Cracking the Code with the BoF Brand Magic Index
By Merja Iileka
In the realm of branding, a pivotal question looms large: Do customers perceive your brand in the same light that your brand perceives itself? This question isn't just significant; it holds the key to your brand's long-term success.
For years, I've lamented the fact that many brands overlook a valuable resource – the voices of their customers – when crafting their brand narratives.
A game-changing development has unfolded as the Business of Fashion (BoF) introduced a revolutionary, quantifiable metric. This metric is designed to assess marketing efforts by measuring the gap between a brand's identity and how it's perceived by its customers.
It seeks to answer the vital question of how effectively a brand's marketing resonates with its customers and whether the customer aligns with the brand and its vision.
Do you ever wonder if your brand shares content similar to that of your customers? Or, conversely, if your customers share content akin to your brand's messaging? These questions cut to the core of brand-customer alignment.
Intriguingly, BoF's research discovered that, despite the increasing marketing spend, conventional measurement tools fall short. Metrics like reach, impressions, and engagements across numerous channels alone cannot definitively determine whether a brand is in sync with its customer base. These tools also struggle to evaluate the true impact and success of a brand's efforts.
To tackle this issue and conduct a thorough analysis of customer alignment, BoF unveiled "Brand Magic." This innovative tool evaluates the degree of alignment between how a brand presents itself through its marketing endeavours and how customers reciprocate by generating their own content about the brand.
Key Findings:
Based on data collected between May 1 and July 31, 2023, Miu Miu, Giorgio Armani, and Boss emerged as the frontrunners in brand-customer alignment, while Lanvin, Michael Kors, Gucci, and Diesel lagged behind.
Notably, the size of a brand's following doesn't necessarily correlate with alignment.
Gone are the days when brands solely dictated their brand narratives. Today, brands actively engage in multi-directional dialogues, often led by customers themselves across various social media platforms.
Hopefully this report is the wakeup call that in-house marketing teams needed to start prioritising social listening and create content that consumers actually want.
In the prolific words of Gen Zs, give the kids what they want!