Patagonia topped 13 other consumer brands in a recent survey of brand strength by Meyocks, a branding and marketing agency.
The Meyocks survey showed that consumers rated Patagonia highest on its propriety Mean More® score, which measures customer disappointment with having to use another brand. In contrast, consumers would be least disappointed if they couldn’t use Facebook among the brands evaluated.
“There are multiple ways to measure the strength of a brand,” says Doug Jeske, president of Meyocks. “Our Mean More score of customer disappointment captures the fear of loss of going without a brand.”
According to Jeske, a Mean More score correlates more strongly with revenue growth than other common brand measures, including willingness to recommend.
All 14 of the tested brands had lower Mean More scores than willingness to recommend.
“Our research suggests that disappointment is a higher bar to clear than recommendation – and a better measure of brand strength – perhaps due to the more emotional connection reflected in a Mean More score,” Jeske says.
While the two measures can provide similar directional results, the differences between Mean More and willingness to recommend scores weren’t consistent in the Meyocks study. According to Jeske, a bigger gap such as that for Nike and Apple may indicate a vulnerability for those brands.