly 85 percent of Millennials are more likely to consider your brand if you have a great experience. Millennials are 1.76 times likelier than Boomers to pay more for brands based on experience. More than 90 percent of Millennials in China will chose a brand on the basis of a great experience, while 89 percent of US Millennials recommend brands based on experience.

“This research helps marketers to better understand what we call the ‘experience gap’ – the gap between consumer’s expectation and the experience the brand ultimately delivers, says McCall.

Jack Morton works with leading clients such as AA, Dell, Samsung and SUBWAY® to help them build strong experience brands. To view Jack Morton’s latest global study on Best Experience Brands visit the agency’s Slideshare page.