Study Highlights the Role Simplicity Plays in Consumers’ Everyday Lives
In its Global Brand Simplicity Index, Siegel+Gale(www.siegelgale.com) evaluates the state, significance and impact of simplicity and provides recommendations on how brands can improve their customer relationships and create value. Key findings include:
· The financial value brands can derive from greater simplicity
· The crucial link between simplicity and the ability to innovate
· The best and worst brands and industries when it comes to simplicity and what can be learned from them
· The role simplicity plays in consumers’ lives, from work to working and shopping
Siegel+Gale’s 2012 Global Brand Simplicity Index surveyed more than 6,000 consumers in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America to uncover the perceived points of complexity and simplicity in people’s lives.
Results show that brands need to understand when simplicity is best achieved by leveraging global scale and when it’s critical to offer a unique local experience to capture the hearts and minds of consumers. The study also shows that brands willing to simplify their consumer experiences and interactions stand to gain more loyalty and more money. Additional findings include:
· Sixty-seven percent of Middle Eastern consumers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are more likely to recommend a brand that offers a simpler experience
· Depending on the category, Middle Eastern consumers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia consumers are willing to pay an average premium of 3.9 to 6.9percent for simpler communications and experiences
· A stock index comprised of the top 10 ranked simplest brands from the study has increased by 138 percent since 2009, more than double the increase of the S&P and any of the other stock indexes
Another key insight is that complexity is killing innovation. Across the globe, “promoting an innovative idea” is one of the most complex aspects of work life. It ranked third to last out of 21 different tasks an employee faces at work. The study shows that the industries where workers find it simpler to promote an innovative idea are also often perceived as the simplest industries by consumers. Those brands that enable innovation from their workforce achieve the best results: a simpler experience for customers and higher stock prices.
The 2012 Global Brand Simplicity Index™ top 10 Middle Eastern brands include:
#
Brand
Score
1
1003
2
Samsung
904
3
McDonald's
865
4
Gulf News
860
5
BlackBerry
858
6
Yahoo!
856
7
Dell
846
8
YouTube
845
9
Spinney's
844
10
Toshiba
826
The 2012 Global Brand Simplicity Index™ bottom 10 Middle Eastern brands include:
#
Brand
Score
116
Hertz
514
117
Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts
511
118
Hanco
505
119
AXA
490
120
Oman Insurance Company
485
121
Daman
464
122
SALAMA - Islamic Arab Insurance Company
409
123
Massimo Dutti
376
124
Groupon
323
125
Allianz
234
“Simplicity isn’t easy,” said Philip Davies, Siegel+Gale’s president of EMEA.“Overcoming complexity is the new brand challenge and the brands that get it right, win. They win passion from their employees, loyalty from their customers and gain insights into their business that set the foundation for the future.”
SIMPLICITY IN DAILY LIFE
Beyond assessing consumer relationships with brands, this year’s Global Brand Simplicity Index also focused on how simplicity affects individuals’ daily lives.
Unlike the U.S., U.K. and Germany, residents of the UAE and Saudi Arabia find global brands to be the most simple to interact with. In both the restaurant and hospitality sector global brands carry a certain prestige and are frequently perceived to deliver high quality of service in the region.
This trend is also true in residents’ working lives. Those surveyed saw working for a global company as simpler than a national company. Globally respondents at large firms indicated that it was easier to take time off and receive feedback about their work than other aspects of work life. Yet those at small firms said it was much simpler to understand how informal communications flow, get questions answered and understand how company changes affect them.
“Our study continues to demonstrate that residents of the UAE and Saudi Arabia want clarity and transparency,” said Liana Dinghile, group director of Strategy, EMEA, at Siegel+Gale. “We live in an increasingly complicated world and the brands that help simplify our lives are winning not just consumer affection, but also a greater share of our wallet.”
INDUSTRY SECTORS
The 2012 Global Brand Simplicity Index ranks 25 industries, including automotive, media, fashion, appliances, electronics, telecom and more. To learn more, read the full report here.
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About the 2012 Global Brand Simplicity Index™
Siegel+Gale’s Global Brand Simplicity Index™ is an output of global brand ratings based on an online survey of more than 6,000 consumers in seven different countries. Each rating comprises the simplicity / complexity of a brand’s interactions and communications in relation to their industry peers. The index also incorporates an industry simplicity score for a particular brand’s industry / category(ies). The annual research study was first conducted in 2010.
Siegel+Gale used the survey results to develop its Global Brand Simplicity Index™, which generates a Simplicity Score™, a rating of each brand and its category on the elements of the simplicity methodology. Siegel+Gale defines simplicity as ease of understanding, transparency, caring, innovation and usefulness of communications as well as how complex and complicated typical interactions are in relation to industry peers.
About Siegel+Gale
Siegel+Gale (www.siegelgale.com) is a global strategic branding firm committed to building world-class brands through elegantly simple, unexpectedly fresh strategies, stories and experiences. With Simple is Smart as its operating philosophy, Siegel+Gale delivers powerful services in brand development, simplification, research and digital strategy.
Since its founding by branding pioneer Alan Siegel in 1969, Siegel+Gale has helped drive business results for leading corporations, nonprofits and government organisations worldwide. Siegel+Gale has offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Hamburg, Dubai, Riyadh, Shanghai and Beijing and strategic partnerships around the world. Siegel+Gale is a part of Diversified Agency Services, a division of Omnicom Group Inc.
About Diversified Agency Services
Diversified Agency Services (DAS), a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC), manages Omnicom’s holdings in a variety of marketing communications disciplines. DAS includes over 200 companies, which operate through a combination of networks and regional organisations, serving international and local clients through more than 700 offices in 71 countries.
About Omnicom Group Inc.
Omnicom Group Inc. is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom’s branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.
Contacts
Emmaclare Huntriss
Marketing Director, EMEA
+44 (0) 7525223881
ehuntriss@siegelgale.com
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