Making up the remainder of the brand intimacy study top ten, automotive brands comprise four out of the top 10 places. This is an increase from three when Digital Journal looked at the 2019 results. Another difference between the “Brand Intimacy Study 2020” and the 2019 data is where media and entertainment brands have slipped by one place, although companies in this sector still comprise three of the top 10 places.
Apple, who occupied top spot in 20119 (as well as in 2018, as Digital Journal’s article shows) now represent the only technology and telecommunications brand.
In descending order from Amazon, Disney and Apple, the remaining brands in the top 10 mos intimate brands are: Ford, Jeep, Netflix, BMW, Chevrolet, Walmart and PlayStation.
With the top three there were some gender differences. The top three brands for women were Disney, Amazon and Apple; whereas for men the leading brands were Ford, Amazon and Apple. With the demographic divide, millennials opted for PlayStation as their #1 brand; and Generation Z listed Xbox in first place.
In terms of what is meant by brand Intimacy, this is defined as the emotional science that measures the bonds that consumers form with the brands they use most often. As Digital Journal has previously explained last year: “This is based on the concept central to emotional branding that an emotional response, as opposed to rational thought, dominates a customer’s buying choice.”
The connection is also a measure of profitability. Looking at the U.S., the data reveals that the top intimate brands in the U.S. continued to significantly outperform the top brands in the Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) indices in both revenue and profit. This is a pattern that has been reproduced over the past ten years. For instance, the mean revenue growth from 2009-2018 was 6.47 percent for the top ten most intimate brands, compared to 5.16 percent for top S&P companies and 5.08 percent for Fortune 500 top brands.
To determine how different brands stand comparatively to one another, the MBLM approach was based on exploring the emotional connection that consumers express via qualitative surveys. Survey data was also backed by quantitative data that attempts to draw connections between brand and customer.
