Featured image for The Love Index: How Brands Earn (and Sustain) Our Love

The Love Index: How Brands Earn (and Sustain) Our Love

by Theresa Christine Johnson on 11/09/2016 | 6 Minute Read

Love is complex.

Sure, romantic love with another person is different than the love you might feel for one of your favorite brands (or at least we hope so), but they also share some similarities. Love makes us feel good—we experience it for whatever improves our lives in ways that we might not have known we even wanted or needed before. Whether this is your favorite person or your favorite store, the sentiment remains the same.

Brands don’t want consumers to simply love them, though; instead, they strive to sustain that love over time. It means the difference between a single sale and a loyal, lifelong customer.

So how can brands elevate the experience they offer and achieve that heart-pounding, long-lasting type of love in their consumers? 

Fjord and Accenture Interactive wanted to know the same thing. Together, they created The Love Index. Nan Nayak, Managing Director of Design Strategy at Fjord, mentioned, “Brands needs to map their customer journeys and understand the key experience moments that they need to get right. These moments need to be designed to meet expectations for each of their customers.”

So to see how brands stack up against each other, Fjord and Accenture Interactive first had to measure something rather elusive: the brand experience. During two years of research that involved 27,000 online survey respondents in 3 countries on 3 separate continents, they discovered five key dimensions that make up The Love Index: Fun, Relevant, Engaging, Social, and Helpful (abbreviated as FRESH).

“Our methodology was derived from ethnographic research from which we gathered a set of attributes/characteristics that people used to express love for services. We converted these attributes into survey questions that we had thousands of respondents use in several industries and markets,” Nayak mentioned. “Our quantitative research experts used the survey responses to understand whether specific attributes grouped together as organizing dimensions. Within each group, some attributes have more weight than others, which led us to create a model on how each attribute or behavior contributes to the dimension it belongs to.”

Some brands, like Apple and Amazon, performed well in certain categories in the different countries, but Netflix proved to be the most-loved in the study. According to The Love Index, Netflix is the most-fun brand in each location, and it took 1st, 2nd, or 3rd for every other dimension. The streaming service has completely changed the way people watch television and enjoy movies, and it’s forever altered storytelling and pop culture. Last year alone, Netflix had 75 million customers who streamed 42.5 billion hours of content (which is available in 20 languages).

Brands can learn a lot from their process: instead of being surprised by market disruptors, Netflix takes the first step and disrupts itself. “Netflix is a brand that is very much in touch with its customers and is shaping its business strategy, based on what its customers are expecting and what they know about their customers from the services they are providing,” Nayak added. “Netflix has used technology and data to help shape new service categories to stay relevant. They started by disrupting an existing media distribution model to successfully alter that model by providing streaming content—and become actual creators of content globally—all by ensuring that they are keeping customer love at the heart of what they do.”

The study for The Love Index took some well-known brands (like Samsung, Sony, and Facebook), but how do the FRESH dimensions apply to other companies, products, and services? We took a closer look at some of our features here on The Dieline to bring you some of our picks for the most Fun, Relevant, Engaging, Social, and Helpful brands.

Fun

Hold people’s attention in an entertaining way

The Dieline Pick: Lost Inhibitions

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Designed by: Brandever

You don’t have to say anything—Lost Inhibitions says it for you. Witty copywriting gives each bottle a distinct personality that consumers can relate to, whether it’s about a crazy girls’ night out or the claim that you’re “polite as f*ck.” It’s youthful, bold, and unexpected, and the honesty is refreshing. The focus for Lost Inhibitions isn’t the wine; instead, it’s the feelings each label elicits, from totally zenned out (“Namaste Bitches”) to flirtatious (“You Stay But the Clothes Go”) to celebratory (“Killin’ It”). Funny yet truthful, consumers will turn to Lost Inhibitions time and time again to get a fitting wine for any occasion.

Relevant

Provides clear and customized information

The Dieline Pick: Dell Technologies Rebrand

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Designed by: Brand Union

When Dell and EMC Corporation joined forces to create Dell Technologies, they needed a new and improved brand architecture and identity. The new look highlights the technological aspect of the companies while recognizing the important human element to it all, utilizing beautiful landscapes and lifestyle photography to connect tech with our everyday lives. Confident and inspirational copywriting builds trust in the consumer, letting them build a deeper relationship with Dell Technologies and its sub-brands. Although they’re in an ever-changing industry, Dell Technologies proves they possess the necessary infrastructure to help build clients’ digital futures.

 

Engaging

Identifies with individual needs and wants

The Dieline Pick: Umpqua Private Bank Welcome Kit

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Designed by: CO Projects

When you join a bank, you usually get a letter in the mail and that’s about it. Umpqua Private Bank, a community bank in the Pacific Northwest and western United States, is a little different. This kit offers a warm welcome to new customers and gives them a sense of Umpqua Private Bank’s history. The box is divided into multiple compartments, allowing the recipient to explore at their leisure and strengthen their relationship with their new bank. Entrusting a company with your hard-earned money is stressful, but this welcome kit helps put their new clients at ease and gives them a taste of the superior service they can expect from Umpqua Private Bank.

 

Social

Connects people with each other

The Dieline Pick: Real Shit

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Designed by: Real Shit and Laurina Paperina

Real Shit, with a real mission. Laurina Paperina collaborated with Real Shit to create this organic manure for urban farmers to raise awareness of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Instead of raising livestock in holistic, nurturing environments, TTIP has the power to threaten the wellbeing of animals. Not only are proceeds from the sale of each can donated to the #STOPTTIP campaign, but the humorous illustrations intrigue and educate the consumer about food consciousness. It motivates them to explore and use the hashtag to become a part of something that is much bigger than themselves.

 

Helpful

Is efficient, easy, and adapts over time

The Dieline Pick: Wheelys 5 Open Source

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Designed by: Wheelys Café

Wheelys 5 Open Source is everything that a cafe is to you. This isn’t a cookie cutter bike cafe; instead, it allows vendors to combine a variety of different options to run the business of their dreams, from nitro coffee to crepes. Everything (including supplies like stir sticks and custom stamps) will piece together to show off a Wheelys owner’s personality and selected niche. Dubbed the “Swiss Army Knife of mobile vending,” it offers endless possibility and can easily be added onto or changed in the future.